Christ Is King!
November 25, 2007

Readings for the Solemnity of Christ the King

Reading 1: 2 Sam. 5:1–3

Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 122:1–2, 3–4, 4–5

Reading 2: Col. 1:12–20

Gospel: Lk. 23:35–43

Link to Readings

By Father Ray Ryland, Ph.D., J.D.

Christ is King! In our limited vision, His kingdom seems to be in disorder. Only when He comes again will we learn how this disarray is part of His over-all plan for history as its sovereign.

This Sunday marks the end of the liturgical year. Indeed, it marks the climax of the liturgical year. Since the first Sunday in Advent last year we have been working up to this feast.

Today’s second lesson is the key passage in all of Scripture for understanding the scope of Christ’s kingship. Let’s ponder it for a few moments, and think about our response to that kingship.

Colosians 1:15–20 seems to be a liturgical hymn, incorporated in St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Colossians was probably written around 60 AD. This hymn sets forth the Church’s teaching at a time much earlier than when the letter was written.

The first stanza of the hymn (v. 15–17) speaks of Christ as “the image of the invisible God,” as “the first-born of all creation.” This recalls to us the opening verse of the fourth Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” That stanza (v. 16) also states that “in him all things were created.” Again we see the theme of John 1:3: “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”

Verse 16 tells us even more than John 1:3: it reveals that “all things were created through him and for him” (emphasis added). “All things”—everything has its being through Christ. All things were created in Him and through Him and for Him. Jesus Christ is not only the agent of creation; He is the goal and purpose of creation.

Keeping the Universe in Order

In Christ, according to verse 17, “all things hold together.” Literally, “in him all things consist.” The Jerusalem Bible gives an even stronger translation: “He holds all things in unity.” Think about the order of the universe: so intricately related through unimaginable reaches of space and time. And who is responsible for all this? Jesus Christ—“he holds all things in unity.”

When I was a navigator on an aircraft carrier during World War II, there were no computers and no satellites, no navigating by pushing a few buttons. We navigated in the same way countless generations of men before us had navigated. We used sextants and chronometers to measure the declination of certain stars, and to plot them in accord with navigation tables.

To get star sights you had to work fast in the few minutes after the stars you wanted to use became visible and before the horizon disappeared in the dark. With four or five good star sights, carefully timed and plotted, you could plot the exact location of your ship (within a few hundred yards) at a certain second.

There we were, often with no other ships in escort, hundreds and thousands of miles from land in the blackness of that ocean. (There was land closer, only a few miles, but it was straight down!) Relying on pinpoints of light that had been traveling millions and millions of miles through space, you could calculate your position almost exactly. Daily—and frequently many times daily—I stood in awe at the beautiful order in the universe. And who is responsible? Jesus Christ! “He holds all things in unity.”

Reconciled to All Things

Verse 18 refers to Christ as “the head of the body, the church.” Notice the change of focus, from the cosmos to the earth and to human history. This cosmic Christ makes Himself known to individual human beings through His Church. The Church is Christ’s Mystical Body. You and I, by our baptism, are literally “members” of His Body: “members” in the sense in which my hand is a “member” of my body.

Verse 19 reveals that “in him [Christ] all the fullness of God [all perfection] was pleased to dwell.” That fact makes even more mind-numbing the assurance in Ephesians 1:22 that “the church . . . is his body, the [church is the] fullness of him who fills all in all.” To state the matter somewhat differently, we can say the Church is the fullness of Him in whom “the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”

And why did the fullness of God “dwell” in Christ? Because God wanted “to reconcile to himself all things . . . by the blood of the cross” (v. 20). Romans 8:19–20 assures us that the whole of creation stands in need of redemption. Then Romans 8:21 gives us God’s promise: “The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

That means that everything that God has ever made will be redeemed; nothing will be lost. Nothing, that is, except those persons who choose not to be redeemed; who choose self rather than God. Everything is to be redeemed by the blood of the Cross.

In Enemy Territory

Quite to my surprise, this fact was brought out clearly in an old movie, Ben Hur. (Though I suspect the intention was dramatic effect, rather than theological insight.) In the crucifixion scene, the cameras were focused from behind and to one side of the cross. One camera carefully, slowly traced the flow of the precious blood of Jesus down the rough wood of the cross. The precious blood gradually drained into the ground and into the streams of water flowing down the hill. As one of the Church’s sixth-century hymns expresses it, “Earth, and stars, and sky, and ocean by that flood from stain are freed.”

How are we responding to this King of ours?

Today our nation is at war with terrorists scattered around the world. Today—as always—as Christians we’re also at war with the powers of darkness. “For we are not contending [only] against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 6:12)

We live in a world that is enemy-occupied territory. Recall that when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Satan promised Jesus the kingdoms of world if Jesus would worship him. Notice that Jesus did not dispute Satan’s statement that the kingdoms of the world were Satan’s to give. Three times in the fourth Gospel Jesus speaks of Satan as the “prince” of this world.

Yet, thanks be to God! As He hung from the cross, in His final words Jesus declared His victory over sin and evil: “It is finished” —which means “it is accomplished.” But between that victory and final victory, there are many bloody battles to be fought, and you and I are in the thick of it. The Catholic Church is the center of resistance to the prince of this world. That is exactly why so much of the hatred of the world is unleashed against the Church.

Collaborators or Faithful Citizens?

How faithful are we as subjects of Jesus Christ? In Europe during World War II some people joined with the Nazis after the Nazis over-ran their countries. Those people were called by a hated name, “collaborator.” Unfaithful Catholics are collaborators. Any time you and I accept the world’s standards, its prejudices, it tawdry morals—any time we do that, we’re collaborators! Any time we choose to do our will rather than Christ’s will, we’re collaborators!

Christ is King and Lord of history: His kingdom will be established, more surely than night follows day. As His subjects, we must trust and obey Him. We must continually battle the forces of evil in our country and in our own lives. And we must always battle with confidence. In Jesus Christ, the victory is ours.

In his Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot wrote,

For us, there is only the trying;
The rest is not our business.

It is not our business because it is God’s business. A bumper sticker I used to see says it all: “I can see into the future: GOD WINS!”

Come, Lord Jesus!

Father Ray Ryland is CUF's spiritual advisor.

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