Feast of Christ the King 28.10.07
We have a federal election looming, so there is much talk of who is going to govern us for the next three years. Will there be a change of government?
If we get right down to the matter there can be no change of government while God is still King of heaven and earth. In other words it is God who rules Australia (and every other country). He rules us in the sense that He has absolute authority over everything, and will have the last word on everything.
Of course, He delegates authority to earthly rulers, so we do not have Almighty God deciding the interest rate, or which roads to repair – but all such decisions should be made with Him in mind, and nothing should ever be done against His will.
So an election cannot change who is our ultimate authority. In another way, however, we could hold an election, or a choice has to be made by each person –and the question is not who shall rule us, but whether we will obey the One who does rule us.
Joshua put the same choice to the Israelites when they were about to enter the Promised Land. He reminded them of all that God had done in setting them free from Egypt, and he said: are you now going to serve this God who has set you free and given you every blessing, such as manna from heaven and water from rock – or are you going to serve one of the false and useless gods that the local people worship? (Joshua 24)
It was a deliberately loaded question. He wanted them to understand that really there is no choice. It is like choosing between life and death, happiness or misery – your happiest dream or your worst nightmare.
So with us. We do get a vote whether to serve God or not, but there is only one possible way to cast that vote - if we have any desire to live for ever, or to make sense of our lives on earth.
We vote in this case by recognizing the supreme rule of Jesus Christ, King of kings, and Lord of lords, the First and the Last, the Word of God, the Judge of the living and the dead.
When we say God rules us, it is specifically in the Person of Jesus Christ, who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth.
We are voting our acceptance of His kingship. Unless we accept Him as our King we cannot have eternal life. To enter His kingdom we have to be something like the King, which means we have to imitate His obedience and humility, and His love for the poor and lowly.
He is a very different sort of king than the usual earthly ruler. He is both more powerful and less arrogant. He has genuine concern for each of His subjects, even the lowest and the least. Yet He is more deserving of honour than any earthly ruler.
We give Him honour by the normal means of liturgical and other worship, but also by learning to be concerned for the least of our brethren. In every possible way we cast our vote for Him. Not to put Him in power, which cannot be changed anyway, but so that we are in full alignment with Him, and able both to benefit from, and extend His power to those places and people who have not yet received Him.
Pope Pius XI instituted this feast in 1925 in a time of turbulence in the political world, in the hope of calling nations and individuals back to the central truth which cannot change - that in the end it is only Christ to whom we must answer; only Christ who can give us the guidance to live our lives well, to exercise good stewardship over His creation; and also the power to put His will into effect. Praised be to Him, King of kings and Lord of lords.
