We need not fear this King's authority

November 20, 2005 -- Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King

By Bishop Robert Morneau

	Bishop Robert Morneau
	Questions for reflection: 1. What value do you assign to freedom? To authority? 2. How does Jesus "reign" in your life? 3. What does the Gospel acclamation mean to you?

There has been, in our beloved American country, a love/hate relationship with authority. Freedom is perhaps the most treasured value in our democratic society and anything that in any way might infringe upon the exercise of free choice is severely challenged. Authority - be it a president, a governor, a principal, a parent - is in a position to use power and has an obligation to do so for the common good. Yet, we innately push against anyone who might get in the way of our desires and wants.

Related article: Foundations of Faith -- • 'Christ the King' just one of many titles for Jesus    Many titles focus attention on four    aspects of the Lord

Thus the Feast of Christ the King might cause some discomfiture. After all, a king is one who has power over subjects and can punish individuals who fail to fulfill their duty. A king is a person of authority. We are ambivalent about being under anyone's will.

Yet we need not fear. Jesus as King is a servant. Ezekiel describes God as one who looks after the sheep, who rescues the scattered, who heals the sick, who gives them rest. This is the God made manifest is Jesus' kingship - a king of total commitment for the well-being of His people. This concept is reinforced in Psalm 23, our response to the first reading. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Here is a king/shepherd who gives us repose, refreshes our souls, spreads a table before us, offers us goodness and kindness. What dominion here; what grace!

St. Paul then describes the role of Christ in the work of redemption. It is in Jesus' death and resurrection that sin and death have been overcome. In His perfect act of obedience, Jesus won a kingdom that He handed over to the Father. The Father in turn has given everything and everyone over to the Son so that peace might be accomplished. We have no cause to fear this type of kingship, one that brings life and banishes our anxiety over death.

But it is in the Gospel, in that popular and well-known passage about the separation of sheep and goats, depending upon one's response to the needy, that we witness a king who is demanding and clear about the standards of authentic discipleship. It is doing the deed - feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the prisoner - that determines whether or not we are fit to claim partnership with Christ.

Authority and freedom! Kingship and democracy! Power and responsibility! On this Feast of Christ the King all of these concepts demand our attention.

In Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton states; "Therefore, the simplest definition of freedom is this: it means the ability to do the will of God. To be able to resist His Will is not to be free. In sin there is no true freedom."

It is in submitting ourselves (being under the mission of another) that, paradoxically, we become our true selves. The kingdom of Jesus is one of truth, life, holiness, grace, justice, love, and peace. Is this not what our humanity is all about? And to be under the dominion of these values is to embrace Jesus' reigning in our hearts.

In our Gospel acclamation we cry out: "Blessed is he who inherits the kingdom of David our father; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." What an inheritance we have been offered; what a grace to know that God has come to us in Jesus and to experience the gift of the Holy Spirit.

(Bp. Morneau is the auxiliary bishop of the Green Bay Diocese and pastor of Resurrection Parish in Allouez.)