Good evening. Let me share two simple sentences that, I believe, are the keys to a deeper understanding of the kingship of Jesus Christ. They come from the most recent publication of Deepak Chopra, a contemporary Eastern philosopher whose education was begun in India’s Catholic school system. The sentences come from Jesus – A Story of Enlightenment. The words are as follows: "Silence isn’t a blank. It’s the pregnant possibility of what is about to be born" (page 10).
Chapter 25 of St. Matthew’s gospel is without doubt paramount among the gospel verses about Jesus as a king. One spiritual writer I often read, commenting on this marquee chapter of Matthew’s life of Christ, thought about Mark Twain’s writing, The Prince and the Pauper. You may recall this Twain composition is the story of a most unlikely friendship between Prince Edward, son of England’s King Henry VIII, and a down-and-out young boy named Tom Canty. Agreeing to change positions, the boys wanted to know what his friend’s life was like. They carried on this charade until Henry died. While Twain intended for the book to be humorous, what became so obvious was each of the boys inability to live with the life of the other.
The Twain production can help us understand something of the spirituality of Jesus Christ, in particular what the kingship matter is. We have been told that we are a royal priesthood, a people set apart, very much like those born to royalty. Yet, Jesus, in so many biblical instances, has identified with those who are poor, with those whose castle is a local prison, or a hospital room, or the open road. The way we open up this mystery is to quietly consider the vision which our faith offers us.
Despite his protests, Prince Edward in his rag-tag disguise was not readily accepted by many of the street people. Jesus, in his public ministry, says time and again that he can be found in the marginalized of society, those many people tend to avoid. The challenge to us in our self-centered world is to honestly believe that Jesus is in the homeless folks that hang around Union Station. Many find it so difficult to let Jesus presence in the immigrants who have come to our land. In proportion to our total number, a great number of Catholics find it very difficult to find Jesus in those imprisoned, especially those convicted of crimes like murder or rape. Likewise many devout Catholics find it hard to see that Jesus just might be present in those who struggle with a different sexual orientation.
The challenge to all of the Catholic Church today is not to put Jesus in a palace of our own making. While most of us are not of royal blood, we somehow have come to believe that we know what it is like ... or, at least that seems to be the case with the way many think of Jesus. The kingship that Jesus proclaimed throughout his ministry was a royalty that reached out to those in need. His royal power was extended to those who had become the butt of society, the recipients of disregard and disrespect.
The kingship of Jesus Christ is nothing more that extending to every person a loving and accepting respect. The kingship of Jesus Christ is an invitation to each of us to take Chopra’s words about silence to heart as we encounter all of God’s people. We can accomplish this if we understand and remember: "Silence isn’t a blank. It’s the pregnant possibility of what is about to be born."
