This week’s readings from Scripture are similar last week’s, calling to mind the “end times” of the apocalypse. There’s one important difference, however: This week, Jesus tells Pilate “My kingdom does not belong to this world….my kingdom is not here.”
Upon hearing that statement, many of us may have thought, “Well, of course not…Jesus’ kingdom is in Heaven!”
But, that would be to overlook what Jesus later added:
For this I was born and for this I came into the world: To testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.
For Catholics, Jesus’ kingdom exists wherever people listen to his voice—expressed in Scripture and as it’s preserved in Church teaching—because they desire to belong to the truth. And where people who desire to live in the truth to which Jesus testified and actually live it, there is found his kingdom. This “truth” isn’t “my truth” or “your truth” but “the Truth” meaning “it was, is, and will always be true” whether you and I like it or not, the majority agrees with it or not, or the culture accepts it or not. It is “the Truth” for all humanity in every time and place, irrespective of nation or culture…like it or not.
Theologians explain this reality using two terms: “transcendent” and “immanent.”
We call God’s transcendent kingdom “Heaven,” that is, the Edenic-like, eternal Kingdom of God. The “place” is located somewhere up there beyond the skies—who knows?—and will be experienced in the future after the Son of Man comes in his glory. After separating the sheep from the goats, the Son of Man will take the sheep with him to the joy of his heavenly Father’s kingdom.
Then there’s God’s kingdom that’s immanent, that is, the Edenic-like, temporal kingdom of God. The “place” it’s located is here on Earth and is all around us, the joy of which is to be experienced right now as we await the Son of Man to come in his glory to separate the sheep from the goats and then take the sheep with him to the joy of his heavenly Father’s kingdom. This kingdom can be experienced in our marriages, families, neighborhoods, workplaces and across the globe, in fact, where people desire to live in the Truth to which Jesus testified and actually live it.
Some of those theologians maintain that to experience God’s Kingdom in Heaven, we must first experience God’s kingdom on Earth.
For what it’s worth, that’s what some theologians maintain.
For the past thirty-three weeks, we’ve considered instead the truth of the Crucifix for making decisions about how we will live the truth of our Catholic faith more authentically each day. The Crucifix is the fulfillment of Jesus’ teaching that’s best summed up in the “Great Commandment”: Love God and neighbor as you love yourself.
That’s “the Truth” Jesus taught—the “Way”—for those who genuinely desire is to belong to his kingdom. Whether that’s a transcendent or immanent kingdom matters not because what does matter is living the dream God has for each of us—the dream of us as living as authentic members of God’s kingdom—not the dream we have for ourselves—the dream propounded by this worldly kingdom that we make our own possession.
God’s dream for each of us is bold and, living that dream, we glorify God who breathed it into each of us in and from the beginning. The goals of God’s dream for us are lofty, uplifting us from the passing and transitory things of this world to the unchanging and permanent things of heaven, transporting us from the ordinary and mundane to the extraordinary and beautiful as well as from happiness as that’s experienced in this world to the joy of living in God’s kingdom. God’s dream requires moving beyond our narrow boundaries and always pressing onward beyond the horizon of our experience. In God’s dream, we’re not mere bystanders who remain parked on the roadside of life but radical street activists who seek the transformation of this world by living the Truth, namely, loving God and neighbor as we love ourselves.
The lesson for those who have ears to hear: It’s not my life but God’s life in me and entrusted to me for a purpose which is nothing other than to live well by living the Truth.
For the past thirty-three weeks, we’ve considered how to make God’s dream for each of us come true and we’ve experimented with thirty-three different practices to make great choices each day of each week. To the degree we’ve not only experimented with those moral and spiritual practices, today we have experienced what it means live in the kingdom of God—the immanent kingdom—as well as the foretaste of the Kingdom of God—the transcendent Kingdom.
Now as we conclude this Church year, what’s called the “Year of Grace 2021,” it’s time to judge the choices we’ve made during the past year—separating the sheep we’ve been from the goats we’ve been—because membership God’s kingdom is entirely dependent upon us and the choices we’ve made to live the Truth each and every day. Created as imperfect beings endowed with the power of free will, it’s not a matter of “perfect”—after all, even the saints weren’t perfect—but of picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off, and recommitting ourselves to live “the Truth.”
On this Solemnity of Christ the King, that means bringing to light our choices of this past Year of Grace 2021 and respecting—not fearing or being ashamed of them—by contemplating the consequences of those choices and confessing them. Those choices—for good and bad, better and worse, admirable and deplorable—have the power to teach us what we need to do if we’re to make robust, decisive, and eternal choices for the Truth moving forward into the new Church Year 2022.
Ultimately, the trivial and meaningless choices we’ve made during the Church Year 2021 led us to live a trivial and meaningless life. In contrast, the worthy and meaningful choices we’ve made have led us to live a holier greatness during the Church Year 2021. It’s just like the nutritionists tell us about what we consume: We have become what we’ve chosen, for better or for worse.
- For the worse: This past year, if we chose to think of ourselves, we became self-centered; if we chose to be angry, we became spiteful; if we chose to spend hours on a cellphone, iPad, or computer, we became addicted feeling happy. The Truth is that when we’re self-absorbed, we become indifferent to God and neighbor, a self-inflicted form of paralysis making it impossible to get up, stand up, and walk along the “Way” of love God and neighbor. That’s how “Christmas crib Catholics” live their faith one Church year into the next—parked on the roadside, frozen in time, watching on as the Way, the Truth, and the Life pass by.
- For the better: This past year, if we chose to love God as we love ourselves, we grew each day in God’s truth revealed to us each Sunday in scripture; if we chose to love others as we love ourselves, we experienced the earthly joy of living in God’s kingdom and have had the foretaste and experience of the promise of living in God’s heavenly kingdom. The Truth is that the beauty of our choices hinged upon love and as, we lived the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we learned better how to love this past year. Then, as we became selfish, we became full of life.
That’s secret of life in the kingdom both here today and in eternity of the future: We possess life by giving love away freely and lavishly, just as God has done with us in and from the beginning. It’s also how God continued to do during this Year of Grace 2021. This is how “Good Friday crucifix Catholics” live their faith one Church year into the next, always striving and maybe sometimes not arriving but always picking themselves up when they stumble or fall, dusting themselves off, and striving anew to exhibit greater holiness of life—as St. Paul would say, running the good race and fighting the good fight, never giving up.
Yes, there always have been obstacles that made our choices difficult this past Church year as well as so many unanswered “Why?” and “What?” questions that caused us to focus upon ourselves. Yet, the Truth compelled us to press beyond those obstacles, not allowing ourselves to be paralyzed by selfish introspection. Instead of asking “Why?” and “What?” we asked “Who?” and “How?”, for example, not “Why am I alive?” and “What would make me happy?” but “Who must I love?” and “How can I help?”
“Why?” and “What?” questions—which overwhelm our hearts with superfluous things—focus us selfishly upon our so-called “rights” and how we can “have it all and right now” in light of our dreams for ourselves. Yet, those questions undermine making good and generous choices in response to the questions “Who?” and “How?”—which direct our attention to our selfless responsibilities in light of God’s dream for us.
How easy it was this past Year of Grace 2021 to waste each day thinking only about ourselves without ever once actually starting to love!
That represents this week’s challenge from scripture, the final challenge for this past Year of Grace 2021: To assess our faith and its actual practice honestly.
We can make that assessment—what’s called conducting an “examination of conscience”—by tallying up the regrets we have because we were more responsive to “Why?” and “What?” questions rather than to “Who?” and “How?” questions.
The key is the regrets—and the resulting shame we feel—for not having made great choices to do what the Truth required. Then, experiencing that sense of failure, our challenge is to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and pray:
Lord, help me today to belong to the truth by living your dream for me.
Praying in this way will prepare us for the “end times” of the apocalypse of this Year of Grace 2021 so we will be ready to use the upcoming Season of Advent to “humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves,” no longer “conforming ourselves to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of our mind, that you may discern what is the God’s will, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2).
Today’s gospel reminds us it was for the Truth that each of us has been born, as Jesus said of his birth:
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,to testify to the truth.
Making each day of this week special and striving to make each day of the upcoming Season of Advent in the New Year of Grace 2022 a special day—for the reason it’s God’s day to live in and through us—we will belong to God’s kingdom as the Truth is made incarnate in us, not in a manger in Bethlehem but on the crucifix of our love of God and neighbor.
As the prophet Daniel reminded us in today’s first reading:
His dominion is an everlasting dominionthat shall not be taken away,his kingship shall not be destroyed.
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