Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons: Feast of Christ the King

ucas Cranash the Elder, 1510 'Christ Crowned with Thorns'

The feast of Christ the King is an interesting ending to the liturgical year in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church, as well as those other western churches who have adopted it. It was instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI as a response to a number of issues including growing nationalism and was originally celebrated on the last Sunday of October. In 1969, Paul VI moved the solemnity to where it now stands, the Sunday before the First Sunday of Advent and altered the title to Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the Universe!

But what does it mean? Those who are monarchists might find nothing strange about the feast, but the readings, particularly Ezekiel 34 and Matthew 25 sit oddly with any image of earthly monarchy. Any pretention to power and despotic presence is dismissed in words that connect us with service, love, reaching out, totally identifying with others. A far cry from the many rulers throughout history, whose court remained cut off from normal life.

I have to be honest here, it’s a difficult feast for me to engage with, the notion of King and Kingship is something society has constructed, yes even the biblical images. Yet Christ as King over all the earth and heaven confounds human ideas because it is not about exclusivity at all.

For me the Lord Jesus is not a ‘ruler’ of mind and heart, he does not possess me as a chattel or subject, rather Christ is the one I seek to love and follow. He is the prototype, we are the icon of him, reflecting his love and presence through our lives. It’s wise to remember that Jesus pointed out his kingdom was not of this world, in those hours where he was mocked and reviled before his death on the cross.

This type of ‘King’ is a servant and friend, one whose role is to be totally with others in all situations, who will welcome us as friends in his Kingdom.

Both Ezekiel and Matthew point out closeness to God is through generous and just action, seeking out the lost, welcoming the stranger, binding up the wounded, collecting the stray to bring them home. It’s what we do to the least of our sisters and brothers, as well as all living creatures, that marks us out as Christ’s icons, in this world we are the true image of this King!

Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Britain.