Belong to the Truth by Rev. Paul Berghout (@FatherPB)
(Preached at Our Lady of the Desert, Mattawa, WA)
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, " says the Lord God, "the one who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." (Revelation 1:8)
Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here." So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say I am a king. 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." (John 18:36-37)
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| #ChristTheKingOfTheUniverse means he rules over all that is. |
Piety
“Come, Lord Jesus, take away scandals from your Kingdom, which is my soul, and reign there. You who alone have the right.
For greediness comes to claim a throne within me; haughtiness and self-assertion would rule over me; pride would be my king; lust says "I will reign"; ambition, detraction, envy, and anger struggle within me for the mastery.
I resist as far as I am able; I struggle according as help is given me; I call on my Lord, Jesus; for His sake, I defend myself, since I acknowledge myself as wholly His possession. He is my God, Him I proclaim my Lord; I have no other king than my Lord Jesus Christ. Come then, O Lord, and disperse these enemies by Your power, and You shall reign in me, for You are my king and my God. Amen. (St. Bernard)[i]
Study
Regarding Christ the King, there’s a famous remark from a Modernist priest named Alfred Loisy. Perhaps Loisy’s most famous observation was that “Jesus came preaching the Kingdom, and what arrived was the Church” (“Jésus annonçait le Royaume et c’est l’Église qui est venue”).[ii]
Maybe his remark was a little like those T-shirts that say something like, “My parents went to the Grand Canyon and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.”
Loisy would have been pleased with today’s focus, however, which is The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Although Pilate questions him about his royal status, Jesus does not speak of himself, but about the Kingdom. Never in the biblical writings does Jesus ever refer to himself as “king.”
In today’s gospel reading, although he talks about “my kingdom,” Jesus also explicitly distances himself from the title itself, responding to Pilate: “You say that I am a king.”
But Jesus was always preaching about the truth of the kingdom of God, and how it was emerging into our world through his life and anyone who would follow him.
Today on the feast of Christ the King, we recall that the essential character of kingship means personal allegiance to one person. To say Christ is King implies that we are subjects. He "reigns in the minds of men," in the wills of men, and He is King of our hearts.
As that prayer brings out, not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire.
Action
An example of what happens when Jesus is not the King of our hearts is seen in the Berlin Art Gallery where there is a painting by the famous artist Mengel that is only partially finished. It is supposed to be a painting of King Frederick of Germany talking to his generals. Mengel painstakingly painted the generals first, placing them around the outside of the painting as a background and leaving a bare patch in the middle of the painting for the King. But Mengel died before he could finish the painting. So, there is a painting full of generals, but no king.
Each one of us is painting the story of our lives with the simple words and deeds of everyday life.
Many times, we allow our life story to become full of lesser authorities. But, as Christians, the painting of our lives is never complete until we place at its center Christ the King.
When is Christ is King of our hearts, there is peace.
PAX Christi in Regnum Christi: The peace of Christ in the Reign of Christ.
THE VOICE- Hear it's truth. Lies warp the structure of being.
Which road did truth-seeking young Jordan Peterson take that made all the difference in his life? He tells us in “Rule 8: Tell the Truth—Or, at Least, Don’t Lie.” (This story is from the best seller 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.)[iii]
“I had a strange set of experiences a few years before embarking upon my clinical training. I found myself subject to some rather violent compulsions (none acted upon), and developed the conviction, in consequence, that I really knew rather little about who I was and what I was up to. So, I began paying much closer attention to what I was doing—and saying. The experience was disconcerting, to say the least. I soon divided myself into two parts; one that spoke, and one, more detached, that paid attention and judged. I soon came to realize that almost everything I said was untrue. I had motives for saying these things: I wanted to win arguments and gain status and impress people and get what I wanted. I was using language to bend and twist the world into delivering what I thought was necessary. But I was a fake. Realizing this, I started to practice only saying things that the internal voice would not object to. I started to practice telling the truth—or, at least, not lying. I soon learned that such a skill came in very handy when I didn’t know what to do. What should you do when you don’t know what to do? Tell the truth.”
Jordan Peterson continues, “If you will not reveal yourself to others, you cannot reveal yourself to yourself. That does not only mean that you suppress who you are, although it also means that. It means that so much of what you could be will never be forced by necessity to come forward. This is a biological truth, as well as a conceptual truth. When you explore boldly, when you voluntarily confront the unknown, you gather information and build your renewed self out of that information. That is the conceptual element. However, researchers have recently discovered that new genes in the central nervous system turn themselves on when an organism is placed (or places itself) in a new situation. These genes code for new proteins. These proteins are the building blocks for new structures in the brain. This means that a lot of you is still nascent, in the most physical of senses, and will not be called forth by stasis. You have to say something, go somewhere and do things to have these turned on. And, if not…you remain incomplete, and life is too hard for anyone incomplete.”
If you say no to your boss, or your spouse, or your mother, when it needs to be said, then you transform yourself into someone who can say no when it needs to be said. If you say yes when no needs to be said, however, you transform yourself into someone who can only say yes, even when it is very clearly time to say no. If you ever wonder how perfectly ordinary, decent people could find themselves doing the terrible things the gulag camp guards did, you now have your answer.
If you betray yourself, if you say untrue things, if you act out a lie, you weaken your character. If you have a weak character, then adversity will mow you down when it appears, as it will, inevitably.
If your life is not what it could be, try telling the truth. If you cling desperately to an ideology or wallow in nihilism, try telling the truth. If you feel weak and rejected, and desperate, and confused, try telling the truth. In Paradise, everyone speaks the truth. That is what makes it Paradise. Tell the truth. Or, at least, don’t lie.
“Viva Cristo Rey!”
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