“I am the way, the truth, and the life…” John 14:6
Pope Benedict says some remarkable things about Christ the King.1 He does so through the dialogue between Jesus and Pontius Pilate found in John 18:36-37. There, Jesus reveals the nature of his kingdom. He says, “my kingship is not of this world.” Benedict notes, Jesus’ kingdom is powerless; it has no legions.2 The next line changes everything. Jesus says:
“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.”
We all know Pilate’s response, “What is truth?” And with these words the stage is set for God’s test of humanity, which asks “will you bow before truth?” Jesus is not referring to the fashionable, but foolish idea of “my truth” or “your truth. No, he speaks of Truth as revelation. The Truth that is from God, of God, and is God, Truth that removes the veil of sin and permits us to have a sensory experience of meaning itself. Of being. Of God.
It can get confusing. Jesus is Truth. Jesus makes Truth. Jesus reveals Truth. Or put another way, The Kingdom of Heaven is Truth, which is Jesus, the one who leads us out of sin and back to the experience of Hope. And Hope is found in the power to approach our eternal origin in God.
Today’s Gospel leads us out of confusion by describing what becomes of those who are blessed to know Truth. Jesus says they will welcome Him and give him food and drink. We might say Jesus’ hungers and thirsts for us to Love. He wants us to bear His love. And we will know that we imitate His hunger and thirst for love, that we bear His love, when we welcome the stranger and help those suffering in prison. We know this prison. It may be literal, but it is the prison of being unable to see or hear His word. This prison is suffering a life lived without access to Truth-- cut off from God. We can give material aid to the suffering, but if that is all we give, then the gift is temporary. Here today and gone tomorrow. If we preach doing good deeds but do not perform them, we are at best an illusion of help and at worst a clanging cymbal that only highlights the suffering. The throne of God is the same and perfect in its intention, its word, and its deed. The throne of God is Truth.
When we live in Christ, even when we do so imperfectly, we discover ways to communicate that not only speak of the Truth, but perform the Truth, and do so with an intention that the other will experience Truth. We discover ways to act that not only serve Truth, but reveal Truth. These words and deeds share in the sacramental nature of Jesus Kingdom…. They imitate Jesus because they reside in Truth, manifest Truth, and call those who are suffering to recognize Truth.
“he will sit upon his glorious throne” Mt. 25:31
Everyone is invited to start by making an intention to join in prayer. We humbly ask God to reveal his Truth to our hearts as we pray the Glorious Mysteries. We ask him to raise our hearts from the dead, to raise them up to Him in heaven, to fill us with the Holy Spirit, to help us choose to submit as perfectly as Our Lady, and to encourage us to live in Hope of Eternal Life, now and forever. We pray that our good deeds may be filled with good teaching, and our good teaching be one with our deeds. We pray that our parish, our city, and our nation become on in Truth.
Saint Cecilia Congregation in the Rosar