November 26, 2012
(Romereports.com)(-ONLY VIDEO-) Benedict
XVI celebrated the feast of Christ the King at St. Peter's Basilica,
joined by the six newly created cardinals. During the homily, the Pope
reflected on the origin and strength of God's power: love and truth. He
also asked the cardinals to follow in Jesus' example, who is King because he loved so much, he was willing to give up his life.
COMPLETE TEXT OF THE HOMILY
Your Eminences,
Dear Brother Bishops and Priests,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today’s
Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe, the crowning of the
liturgical year, is enriched by our reception into the College of
Cardinals of six new members whom, following tradition, I have invited
to celebrate the Eucharist with me this morning. I greet each of them
most cordially and I thank Cardinal James Michael Harvey for the
gracious words which he addressed to me in the name of all. I greet the
other Cardinals and Bishops present, as well as the distinguished civil
Authorities, Ambassadors, priests, religious and all the faithful,
especially those coming from the Dioceses entrusted to the pastoral care
of the new Cardinals.
In this final Sunday of the liturgical
year, the Church invites us to celebrate the Lord Jesus as King of the
Universe. She calls us to look to the future, or more properly into the
depths, to the ultimate goal of history, which will be the definitive
and eternal kingdom of Christ. He was with the Father in the beginning,
when the world was created, and he will fully manifest his lordship at
the end of time, when he will judge all mankind. Today’s three readings
speak to us of this kingdom. In the Gospel passage which we have just
heard, drawn from the Gospel of Saint John, Jesus appears in humiliating
circumstances – he stands accused – before the might of Rome. He had
been arrested, insulted, mocked, and now his enemies hope to obtain his
condemnation to death by crucifixion. They had presented him to Pilate
as one who sought political power, as the self-proclaimed King of the
Jews. The Roman procurator conducts his inquiry and asks Jesus: "Are you
the King of the Jews?" (Jn 18:33). In reply to this question, Jesus
clarifies the nature of his kingship and his messiahship itself, which
is no worldly power but a love which serves. He states that his kingdom
is in no way to be confused with a political reign: "My kingship is not
of this world … is not from the world" (v. 36).
Jesus clearly had
no political ambitions. After the multiplication of the loaves, the
people, enthralled by the miracle, wanted to take him away and make him
their king, in order to overthrow the power of Rome and thus establish a
new political kingdom which would be considered the long-awaited
kingdom of God. But Jesus knows that God’s kingdom is of a completely
different kind; it is not built on arms and violence. The multiplication
of the loaves itself becomes both the sign that he is the Messiah and a
watershed in his activity: henceforth the path to the Cross becomes
ever clearer; there, in the supreme act of love, the promised kingdom,
the kingdom of God, will shine forth. But the crowd does not understand
this; they are disappointed and Jesus retires to the mountain to pray in
solitude, to pray with the Father (cf. Jn 6:1-15). In the Passion
narrative we see how even the disciples, though they had shared Jesus’
life and listened to his words, were still thinking of a political
kingdom, brought about also by force. In Gethsemane, Peter had
unsheathed his sword and began to fight, but Jesus stopped him (cf. Jn
18:10-11). He does not wish to be defended by arms, but to accomplish
the Father’s will to the end, and to establish his kingdom not by armed
conflict, but by the apparent weakness of life-giving love. The kingdom
of God is a kingdom utterly different from earthly kingdoms.
That
is why, faced with a defenseless, weak and humiliated man, as Jesus
was, a man of power like Pilate is taken aback; taken aback because he
hears of a kingdom and servants. So he asks an apparently odd question:
"So you are a king?" What sort of king can such a man as this be? But
Jesus answers in the affirmative: "You say that I am a king. For this I
was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to
the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice" (18:37). Jesus
speaks of kings and kingship, yet he is not referring to power but to
truth. Pilate fails to understand: can there be a power not obtained by
human means? A power which does not respond to the logic of domination
and force? Jesus came to reveal and bring a new kingship, that of God;
he came to bear witness to the truth of a God who is love (cf. 1 Jn
4:8,16), who wants to establish a kingdom of justice, love and peace
(cf. Preface). Whoever is open to love hears this testimony and accepts
it with faith, to enter the kingdom of God.
We find this same
perspective in the first reading we heard. The prophet Daniel foretells
the power of a mysterious personage set between heaven and earth:
"Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and
he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. To him was
given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and
languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be
destroyed" (7:13-14). These words present a king who reigns from sea to
sea, to the very ends of the earth, possessed of an absolute power which
will never be destroyed. This vision of the prophet, a messianic
vision, is made clear and brought to fulfillment in Christ: the power of
the true Messiah, the power which will never pass away or be destroyed,
is not the power of the kingdoms of the earth which rise and fall, but
the power of truth and love. In this way we understand how the kingship
proclaimed by Jesus in the parables and openly and explicitly revealed
before the Roman procurator, is the kingship of truth, the one which
gives all things their light and grandeur.
In the second reading,
the author of the Book of Revelation states that we too share in
Christ’s kingship. In the acclamation addressed "to him who loves us and
has freed us from our sins by his blood", he declares that Christ "has
made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father" (1:5-6). Here too it
is clear that we are speaking of a kingdom based on a relationship with
God, with truth, and not a political kingdom. By his sacrifice, Jesus
has opened for us the path to a profound relationship with God: in him
we have become true adopted children and thus sharers in his kingship
over the world. To be disciples of Jesus, then, means not letting
ourselves be allured by the worldly logic of power, but bringing into
the world the light of truth and God’s love. The author of the Book of
Revelation broadens his gaze to include Jesus’ second coming to judge
mankind and to establish forever his divine kingdom, and he reminds us
that conversion, as a response to God’s grace, is the condition for the
establishment of this kingdom (cf. 1:7). It is a pressing invitation
addressed to each and all: to be converted ever anew to the kingdom of
God, to the lordship of God, of Truth, in our lives. We invoke the
kingdom daily in the prayer of the "Our Father" with the words "Thy
kingdom come"; in effect we say to Jesus: Lord, make us yours, live in
us, gather together a scattered and suffering humanity, so that in you
all may be subjected to the Father of mercy and love.
To you,
dear and venerable Brother Cardinals – I think in particular of those
created yesterday – is is entrusted this demanding responsibility: to
bear witness to the kingdom of God, to the truth. This means working to
bring out ever more clearly the priority of God and his will over the
interests of the world and its powers. Become imitators of Jesus, who,
before Pilate, in the humiliating scene described by the Gospel,
manifested his glory: that of loving to the utmost, giving his own life
for those whom he loves. This is the revelation of the kingdom of Jesus.
And for this reason, with one heart and one soul, let us pray: Adveniat
regnum tuum – Thy kingdom come. Amen.
RCG/RCA
CTV
VM
- BN
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