In 1925, powerful political, social and economic forces were at work, claiming the allegiance of men and women. In Russia, Soviet Communism had arisen, asserting that individual rights were subservient to the rights of the State and of the Party – that human labor was not for a person’s own benefit, but entirely for "the People."
In Italy and Germany, fascism, another form of totalitarian rule claimed ownership of people’s lives and labor. Around the world, colonialism operated under the assumption that white Western European nations were entitled to dominate the people and the resources of “inferior” and “backward” regions of the world.
So the Church was properly asking, who really holds sovereignty over the hearts and souls of men and women? Who is really in command of the peoples of the world and its resources? Of course, the answer is God, and God alone. Jesus Christ is King of the universe and the Lord of our lives, and it is His Law that orders all creation. All human authority comes from God and is bestowed by Him for the peace and security of all men and women. That’s the truth of which this feast was instituted to remind us.
Therefore, our Gospel for today describes a scene in which earthly, human authority encounters Divine authority. Pontius Pilate, the representative of the Roman Empire – the ancient version of a totalitarian and colonial regime – questions Jesus, the true king of the universe. And yet, even standing before Jesus, Pilate is unable to grasp who Jesus really is and what He has come to accomplish.
Jesus Himself explains why this is when He tells Pilate, “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.” With that sentence, Jesus shows that Pilate is blind to the truth – and Jesus teaches us the essence of His mission and the secret to intimacy with God: in order to know God, we must seek the truth.
Whoever searches for, and lets themselves be led by what is true, is drawn into communion, into intimacy with Christ. But being led by truth requires humility. It requires us to recognize an authority higher than oneself, higher even than that of human government. And if we must discover, and accept, and conform our lives to what it objectively true – not merely true for us, or true for our time and place, but true for all people, everywhere and always – then we are not autonomous – we are not the masters of our own personal universes. We are not god.
This act of humility is not easy. As fallen creatures, we tend towards pride, towards self-sufficiency, towards power and control. And so there are powerful forces in our culture that simply deny the role of God in the foundation of our lives and our society. Pope Benedict XVI has for years now been warning the world against a relativism that denies or hates universal truth.
He has said: “today's civil and secular society is found to be in a state of bewilderment and confusion: it has lost the original evidence of the roots of the human being and his ethical behavior… When the fundamental requirements of human dignity, of human life, of the family, of a fair social order, in other words, basic human rights, are at stake, laws devised by human beings that subvert the law that the Creator has engraved on the human heart dramatically affect the indispensable foundations of society itself …”
If we as individuals and as a society are going to experience the peace and true freedom for which we long, and which Christ promises, we must "belong to the truth," by refusing to allow selfishness and self-centeredness turn us into enemies of the truth. We have to take a more active role in searching for the truth and conforming our lives to it.
That’s why Pope Benedict chose as is papal motto, the eighth verse of St. John’s Third Letter: we must be “Coworkers in truth.” In a world that tends to rebel against any and all authority other than oneself, unless we are Christians who actively follow Christ, we will slowly slide into rebellion ourselves.
Even if we come to Mass each and every Sunday, if throughout the rest of the week, we have no place for God, and fill our hearts and minds with all sorts of secular images and information, then it’s no surprise that God is relegated from our hearts and from our society, and we make ourselves into gods. It’s no wonder we aren’t experiencing the interior peace and freedom that Christ promises. Following Christ the King, belonging to the truth, requires seeking Him out: spending time each day in personal prayer; spending quality time each week studying the Scripture and learning the truths of our faith.
Now be forewarned: "choosing Christ does not guarantee success according to the criteria of today’s world, but ensures the peace and joy that only Christ can give.” That’s why, in every age, men and women who have resisted earthly powers – have stood for Christ’s name, and for the truth, and for justice,” have faced martyrdom.
(Bl. Franz Jaggerstatter, murdered by the Nazi Government)
And yet, even those who are blind to the truth are subject to it. Remember that after the scene in today’s Gospel, it was Pilate himself who had inscribed atop Jesus’ cross, in Latin, Greek and Aramaic: “Jesus Christ, King of the Jews.”
It is in Christ the King that we place all our allegiance and hope. And it is in His name that we are coworkers in the truth.
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