Feast of Christ the King: Reflection of sr. Mary-Comfort Onyinyechukwu Okoro, OP

“… Jesus answered, “My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world.” Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?”

Today the Church of Christ on earth celebrates the solemn feast of Christ the Universal King. As king, he owns and rules a kingdom which is first in our hearts and then the earth as the Creator of all that exists. With the reading taken from Gospel of John 18:33-37, Christ did not refer to himself as King but Pilate did by asking him whether he was the king of the Jews or not. Yes, he is a King because the Psalmist already foresaw it in Psalm 10: 16a and Psalm 110 where Christ our Saviour and Lord is said to be seated at the right hand of God. It was also buttressed by St. Paul in his letters to the Corinthians. (1 Cor 15: 25) and Colossians 1:15-18. So, to speak, Christ is king both by nature and by merit because he is divine and he created heaven and earth. He has dominion over everything which in turn is subject to his authority.

Historically speaking, Pope Pius XI, on 11th December, 1925 in his encyclical…Quas Primas instituted this great feast as a reminder to then totalitarian, dictatorial, secularistic and atheistic Europe that their Kingship is timebound, ephemeral, and transient while that of Christ is eternal (Rev.1:5,8), marked by servant-leadership style (Mark 10:45) and self-sacrificing. He is the Good Shepherd who has come to give us abundant life (John 10:10); and that any attempt to “thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law” out of public life would result in continuing discord among people and nations.” Besides, while most earthly kings exhibit selfishness, pride and arrogance towards God and man, greed, and carelessness towards the welfare of their subjects, Christ is a rear King who listens to, understands and attends to the needs of his flock. He has just one desire, vision and mission which is to do the Will of his heavenly Father (John 4: 34). Despite being God in everything, he emptied himself and became human like you and I. ( Phil  2: 5-11). What a contrast!

To bring this reflection home to ourselves, as Christians, Catholics and mostly Dominicans, we are called to imitate Christ using the example of our Blessed Father Dominic who is our role model. After baptism, we are marked with the offices of prophet, priest and king. So, in other words, as Dominicans, we are also kings who are called to lead as Christ following the footsteps and tutelage of our Blessed Father St. Dominic De Guzman. We know him as a man of outstanding virtues who strove to Shepherd his brothers and sisters according to the scriptural dictates of the two great commandments of love of God and of his neighbours. In imitation of Christ, St. Dominic exhibited the servant leadership traits so well so that in the midst of his brothers, you can hardly identify him as the superior or the Master. Like Christ, St. Dominic was rich in humility, kind, compassionate, self- sacrificing and full of mercy. He desired the good of others over his to the extent that we were told that he sold his “carefully annotated books and even volunteered to sell himself into slavery” in order to help the poor. He wept at the suffering of others and earnestly worked for the salvation of their souls. His strength emanated from the four pillars of prayer, community, study and preaching (ministry). St. Dominic was a man of prayer who loved communicating with God such that it was written about him that he was always either talking to God about people, or talking to people about God. Prayer and the study of the scriptures- be it liturgical or private was his daily bread especially the prayer of the Holy Rosary.  

As kings, God has given us different kingdoms to watch over according to our offices in our different congregations, communities and apostolates whereby we are expected to put in our talents for use and to be accountable to our congregations. Let us ask ourselves few questions for reflection, as leaders at and of different capacities:

1. What are our individual and congregational vision and mission of leadership?
2.  How approachable, collaborative, gentle, compassionate and simple are you and I to those we lead?
3. How accountable and courageous in the face of difficulties are you and I?
4. How can we judge ourselves using St. Dominic’s paradigm of “…Embrace true charity, preserve humility, treasure your poverty, ” in our style of leadership?

Kindly observe some minutes of silence and then pray with me: Dear God, help us to know you, understand you and entrust ourselves completely to your rule so as to also reign with you eternally in the parousia. 

Amen.