‘THY KINGDOM COME…’
Fr. IRENEUSZ SKUBIŚ
The question: ‘Are you a king?’ was asked to Jesus by embarrassed Pilate (see J 18.33b). Undoubtedly the question was forced. There was an accusation against Jesus and it had to be answered. So, what was simpler than asking this question to the accused. There was also the answer: - Yes, I am a king but my kingdom is not from this world (see J 18.36-37). The case was definitely settled. This man standing in front of the Pilate says that he is a king. It is a significant statement – the confirmation has been flowing for ages now. Jesus is a king.
What does ‘a king’ mean? It is one who has power, reigns and manages. Everything depends on the king; especially that his kingdom is specific, is not from here, it is different and it if from a different world. Neither Pilate, nor other people were listening to the dialogue, they could not cope with it. And here there is further conversation: Don’t you know that I could free you, don’t you know that I have power over you? (see J 19.10). And again the word of Jesus: - This power which you have is not your power, it does not come from you but it has been only given to you (see J 19.11). This important statement of Jesus, because at this moment there is a confrontation. Jesus says that he is a king. And we must guess that in this context, too. His royal power was not given to Him by somebody. He has this power from himself. It is the power of the One who is Lord, the Supreme dissident and the One on whom everything depends.
We must know how to look at King Christ whom we call our God. The royal power of Christ comes from His deity, from His inner power. This authority should be seen internally, we should accept this Christ King and God in the spirit of the greatest humility and respect. It happens so in our times that people have decided to neglect God. There are plenty of those who started a kind of a special fight against God. It is still going on and takes on various forms and it is being conducted in various ways. It is a fight against living God to whom – as the psalmist says – the whole world and its inhabitants belong (Ps 24.1).
The fight against God, King Christ is taking place under our eyes. It is not a distanced matter. At my home, in my family, in the parish, in the workplace there is a fight for the kingdom of Christ. Maybe we are surprised by presenting the problem in this way. After all, as Catholics and believers, we often wondered about God’s Kingdom. We used to say words: ‘Thy kingdom come’ very consciously. We wanted God to be with us, to reign so that our personal fates, like social histories, would happen according to God’s will. Then we would have been sure about the future that we would not be deceived, that God would take care of us, that we would not perish.
What does the kingdom of Christ mean to us? We will say: listening to God, His Gospel, using sacraments, living according to the Decalogue. How to do it better? I’ll remind our deceased friend – prelate priest Marian Wiewiórowski who said that when believers made friendship with the ‘Sunday’, they became more open to God and to what he does in the parish. Looking for God’s Kingdom is opening up to God, to a priest who comes in the name of Christ. What to do so that believers in my parish would love God’s kingdom, and listen to God’s words? We should help them in it. The catholic word needs to enter their homes. It may be the voice of a Catholic radio, television or newspaper, for example the ‘Sunday’. The voice coming to a parish every week is worked out very carefully and with great effort. I used to say to my editors that if people knew how much work the publishing of the ‘Sunday’ costs, their attitude to this newspaper would be different. I would like to remind priests, catechists, teachers and readers about it. The Catholic weekly considers building the kingdom of Christ.
We proclaim God’s teaching, we remind about the teaching of the Holy Father, bishops, it is our mission. We really want our readers to find out about the truth, not get subjected to hypocrisy or manipulation, but be resistant to the situation when somebody wants hurt their way of thinking and lead them into different ways. Our work with many prominent intellectualists is a comparative stadium which is continuously going on. It is a fight for Christ, for truth which- as Christ promised – will free us (see J 8.32).
If I could say wishes on the occasion of the celebration of King Christ, Dear Priests, Nuns and Monks, Catechists and Readers,please take the wishes which are a message and a call for not wasting the gift of grace which is the Catholics media. We will be judged also in this by King Christ and He is going to ask us: were we building God’s kingdom and were we using the gifts called Catholic media while building it?
(AA)
"Niedziela" 48/2012