Pope Benedict celebrates Mass for the feast of Christ the King
Pope Benedict celebrated Mass in St Peter's Basilica this morning to mark the final
Sunday of the liturgical year - the solemnity of Christ the King. Concelebrating with
the Pope were the six new cardinals who received their red hats at the consistory
on Saturday.
Listen:
In his homily
the Pope told the new cardinals they had the demanding responsibility of making God's
Kingdom known in the world - not a kingdom of political power obtained through weapons
and violence, but a kingdom of truth, love and service.
The Pope said: "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."
Below you can find the full text of Pope Benedict's
homily on Sunday morning
Homily of the Holy Father Holy Mass on the Solemnity
of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
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 account 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 enquiry 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 (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 defenceless, 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 fulfilment 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.