Gospel: Jn 18:33-37
At that time, Pilate asked Jesus: “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered him: “Do you say this on your own, or have others told you about me?” Pilate replied: “Am I a Jew? Your people and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered: “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, my followers would have fought to prevent my being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my Kingdom is not from here.” Pilate said to him: “So you are a king?” Jesus answered: “You say that I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
Fruit: To be a more worthy servant of my Christ the King.
Guidelines for reflection:
Long live Christ the King! With this cry, many Christians, especially in Mexico, have been able to shed their blood to the point of martyrdom. But what does it mean to acclaim Christ as King? To listen to Him, follow Him, love Him.
1. Listening to Christ, King of truth
Pilate had heard about Christ’s kingship, but he was not satisfied. He wanted to hear, from His own mouth, a royal proclamation. And Jesus Christ agrees, openly proclaiming Himself as King. The response “You have said it” is a way of saying, in Aramaic, the language spoken by Christ: what you ask me is completely true, your affirmation that I am a king is true. I am a King; even more, I was born for this. But this king does not present himself as a dictator. The foundation of His reign is in the truth. “I have come to testify to the truth.” Christ the King does not present Himself as an authoritarian being, who despises or tramples on human freedom and demands blind obedience. He has created us free, and He will always respect our freedom. He wants us to adhere to Him as we are, finding in that generous adhesion the surrender to the truth, to the Truth.
2. Following Christ, King of love
We have before us a King, a sovereign, before whom we must adopt an attitude of listening and obedience. In the Middle Ages, poor farmers would serve a feudal lord. They saw in him a protector for their lives, a strength to rely on, and they did not fear to give up part of their freedom and possessions in order to ensure protection and care. Now, before God, we must approach Him as our great King, who offers us protection and care, who has overcome the world, the devil, evil; confidently placing ourselves at His service, listening to His word and putting it into practice. In Greek, listening and obeying are expressed with the same verb, hypakuo. Essentially, it is the same action: the one who listens, accepting the greatness of that Word, cannot help but obey. He knows that what is best for him is there, what gives him strength and vigor, and therefore he obeys confidently, not as a feudal lord, but as a Father who loves us.
3. Loving Christ the King
The third attitude we must cultivate before this Universal King is that of praising Him. We are not before any king, before a man who, like us, will die. We are before a very special King, a King who created us from nothing, who sustains us in being, who loved us to the point of dying crucified for each one of us. He is a King who has died for His servants, who accompanies us day and night, who has remained close to us in the Eucharist, who wants to transform our hearts in communion. The attitude before this King, therefore, cannot be limited to cold listening or mere obedience. We must reach love. Love the one who has loved us so much. From this perspective, the attitude of those martyrs is understood, who preferred to give their lives rather than renounce Christ the King. They are men and women who are crazy, yes, crazy in love with Christ, the madman in love with man.
Purpose: I will obey Christ especially, especially His commandment: Love one another as I have loved you.
