Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe

Jn. 18:33-37

In today’s Gospel, Jesus stands trial before Pilate. Our Lord says that He has come to bear witness to the truth and all who are “of the truth” hear His voice.  We may ask with Pilate, “What is truth?”  The ancient philosophers would tell us that truth is WHAT IS.  St. Thomas Aquinas would tell us that we must be humble before the truth.  It is what it is and our duty is to seek it, find it, and then embrace it.  Unfortunately, modern philosophers and pendants would tell us that truth is what we decide it is.  How do we decide?  Well, of course, according to our own convenience!  So, what is true becomes what we like, what gives us pleasure, advancement, praise, or whatever we want at the moment.  Pilate decided that the politically convenient solution was “true” and so he condemned an innocent man to a most cruel death.  When an unborn child proves inconvenient to his or her mother, then our society has decreed that this child is not a human being.  The truth about marriage is contested by those who find pleasure in “alternative lifestyles”. 

Our Lord has said in another place that He, Himself, IS the truth.  He is also the way to the truth and He is the life that comes from the truth.  He is the standard by which we judge all of reality.  Origen, an early Christian writer, says, “There should be in us a kind of spiritual paradise where God may walk and be our sole ruler with His Christ.  In us the Lord will sit at the right hand of that spiritual power which we wish to receive.  And He will sit there until all His enemies who are within us become His footstool.”

Few of us have the opportunity to fight the Lord’s battles on the stage of world history, but each of us has the responsibility to do so on the field of our own hearts.  Our Father St. Francis began the reform of the Church and his society by first reforming himself.  Let us follow his example by conforming our lives according to the truth that is Christ.