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In today’s Gospel, Jesus admits to Pilate that he is a king, but says that his kingdom “is not of this world” (Jn 18:36). If it were of this world, he says, “my servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: by now my Kingdom is not from hence” (Jn 18:36). Here we have a negation that Jesus’ kingdom is an earthly kingdom, but its nature is not clearly explained. In the first reading, however, St. Paul gives us more details about Christ’s kingdom. He is “the firstborn of all creation” (Col 1:15), because “in him all things were created in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible” (Col 1:16). He is a king, then, first of all because he is the Son of God and possesses sovereign power of God over every thing. It is not surprising then, that Jesus does not do anything which might impede his crucifixion, because this way of acting belongs often to God. So, we read in Ps 115: “Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’ Our God is in heaven; whatever God wills is done” (vv2-3). So, it does not matter too much what happens now, because God has the power to bring all things to a good end and to establish a perfect justice. Therefore, for him, it’s not important to impede every specific evil, and thus, “he does what he wills” often permitting evil things in this life for a greater future good.
St. Paulgives a second reason for the regality of Christ. “He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead” (Col 1:18). Just as he is the king of the universe, the source of all things, so is he the king as the origin of the Church. Even here, though, despite the Church being in this world, his kingdom is not of this world. St. Paul speaks of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead. With His Resurrection, He does not return to earthly life for a second time, only to die again, as did happen to Lazarus and others who were raised from the dead by Christ during his ministry. Christ, on the other hand, has completely passed, with body and soul, to another type of life, the eternal life. The Church participates in this life through the sacraments even today, in the course of our earthly life and, in the end, members can obtain eternal life in a perfect way when thekingdom ofGod comes, just as we recite when we pray the Lord’s Prayer.
Moreover, in the first reading, we find a third reason for the kingship of Christ: “He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:13-14). We have belonged to another kingdom, that is, “the power of darkness”, and we have passed to a new kingdom, a kingdom of love. We see again that thekingdom ofChrist is not of this world, because the kingdoms of this world rule with the use of force and power, not with the use of love.
The fact that the kingdom of Christ is based on love, leads St. Paul to a final conclusion, that is, that God has wanted “to reconcile all things for him…whether those on earth or those in heaven” (Col 1:20). Therefore, we need not only wait for eternal life, even if this is surely more important, but we need to hope to establish the kingdom of Christ in a certain way even in this world, reconciling every thing in him. Consequently, the Second Vatican Council insisted: “Christ’s redemptive work, while essentially concerned with the salvation of men, includes also the renewal of the whole temporal order. Hence the mission of the Church is not only to bring the message and grace of Christ to men but also to penetrate and perfect the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel” (Apostolicam Actuositatem §5). We celebrate the Feast of Christ the King near the end of the liturgical year to remind us that thekingdom ofChrist will be perfectly accomplished only at the end of time, but this does not keep us from trying to establish his Kingdom even now, in the way in which we can. Let us remember both of these aspects, then, both the eternal and temporal, when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “thy kingdom come.”