Today’s Feast of Christ the King reminds us that, while we have responsibilities to our civil government, our basic responsibility is to Abba who creates us and the entire cosmos. To greatly oversimplify, in our world that places extraordinary value on power, we encounter a God who is powerful enough to take the worst we have to offer and doesn’t fight back. The world understands power as the ability to get what we want, and make others do what we want. There are numerous examples of this in today’s headlines, eg, the current Ukraine “Peace Plan”, treatment of immigrants. The majority report sees this as a reminder of how important Jesus is for us. As always, it might have a different, a personal, perspective. Power, as the world understands it, getting what we want even at others’ expense, isn’t everything, and is overrated. The news headlines today are full of abuses of power as the Gospel understands power, of degradation, betrayal, outright abuse. It is in this atmosphere that we are called to live as Jesus lived, and perhaps in different ways to pay the price Jesus paid as he lived his Abba’s love.
The Second Reading (Colossians 1:12-20), “He is the image of the invisible God.” Jesus is everything we can know about God from the human perspective. Being a disciple of Jesus involves a journey of conversion. It is a journey without a destination, and there is no map. I have to make this journey myself, step by step, and nobody can do it for me. It begins just before I realize that I sincerely want to be his disciple, because Abba has been reaching out to me, inviting me to know him through Jesus, and choose to be guided by the Spirit. The journey continues for the rest of my life here and now, in fits and starts, and also in the next step into fullness of life. I have any number of opportunities to choose to stay where I am at any given point, or to continue letting myself be led. There is a lot of unlearning and letting go: of my desire to know, to feel in control, to be free of doubt, the fear of not being accepted or appreciated, of being judged. This can be a real difficulty for me if knowing is important. Jesus didn’t call his disciples to know, but to believe, to trust, to act.
From time to time on our journey there is darkness, perhaps the absence of Abba. This can be frightening and challenging, but often is a step to deepening our relationship with Abba. There is very little certainty. Noted theologian Elizabeth Johnson: “Everything we say about God is limited by our own finite experiences. God is infinite. So we have to keep breaking open our categories and letting our spirits soar into the actual mystery of God,” This is true, and can be a real problem for me if I won’t let go of my need to “know”, to have all the answers, to explain or prove everything. This kind of power I don’t need.
“In him all things hold together.” Step by step this becomes an everyday lived experience. This makes no sense when we look at what is going on around the world, but is a lived reality for us. It does not stop us from wondering why things are the way they are with so much suffering. A constant question is “what are you saying to me in all that is going on around me?”. This is an important question as we realize everything that is going on somehow is of Abba, and whatever it is, we are in this together with Abba. From time to time we encounter persons or happenings offering us encouragement that we are on the right way. This, too is Abba. As we ponder Jesus’ journey when he was among us, we see similar things happening in his life, as he offers insight to what our journey is meant to be.
Christ is the light that helps us see Abba in everything and everyone. Everything can offer us revelation, insight, into Abba if we are open. Very simply, everything is one. God is a verb. As we grow in our awareness, we come to see things differently. As difficult as this is, I cannot exclude or reject any person or any happening from Abba’s loving presence just because I don’t like them/it. This is the nitty-gritty of our journey. Everything, even the bad stuff, somehow is of Abba. This is not a popular thing to say, and so there is always our cross. We come to a very real sense of Abba walking along side us always and in everything, and in everybody.
Jesus calls everyone of us who would be his disciple to live his gospel in our everyday life, even, or especially, if the systems in which we live make this difficult. It is not about keeping the rules and using the right words. Each of us is called to live Abba’s love and compassion with the folks who are in our life at any given time. Nothing has to change for us to do this, expect our openness and willingness to be led, because Abba is in what is, not what was or will be, or what we wish were. In a sense “reality” is another word for Abba happening. Where we are on our journey is the only place where this can happen. It is our reality, pleasant or unpleasant as it might be. What is, is, and it is of Abba.
As part of our contribution to our journey we need some sort of a prayer practice that we choose to be faithful to every day. This is essential. It is not our attempt to convince or change Abba in any way. It is our attempt to be open and alert to Abba always happening in our life. We need this focus because there is so much energy and turmoil happening all around us. It is our quiet time with Abba. Gradually we realize how much we need this.
None of this is a matter of thinking, reasoning, knowing, or logic. It is a matter of experience, recognition, trust, openness, with a lot of letting go. Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ, puts it this way: “Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way . . . Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.” And, Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, “Above all, trust in the slow work of God”. And Rainer Maria Rilke, “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves . . . Do not now seek the answers . . .Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” Just sayin . . .