Hello friends – brothers, sisters – down there in Australia. I would have liked to join you live, but maybe next time that will work out. For the moment, again, it’s a video that I make on my own and I send it to you. I would love to share some time with you and discuss the theme of this Sunday, which is the Kingship of Christ.
We read in the letter to the Ephesians that we are part of a mystery that is divine – that is eternal – and we are called to share in it – to take part in it.
God calls us. He has chosen us to give an answer to the word he gives to us. The Eternal word is given to us. We, as human beings, we are chosen by God to give an answer to the given word from our humble human nature, even when fallen into sin, we are called to give a truthful answer to the Divine word. The whole letter of Ephesians speaks about that. This is the mystery that St Paul wants to entrust to the faithful.
Now, when we see the way Jesus talks about his kingship in the in the Gospel of St John, you see that Christ relates His Kingdom to the truth. He is a king, and He says people who are of the truth – that means who are trying to live in the truth, who are trying to find out what is truth, and who are trying to live according to the truth – they are his followers. They are part of his kingdom.
And that also means that we, as Christians, we never have to find hope in politics. We don’t rely on politics to give us hope. We may take part on it but it’s never going to give us a kind of Utopian fulfilment of our dreams.
People may talk about a beautiful future or about paradigms that need to be realized but in fact we are members as Christians of the kingdom of God that exists already. We can take politics with a grain of salt.
There is this victory of Christ which has been won already. If we have to fight, especially with ourselves, it’s because we have to get our share of that victory, but the victory itself has already been won, and that’s why in our spiritual life – in our life where we search for happiness – it’s important to always realise that our moral choice for God and our moral choice for our neighbours always comes before our vote or our participation in democracy or any other kind of political life.
We may be happy to vote. We may be happy to express our opinion, but more important to that is meeting our neighbour – communicating with him. Whether it’s at work, in our family, when on holidays with our friends, or even when we are communicating with somebody in the boxing ring. It’s also a manner of communication, although it might be a bit mysterious, although we might have to reflect a little bit on what that communication in the boxing ring means.
Anyway, before we vote, before we express our opinion, we have to meet our neighbour. That’s what we’re called to. Why? Because God gives us, as an assignment in our life, as a challenge in our life, to see Divine Light in our neighbours. The great challenge for those who search the truth and who want to participate in the Kingdom of God is to find the presence of God – the thirst for God – in our neighbour.
- First broadcast on TheSundayEucharist.com on November 26, 2023
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