Today we celebrate the solemnity of Christ the King. And on this feast, it is helpful for us to contemplate—to prayerfully imagine and ponder—the King we celebrate and the nature of his Kingdom.
On the one hand, we have the images from Daniel and Revelation: Christ our King is one like a Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven; he is the Alpha and the Omega… the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty. This king is ruler of the kings of the earth; as the Psalm says, he is robed in majesty, and his throne stands firm from of old. These images of Christ depict a king of unsurpassed glory, a king of power and divine majesty, one who is to be feared and exalted for his divinity.
We have a different image of Christ the King in our Gospel reading from John. Here Jesus stands before Pilate, the representative of the Roman Emperor, and is on trial for (supposedly) having claimed to be the King of the Jews. Physically speaking, Jesus is powerless here; he is caught between the machinations of the religious and political rulers, and he will soon be mocked, scourged, and crucified. And yet, knowing who he is, Jesus displays a calm and a confidence before the man who can condemn him: My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If we are tempted to place our hope in worldly regimes of power, or if we are discouraged in the face of challenges brought by these same worldly powers, we can bring to mind these images of our King and the Kingdom he preaches: a kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace. That kingdom is present even now in mystery, but will not be present in fullness until we see the Son of Man coming, on the clouds of heaven.