Ruminations of an Irascible Hermit.: Heavenly citizenship, the Kingdom of God

Sunday, November 20, 2022

Heavenly citizenship, the Kingdom of God

Today the Church gives us the wonderful Solemnity of Christ the King.

You may hear various homilies today about Jesus the King of the Universe who restores all of creation, or political messages about Jesus being killed by the Roman’s due to his threatening the authority of the Romans etc.. However as you all know, I like to look at things differently.

We believe and proclaim that Jesus Christ is King - but do we understand what it means?

A King is a ruler, someone who has authority and power. A king is the highest authority that does not answer to anyone else. Kingship is also connected to law - because the authority to govern, to rule and the power to enforce the laws come from the King. So to recognise a king means you are subject to him, you are under his authority but also under his protection.

In the Gospel’s, Jesus often spoke of the “Kingdom of God”. The Greek word used was “Basileia tou Theou” which can also be translated as the “Reign of God”. The Kingdom of God is where God rules completely without opposition, where His Will is completely manifested. This is why in the Lord’s Prayer, that Jesus himself links the coming of the Kingdom to the Will of God being done on earth as it is in heaven.

Through sin, we misuse our free will and disobey God. We break the commandments, which are the laws of God. So you could also say that in one way, it is like renouncing your citizenship. You lose your legal rights and so also no longer have the benefits or blessings of your citizenship.

This is what we do when we sin. We disobey God, we renounce His Kingdom and try to be our own king. But we don’t have the power or authority to survive alone. This leaves is vulnerable and weak. This is the reality of sin - it destroys.

But God created us for life, joy, peace and freedom. This has always been the biggest paradox and stumbling block for people to understand. It is only be obeying God’s commandments that we can be truly free - because sin enslaves you! (John 8:34, Romans 6:6).

So sin is the ultimate irony. It is the use of our free will, to choose bondage and slavery instead of freedom! This is the reality of the situation we live in, we are now under the dominion of the “ruler of this world” (John 12:31, Ephesians 2:2). We are under the control of a false king who enslaves, kills and destroys (John 10:10).

God created us for blessedness and happiness with Himself - He invites us to share in the inner intimacy of relationship with the Blessed Trinity. This is what we were made for and are called to! This is what Jesus Christ came to restore - our inheritance that we forfeited through sin.

So we currently live in a world controlled by a fake king, an unjust ruler who keeps us in bondage and slavery. But for us baptised Christians we have been transferred from this dominion of darkness into the Kingdom of Light - this is now our inheritance and our new citizenship (Colossians 1:12-14, Philippians 3:20).

Our King loves us so much that he died on a cross to redeem us - to buy us back from the tyrant king. We now have a new King who sets us free (Romans 8:21) and establishes a new kingdom for us to reign with Him. This Kingdom is the Church, which has the Messiah Shepherd King as the Head (Colossians 1:18).

Through our baptism, we are citizens of the Kingdom of God which is life and blessing and peace. When we desire and seek after God’s Will, we are also manifesting the Kingdom of God here on earth - allowing Him to reign as is His right and due.

Jesus said in Luke 17:20-21 that the Kingdom of God is within you, but it can also mean “among” you or in your midst. The nuance of this is very beautiful and profound. Through the establishment of the Church, the Kingdom of God really is now among us in the midst of the world that it does not belong to. But the Kingdom of God also exists within the hearts of all the believers in the Church who seek after and desire God’s Will.

So today I ask you - if Jesus Christ is your King, is he also the King of your heart and not just your lips? (Matthew 6:21)

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Disclaimer

Please note. I am a Catholic layman, not a qualified theologian or philosopher. What I say and write here are my own personal thoughts and ideas, although I always try to conform my writings to the Magisterium of the Church.

I- with firm faith believe and profess everything that is contained in the symbol of faith: namely,

I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: By the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. I believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith I believe as well everything contained in God's word, written or handed down in tradition and proposed by the church--whether in solemn judgment or in the ordinary and universal Magisterium--as divinely revealed and called for faith.

I also firmly accept and hold each and every thing that is proposed by that same church definitively with regard to teaching concerning faith or morals.

What is more, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the college of bishops enunciate when they exercise the authentic Magisterium even if they proclaim those teachings in an act that is not definitive.