The liturgical year’s most political event

The feast of Christ the King on the weekend of Nov. 21 and 22 is the liturgical year’s most political event. This comes as a jolt to some churchgoers since they take for granted that in this land of the separation of church and state, we don’t discuss politics or economics or anything secular in church. We think that the Kingdom of Heaven, the subject which Jesus discusses more than any other in the gospels, is about heaven, after death. It is jarring to hear otherwise: “The Kingdom of God is at hand.”

But since we have yet to acknowledge it, the Lord has us pray, “Thy Kingdom come.”

First, Jesus antagonized the paranoid Romans occupying Israel with his constant mentions of this Kingdom. Caesar wanted no rivals, and anything that looked like competition was to be crushed. There were several rivals, some of them violent, like the Zealots. Simon the Zealot was one of the Twelve. These were violent insurgents. In Latin, they were called “siccarii,” which comes from the word for “dagger,” something they used against the hated occupiers. We Christians overlook why the Romans were so intent on crucifying Jesus. We may think we know why some of the Jewish leaders sought his death unfairly, but we seldom examine the Romans’ motives.

Second, a problem we Americans have is that we are unfamiliar with kingdoms or kings or queens. I happen to think this is the kind of problem to have. I prefer democratically elected leaders in this our republic. We may know Burger King and Dairy Queen, but that’s as close as we get to royalty and to kingdoms.

Third, our popes and bishops have been increasingly preaching and teaching about reforming the corrupt or deficient political and economic structures that pull people down, especially the poor. People of the working class rejoiced in 1891 that Pope Leo XIII wrote “Rerum novarum,” “On the (Industrial) Revolution.” Few except the rich objected to politics or economics in church then, since this was a call for the rescue of the downtrodden. Many decades later, Pope John Paul II in “Centesimus annus” set forth an even-handed commentary on the flaws of both communism and capitalism. So priests and deacons in today’s pulpits must address with courage the hard morality issues of the secular world, doing what Jesus lost his life for doing.

The challenge, of course, is that we must always avoid expressing the moral dimensions of political issues in partisan tones or language. A faithful Catholic does not fit comfortably in either of the two major parties. Neither political party expresses the Catholic world view adequately. And frankly, one is not closer to the ideal than the other.

Yet, in our efforts to avoid partisanship, we must not think that issues that currently are the subject of political discourse are inappropriate for discussion in our churches. Sadly, many Christians — Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox — have been lulled into a bland kind of religion that they tailor-fit to a non-controversial idea of God. They believe that politics has no place in church even though they know it has many moral facets that demand pulpit commentary. When sermons addressed their own need, as when working people had no unions to bargain collectively for them, they welcomed papal and parish calls for an end to the greed-driven oppression. Yet sometimes their own children are first to object to homilies on today’s economic victims, such as undocumented immigrants. Or perhaps their own children have not joined our all-volunteer military and therefore are not vulnerable in military conflicts.

Matthew was the most Jewish of the four evangelists. Jewish characteristics shine through his writing, such as the Jewish pious practice of substituting another word in place of the word “God.” We do the same when we say “Thank heaven” when we really mean “Thank God.” It is only in Matthew that we hear about the Kingdom of Heaven. In the other three it is the Kingdom of God.

May Christ the King give us courage to help bring about a world that more resembles one with God and not our own selfishness in charge. Who knows? Maybe by being more true to our faith more of our youth will worship with us.