FROM OUR BRETHREN... A CHRISTIAN DENOMINATION THAT IS IN UNION WITH US IN OPPOSING THE FALLACIES OF THE RH/RP "LAW" AND THE OTHER DEATH BILLS: “God’s People Come into His Kingdom”

“God’s People Come into His Kingdom” 

November 24, 2013

The 27th Sunday of the Christian Season of Ordinary Time/Kingdomtide/Time of the Church

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THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING

Jeremiah 23: 1 - 6/ Psalm 46/ Colossians 1: 11 - 20/Luke 23: 35 - 43

His Excellency

The Most Reverend Ariel Cornelio P. Santos D.D.

Auxiliary Bishop and Locum Tenens

of the 

Archdiocese of Manila

the 

National Church in the Philippines 

and the 

Territorial Church of Asia

International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church

Today is the Feast of Christ the King and we observe it in honor of our King and Lord Jesus Christ.  In 1925, the Feast was instituted by Pope Pius XI to address a growing threat in that time which was secularism.  Secularism is a practical exclusion of God from human thinking and human affairs.  It is the organizing of one’s life but apart from God and keeping God out of it.   Secular is a word that is a misnomer.  It is a non-entity; non-category.  Secular is understood to be that which is not acknowledged as God’s.  

God is the Creator of heaven and earth and the Owner of all things.  How can there be something that is called secular?  The reason we call it secular is to dichotomize or separate in a dualism of things, in subdivision of things in two categories: one, the holy; the other, the secular.  We said that coming to Church, praying, singing songs of praise or Christians songs is the holy part.  This is what we do when we are in the Spirit.  When we are in the flesh, then we do what is called the secular, which is brushing your teeth, washing the dishes or doing your homework and other things that we don’t necessarily call holy.  

All things are owned by God.  I would define secularism as a futile, vain attempt to exclude God, get Him out of the picture from our lives and from our affairs.  During the time of Pope Pius XI when this Feast was instituted, secularism was growing not only in individual lives, but also in politics, in public and national affairs.   This was their response because he said that we need to tell the world who is King.  

The people were being deceived.  We cannot just rest and say, “God is Owner of all things and He is King of all so we let them do their secularism.”  We must be vigilant because secularism maybe a deception but it was deception that caused man to fall in the first place.  Did the snake have power over them?  No, he only can deceive.  This spirit of trying to exclude God really has no power over us and we don’t submit to its deception.    In the first place, there is no power over us.  We don’t accommodate or entertain it in our thoughts and in our hearts.  

The Feast was intended to proclaim the Kingship, the Lordship of Christ over all men, families, nations and all spheres of life.  You cannot exclude Christ from your business.  You cannot exclude Him from your love-life.  You cannot exclude Him from anything that you do.  He is right there and He gave to us whatever it is.  We can’t say, “This is for Church,” and, “This is for me.”  “Sunday is God’s and Monday through Saturday is mine.”  “The tithe is God’s, ninety-percent is mine.”  This is not correct for all things belong to God!  

In the Encyclical that was made to inaugurate the Feast of Christ the King, it says, “The manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that men had thrust Jesus Christ and His holy law out of their lives.  This have no place in either private affairs or in politics as long as individuals and states refuse to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no prospect of a lasting peace among nations.  The peace of Christ is in the kingdom of Christ. When once men recognize both in private and in public life that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.   Our Lord’s regal office invests the human authority of princes and rulers with a religious significance.  It gives dignity to the citizen’s duty of obedience to them, For this reason, St. Paul instructs wives to revere Christ in their husbands, and slaves to respect Christ in their masters; not as men, but as representatives of God and of Christ.  If princess and magistrates duly elected are filled with the persuasion that they rule. not by their own right, but by the mandate of God and in place of the Divine King, they will exercise their authority piously and wisely, and they will make laws and administer them, having in view the common good and also the dignity of their subjects.  The result will be a stable peace and tranquility, for there will no longer be any cause of discontent.   Men will see in their king and in their rulers men like themselves.  Perhaps unworthy or open to criticism but they will not on that account refuse disobedience if they see reflected in them the authority of Christ God and Man. Peace and harmony, too, will result; for with the spread of the universal extent of the kingdom of Christ, men will become more and more conscious of the link that binds that binds them together, and thus many conflicts will be either prevented entirely or at least the bitterness will be diminished.  All authority is derived from the kingship of Christ.  If we acknowledge in a godly ruler, state, church, family, that they are just representatives of Christ and they derive their authority from Him, then it sill we easier to obey them because we see in them not men but the authority vested by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords Himself.”  

The Feast was an antidote to what was called the anticlericalism which was and still is the opposition to the involvement of the Church and the clergy in politics, in national life and public affairs.  It is the government saying, “The Church should keep their nose out of our affairs.”  But it is still the Church’s duty to keep the government on tract morally.  It is a rejection of Christ authorized leaders, which is also a rejection of His authority.  

Pope Pius was rallying the world that, “While nations insult the name of the Lord by suppression of all mention of God’s name in parliament (in public – schools, offices) we must all the more loudly proclaim His kingly dignity and power.” He ordered the beginning of the public adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  It was taken out of the Tabernacle and was processed in a proclamation of who is really is King of all.  

This is talking about making visible the void.  We must, as CEC, understand and adhere to the theme of Christ the King.  It is making the visible the kingdom of God which has been void.  We share the vision of this Pope of almost hundred years ago.  

Christ’s kingship in Daniel 7 says that the title and the power of king were given and belonged to Christ as Son of Man as man.  He already was King; He didn’t have to receive a kingdom when He was from eternity and was God.  He received the Kingdom and the dominion and power as man.  While as a Son of Man, to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom.   As man, He carries out the rule of God’s kingdom here on earth.  

Christ is the second Adam.  The first Adam stopped implementing God’s rule on earth.  Our second Adam had to come and continue and implement that.  This is the meaning of Catholic – all encompassing; covers all always and everywhere.   Christ’s kingdom is supreme.  It extends to all individuals and kings and rulers, not just to baptized Christians.  He is King of All.  

Jeremiah 23 said that He will reign as King, act wisely, and do justice and righteousness in the earth as man.  If He was on earth, as a spirit, that will be of no good use.  He had to be man, in the flesh.  Philippians 2:10-11 says, “At the name of Jesus, every human knee shall bow and every human tongue confess that Jesus is Lord and King.”  Acts 4:12 says, “No other name under heaven was given among men by which we must be saved.”   Each one of us goes through Christ to go through the Father.  Revelation 1:5 says, “He is the Ruler of the kings of the earth.”   

Revelation 19:16 also says that He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  Those kings and lords are earthly for His rule is really on earth also.  1Corinthians 15:25-26 says the He must reign until He has put all His enemies on earth under His feet, the last being death.  We are not our own.  Paul says in 1Corinthians 6:19-20 that we are not our own; we have been bought by a price and we are members of Christ.  How can we exclude Christ if that is the case?  

One day, He will sit as King and all nations will be gathered before Him.  He will judge each one according to his deeds.  Christ is Supreme as King.  His kingdom is universal because it extends to all kingdoms and places.  We pray, "Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” The kingdom of God is right here, right now!  Here and now!  It is not waiting by the street by and by.  We are not strangers on the earth.  We are citizens of the Kingdom right here, right now!  In the life of the world to come, we will simply continue to be citizens of the Kingdom. We are starting right now because the Kingdom is eternal extending to all kingdoms and in all places.  

Psalm 2 says, “I have installed My King upon Zion.  I will give the nations as His inheritance and the very ends of the earth as His possession.”   It is earth, not heaven.  Jesus is not a stranger here.  He is King, here on earth!  We need to proclaim that and make all men acknowledge that through our witness.  Hebrews 1 says that He is the Heir of all things on the earth. Caesar owns nothing.  We have misinterpreted that portion of the gospel that instructs us to give to Caesar what is Caesar and to God what is God’s.  Everything belongs to God.  Man does not own anything.  Man is simply a steward of God’s possessions.   He is expected, under the authority of God, to be a good steward; to use his resources wisely and according to His law.  

Psalm 72:7-8 says that in the king’s days, the righteous shall flourish and abundance of peace till the moon is no more.  He shall rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.  He covers the whole earth with all the kingdoms and places thereof because all authority over heaven and on earth has been given to Christ.  

In Romans 13, we are told to be subject to all governing authorities.  There is a debate as to whether it is the presidents, the rulers of nations.  It does include them. No authority is not from God. Everything comes from God.   God established that which exist. No authority is there except form God including authority in the Church.  Jeremiah says that God was upset with the shepherds because they were not doing according to instructions because they were under authority under Him.  All authority is derived from God.  

Colossians 1 says, “By Him all things were created both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible whether thrones, dominions, rulers or authorities.”  All things were created through Him and for Him.  We may ask, “Does it mean that the President or Senator who cheated in the elections and is now duly installed leader of the nation derive his authority from God?”  Why does God allow that?  I don’t know why God has allowed everything else and those things which we don’t understand and which we categorize as evil or bad.  There is no authority except from God.  Certain things must take place in God’s wisdom and sovereignty and supremacy.  He allows or causes things to happen, but He is King and He is in control.  

In the song, “Christ is Alive,” it says, “No longer bound to distant years in Philistine…He comes to claim the here and now and conquer every place in time.”  His kingdom is eternal and conquers every place every time.  Psalm 45 says, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.  His kingdom is an ever increasing kingdom and it is eternal.”  

Isaiah 9:6-7, “For unto us a child is born. Unto us a Son is given. The government will rest on His shoulders. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace…from then on and forevermore.”   His Kingdom is eternal, but the eternality of His kingdom is not just in the future. Eternal means covering the past and the future, including the now.  His kingdom is here now!  

Jesus told the thief who repented on the cross and asked Jesus to remember him when He comes to His kingdom, “Today, you will be with Me in My kingdom which is paradise.”  Behold, today is a day of salvation!  The Kingdom is here now!  The Kingdom is now!  Joy, peace, righteousness are meant for now!    God did not design for our life to be miserable on earth so that we can earn heaven.  The Kingdom is right here and right now, and it is not eating, drinking but joy, peace, righteousness in the Holy Spirit of God.  

The kingdom of God is also about forgiveness, which is what we need to spread.  His kingdom is spiritual.  It is not of this world.  We sing, “Though He was rich, made Himself poor. Like no other king had done before.”  His kingdom is not of this world.  Pilate asked Him, “Why are they accusing You of certain things?”  Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting that I might not be harmed or delivered to the Jews. As it is, My kingdom is not of this world.”  Pilate said, “Well, then, so You are a king!”  Jesus replied, “You say correctly that I am a King. For this reason, I have been born.  For this, I have come to the world to bear witness of the truth. For everyone of the truth hears My voice.”  For this reason, He was born: to be King in the world!  He is King right now!  His Kingdom is manifest through us.  

Psalm 45, "The scepter of uprightness is a scepter of Thy kingdom.” It is not like of the world.  The disciples did not understand, even after the Resurrection, what the kingdom of God was about.  In Acts 1, the disciples asked Jesus, “Jesus, You are alive again.  Will You at this time restore the political power of Israel against Rome?  Is it now that we overthrow Rome?”  They still did not understand that the kingdom of God is not of this world.   Isaiah 9 says, “His government was to be established and to be upheld with justice and righteousness because He will act wisely and do justice and righteousness.”   We don’t compare it to the world.  We don’t expect it to operate like the world does because it is not of this world.”  

The Feast is our proclamation of the kingdom of Christ and His kingship.  We don’t employ the tactics of the world but we operate in righteousness and according to His law.  The other intentions of the inauguration of the Feast were to remind not only individuals, but also rulers and kings and priests and magistrates who attended Mass to give honor to Christ as King.  The Encyclical continues to say, “All our faculties belong to Christ.”  Not one is exempt.  “He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to the revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ.  He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to Him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls.”  

In Luke 17, the religious leaders asked Jesus for a sign of the coming of His kingdom.  Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is not coming to you with signs because the kingdom of God is right here, right now in your midst and you are missing it.”  The Pharisees, the Sadducees and the religious leaders were before oppressive, not serving.  They were taking advantage of the authority given to them.   Jesus further told them, “As in the days of Noah and Lot, they were eating, they were drinking, and they were marrying, buying, selling and building.  They were doing the daily chores but it came to them.  I tell you that two men will be in the field.  One will be taken away; one will be left.” 

Wheat and tares dwell together in the world.  The sons of God and the citizens of the Kingdom are in the world because they were sent into the world and they dwell among and alongside tares. The difference is:  the wheat honor Christ as King; the tares disregard His kingship and try to secularize His kingdom and get Him out of their lives which is a futile and vain attempt because God is right here!  He is everywhere!  He is King whether we like it or not. 

I would encourage you to proclaim His kingship in your lives!  This is what the kingdom of God is.  This is the way it is in His kingdom! 

LET US CONTINUE OUR REFLECTION 

WITH

HIS EMINENCE, THE MOST REVEREND LUIS ANTONIO "CHITO" GOKIM TAGLE  D.D.

ARCHBISHOP OF MANILA, 

CARDINAL OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH

AND 

VENERABLE PRIMATE

OF THE PHILIPPINES

THROUGH

THE WORD EXPOSED