Feast of Christ the King – A Reflection by Fr. Leo
‘Jesus answered, "You say I am a king.
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."‘
As prophet, Jesus proclaimed God’s truth because he was God’s truth. Jesus proclaimed all truth; rational truth, emotional truth and spiritual truth. Today we are still trying to grasp the full truth of Christ. Over time with growth in human development at the cognitive, emotional and spiritual spheres, we slowly come to a greater consciousness of God.
The first stage of spiritual understanding in the Church was Mythic understanding. At that stage we held that all humanity could only be saved in Jesus’ name and everyone had to believe as we did. This is the church before the Second Vatican Council. The only beneficiaries of the Church were her members. All others were going to hell.
The next stage of development is the rational stage which the world is in now and the Church is slowly moving into. At this level, because there is more education, we can analyze and question the conventional rules and roles in society and in the church. We are now in a world where there are stay at home dads and where salvation is not the exclusive experience of the Catholic Christian.
There are many more levels in the spiritual journey leading to union with God in a knowing that is trans-rational, non-dual. A knowing that is the knowing of the mystic, which is there for us all. This knowing is living in the kingdom of God.
Jesus’ main mission was to bring us into the kingdom of God. The kingdom Jesus pointed to wasn’t one that was coming, but one that is here now. Why, because the kingdom of God is the presence of God and when we live in God, we live in the kingdom now as it will be in heaven.
The spiritual life isn’t about getting good enough to enter heaven. The spiritual life is entering heaven now by coming to an awareness of the presence of God in all things, including ourselves. This awareness grows as we seek God and are transformed by the spirit in God’s pure gift of himself to us.
Let us seek God’s kingdom. Let us ask God to help us see his presence in all things. Then we shall live in God’s truth and will hear God’s voice. We will come to ‘know’ in ways un-imaginable to us now!