Recently,
I heard Bishop Mariano Gaviola, the retired bishop of Lipa,
say that the greatest problem facing the Church today is to regain
its
credibility as the Church of the Poor. The Second Plenary Council
of the Philippines declared in 1991 that ours was the Church of the
poor. Where is the evidence of this today as we celebrate the Feast
of Christ the King? If we follow him as king, what kind of a king
was he?
I think it is clear from the scriptures that he struggled with how
to express the kingdom. The kingdom was the place where the will of
God and the reality of this world overlapped. I find myself - and
also the institution to which I belong - caught up in the same struggle.
I find the struggle expressed in the two little parables that are
side by side in Luke 13. The first says that the Kingdom of God is
like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, which becomes a big
shrub so that the birds of the air come and nest in it's branches.
This gives the image of what our individual or corporate egos make
us all aspire to: to be in a position where others will depend on
us, to be the great tree under whose branches no other plant flourishes.
The second parable says that the kingdom of heaven is like a woman
making bread. She puts yeast in the dough; the yeast is seen no more
but because of it the whole loaf rises. It is a kingship that is lost
in the service of others. This is a true image of the style of Christ's
kingship.
The issues that Jesus struggled with in establishing the kingdom were
possessions, prestige and power. The observance of law and moral living
- and even sexual morality - were not as important to him as detachment
from these three. He is again and again much more understanding and
tolerant towards those who sin through human weakness than he is towards
the self righteous ones who try to control and dominate sinners and
to keep them prisoners of their past.
The temptations in the desert in Luke's fourth chapter are a psycho-drama
of the struggle that the human Jesus went through as he tried to discover
how best to express his Abba relationship with the Father through
his own person and culture. The first temptation is to seek what people
- then and now - consider to be the ingredients of success. He was
tempted to use his God-ness to prove himself and to gain possessions
easily. "If you are the Son of God" the devil says, "turn
these stones into bread." He is next tempted to use his God-ness
- to short circuit his humanity by working a miracle - so as to gain
cheap popularity. Jump from the top of the temple and let the angels
hold you up and everyone will be impressed. When Jesus did not succumb
to this temptation he was tempted in the area of power, the third
great destroyer of human integrity. "Bow down before me and I
will give you power." After this temptation Jesus went to the
Synagogue and unrolled the scroll where it read, "I have come
to bring good news to the poor." He discovered that this was
the way in which to accomplish his mission.
Today, as we celebrate the feast of Christ the king we read Luke's
description of how he entered into his glory. Our king is on a cross
between the poorest of the poor, two condemned criminals. He is nailed
naked, disgraced and powerless. He is being challenged again by the
crowd, "if you are the son of God… come down from the cross."
But Jesus will not succumb to the temptation to use his power for
his own benefit or to prove himself. He is chided even by one of the
condemned, "Save yourself and save us too." But the Gospel
shows Jesus a king for others even when he is on the cross. To the
good thief he says, "this day you will be with me in paradise."
If our prayer is our communication and relationship with our king,
it must be a prayer that brings us into the spirit of his kingdom.
It must be a prayer that helps to detach us from our egos, from our
constant seeking of security through possession, prestige and power.
It must bring us to where the kingdom is truly found - in the discovery
of our own poverty and in the service of others who are poor.
And let me say it for the last time. In my experience the way of prayer
of Christian meditation taught by John Main is the best way to open
one's self to this kingdom. According to John Main this is how to
meditate:
"You just sit still and upright. Close your eyes lightly. Sit
relaxed but alert. Silently, interiorly begin to say a single word.
We recommend the prayer-phrase
'MARANATHA.' Recite it as four syllables of equal length. Listen to
it as you say it gently but continuously. Do not think or imagine
anything - spiritual or otherwise. If thoughts and images come, these
are not to be entertained at the time of meditation, so keep returning
to simply saying the word. Meditate each morning and evening for between
20 and 30 minutes."
