“King
of All the Ages”
20
November 2016
Solemnity
of Christ the King
Homily
preached at Trinity Episcopal Church
Ashland,
Oregon
The
Rev. Fr. Tony Hutchinson, SCP, Ph.D.
8:00
a.m. spoken Mass, 10:00 a.m. Sung Mass
One thing I learned in living overseas
for most of my adult life, in a variety of political and cultural settings is
this: it is only when the community and
political life of a country are doing reasonably well that people have the
leisure to say that they cannot be bothered with politics. It is when things are bad—when war threatens
or breaks out, when tyranny threatens the basic rights and dignities of large
or small parts of the community, when the economy works to the advantage only
for a very few while the large mass of people suffer want and uncertainty about
their livelihoods or making ends meet—it is when things are bad that most
people pay attention to politics, either by open, vocal participation or
secret, silent subversion of the powers that be.
In 1925, the world was in turmoil. The so-called Christian kingdoms of Europe
were at an end, or collapsing. America
had thrown out monarchy 150 years before; France had guillotined its King and
Queen and hundreds of priests and bishops 125 years before. The great failed socialist revolutions of the
mid-1800s had been quelled, only to see a corrupt and bitterly unfair return to
the rule of the wealthy few. One victim
of the turmoil of the mid-1800s had been the secular realm of the Bishop of
Rome, the Papal States that had the Pope as King, that were abolished in 1870
with Italian national unification under a King.
After a few decades of seeming prosperity, the powers of Europe—the few
crowned heads remaining, the governments, and the Church—had failed to prevent
the world from sliding accidentally into the Great War of 1914-18. The ironically named “war to end all wars”
killed Christendom, the union of faith and governmental power that had reigned
there for 1,500 years. A whole
generation, traumatized, left the churches never to regularly return. The Bolsheviks had taken over Russia and
killed the Tsar and his family.
As the
post war economic depression set in, Italy’s King, Victor Immanuel III, watched
on helplessly as a young former socialist and wounded WWI veteran named Benito
Mussolini rose to head the government through vicious street fighting and
appeals to return Italy to the glories of the Roman Empire. In Germany, a young failed artist who was also
a wounded WWI veteran, named Adolf Hitler, had just gotten out of jail for
staging an attempted violent coup in Bavaria, and was clearly on his way to
becoming Germany’s leader through even more brutal and violent bullying tactics
joined with appeals to make Germany great again.
Looking on this scene of turmoil, Pope
Pius XI did some serious theological reflection on the failure of the monarchial
system and the future of Christianity.
He issued a circular letter on the subject, Quas primas (In the
first). In it, he encouraged Christians
to celebrate a feast near the end of the liturgical year celebrating Our Lord
Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. The
Feast is now celebrated by not only Roman Catholics. All churches that use the
Revised Common Lectionary now observe Christ the King Sunday, the final Sunday
of their liturgical years. These include
most Anglican and Episcopal churches, as well as the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of America, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ, and the Moravian Church.
This is not because all the
motives and reasons of Pius are accepted.
He was arguing not only for the independence of the Church from the
state, but also for its immunity to secular law. Just 4 years after the feast was initiated,
Mussolini ingratiated himself with Pius by granting the Vatican independent
sovereignty as a city state, a status it enjoys to this day.
The reason we have all seen fit
to celebrate this feast is found in an idea that is indisputable: human governments—whether they are monarchical, despotic, socialist, nationalist, republican, or democratic—all
fail, in greater or lesser degree, in standards of supporting justice, mercy,
security, and prosperity.
The idea is similar to the idea
discussed by Augustine of Hippo in The
City of God: human politics, even
when they are as good as human politics can get, fall short of the ideal. This is because they are all based in human
self-interest. And where there is self-interest,
there is rivalry. And where there is
rivalry, sooner or later, there is favoritism for some and alienation or abuse
of others.
For the ideal, we need the reign
of God.
This
is not to argue for a theocracy, whether expressed in monarchial or republican
institutions. It is to argue for
transcendence and not losing our vision of the ideal of justice and
fairness.
I
think all of us have had the experience of being lead by a charismatic and
convincing political leader who knew how to play the right chords of our
hearts, and how to inspire our hope. And
then we had the experience of that leader failing us, of disappointing our
hope, and sometimes, even disgusting or frightening us. One of my mentors in the ordination process
told me his wakening as an adult Christian came when some of the religious
socialists (including priests) he had supported in Nicaragua as a young man in a hope that they
would help usher in the Reign of God, in some small way, turned out in office to
be petty tyrants and corrupt officials.
When
I was a boy, I loved the hymn, Beautiful Savior.
Fair is the sunshine,Fairer the moonlightAnd all the stars in heav'n above;Jesus shines brighter,Jesus shines purerAnd brings to all the world his love.Fair are the meadows,Fairer the woodlands,Robed in the flowers of blooming spring;Jesus is fairer,Jesus is purer.He makes the sorrowing spirit sing.Beautiful Savior!Lord of the nations!Son of God and Son of Man!Thee will I honor, praise, and give glory,Give praise and glory evermore!Evermore!
In the name of Christ, Amen.
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