FROM THE CROSS CHRIST REIGNED AS KING

The true royalty of Jesus, which had nothing to do with the local, royal consciousness, but was rooted in His Divine filiation, was expressed in His identification with the reign of God.  Consequently it was not something He could claim during His public life because he knew well that the royal consciousness was as much at work in the hearts of the victims of the oppressive regimes as it was in the officials.

The people wanted to declare, Jesus king, but not because He inaugurated  among them the reign of God by preaching the Good News to the poor, but because he seemed, in their eyes, a better version of their earthly rulers. They wanted to replace the current institutional idols with a new idol. As Jesus says to the crowds: “You seek me, not because you saw signs (that is not a locus of Divine Revelation), but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”  Meaning: because you think that I could fulfill your immediate material needs better than the current regime.)

Jesus refused a royalty already corrupted by the royal consciousness, and functioned only as a prophet. As a prophet he evoked the past, the Covenant God made with the people in their poverty and their powerlessness, and He energized them to hope for an alternative future.  He announced that the reign of God would belong to the poor, the meek, the hungry, the dispossessed the powerless. It is a reign in which mutual love among equals will replace all the hierarchical relationships built on inequality, the relationship of power and domination which structured the society of the pagans and oppressed the people of God.

Jesus avoided identifying Himself publicly as a king until the moment when He was beyond the corrupting reach of the royal consciousness in the people, as the victim of the royal consciousness in the institution.  When He was definitely involved in the ultimate reversal that characterizes the divine reign, in the poverty and powerlessness of death from which only God could rescue Him. THEN, He claimed His royal identity. From the Cross He reigned as King.

Adapted from: Sandra M. Schneiders, Cogregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Imm. Heart of Mary