War and peace: Only one is true

On this final Sunday of Ordinary Time, the readings center on Jesus under his titles “Son of Man” and “King of the Universe.” Last Sunday’s readings already prepared the scene for the cosmic Christ to emerge as a centering point that holds all things together. The whole balance of the universe shifts on the weight of this gravitational center. To simplify things, these titles speak of a difficult truth worth repeating constantly: God is at the center of all and absolutely nothing takes that place. 

This Sunday’s readings reinforce the truth that the world is theocentric and demonstrate how in every conflict God comes out victorious in God’s own sovereign manner. It does not matter if the scenario is political, elemental or within competing kingdoms, since the center has always belonged to God. It does matter, however, that we come to recognize the conflict and discover hope in a truth that triumphs over drives for competition and needs to dominate.

Once again, the readings this Sunday turn to Daniel, the prophet of visions and dreams. In this Sunday’s first reading, Daniel foretells “one like a son of man” coming into the world, who will receive “dominion, glory, and kingship; all peoples, nations, and languages serve him” (Dn 7:13-14). At the time of Daniel’s writing (c. 160 B.C.E.), the Jewish people were surrounded by foreign empires who tried to dominate them culturally and militarily. The passage of Daniel’s prophecy that precedes this Sunday’s first reading recalls the traumatic history of Israel’s conquest by four unstable kingdoms in quick succession, Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece. In the prophet’s historical context, a local potentiate named Antiochus IV Epiphanes forced Greek culture onto his Jewish subjects. In light of this political chaos, Daniel writes about God’s intervention through a new Israelite ruler, “one like a son of man”: “His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, his kingship, one that shall not be destroyed” (Dn 7:14).

There is a hidden primordial battle embedded in this Sunday’s responsorial psalm. While the audience hears verses 1-2 and 5 sung during mass, the battle scene is skipped in verses 3-4. Flood and Sea, personified forces from ancient myths, go to war against the God of Israel. “The flood has raised up its roar; the flood has raised its pounding waves” (Ps 93:3). But the ancient conflict was short-lived because the Lord reigns as king and the people are reassured: “The world will surely stand in place, never to be moved” (Ps 93:1). Today there are agencies like FEMA that respond to natural disasters. In the ancient world, that same threat from the elements was met with faith in a God more powerful than the most dominant natural forces of the cosmos.

For the last conflict, this Sunday’s Gospel passage pitted two kingdoms against each other. One is the kingdom of this world and the other is a kingdom not of this world. Pilate suggests that Jesus’ own people and chief priests handed him over in betrayal, as a coup of some sort. “Are you,” Pilate asked Jesus, “the King of the Jews?” (Jn 18:33). To which Jesus responds enigmatically, “You say I am a king… Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (Jn 18:37). In the Gospel of John’s theology, truth reigns while deception abounds. If Jesus has any kingdom, then it is one where truth sets the foundation and this criterion is often subservient to political control of a people. In this conflict between kingdoms, Jesus submits to Pilate’s questioning and sentence. “But as it is,” reflects Jesus, “my kingdom is not here.”

The last set of readings for the liturgical cycle of year B brings us to a final paradox. On the one hand, there is nothing but immense conflict on all fronts: political, natural disasters, clashing of cultures and a conflict of truth and deception. On the other hand, the Solemnity of Christ the King highlights passages that declare a final victor, one that has no threat from the beginning until the end of all time. The readings simultaneously remind us that, although conflict shapes this life, hope in the truth of the Gospel has the capacity to re-shape the cosmos into a kingdom of peace.