Today’s first reading presents a heavenly yet human Son of Man. The Psalm portrays God as a majestic and powerful ruler. The reading from the early passages of the Book of Revelations presents a transcendent Jesus. The Gospel has Pilate questioning Jesus about His kingship.

Since my youth I have struggled with my mental images of Christ the King. I found it much easier to picture God the Father in the role of King. Perhaps my idea of a king grows out of the depictions of rulers many centuries ago that I have been exposed to in the visual arts. My imagination draws me in the direction of seeing Jesus as leader rather than a ruler, as someone on a mission serving the greater good rather than as a commander. One place where did I feel consolation with the image of Christ as King was in Ignatius of Loyola’s meditation on The Two Standards. He was not a King focused on riches or pride. He was a leader bringing his troops to virtue. This was the King that I felt drawn to follow. To this day, I find Ignatius’ chivalrous depiction of the King calling his noble knights to service to be one of the high points of his Spiritual Exercises.

Reading the passage recounting Daniel’s vision, I have the image of a heavenly yet human figure emerging. This seems to be in contrast with the depiction of earthly kings as beasts found in the text preceding today’s first reading.

I find myself embracing the words from the second reading, “I am the Alpha and the Omega" says the Lord God. While we end this liturgical year with John’s Gospel, I am reminded how this Gospel began: In the beginning was the Word. I am moved to see the Christ not a stagnant King, but as transcendent through history. That is Christ as God made manifest in this world. A special physical presence in history, but even more as a felt enduring presence in the past, in the world today, and in the future.

The Feast of Christ the King was established in 1925 in response to an increasingly secular world. In his letter establishing this feast, Pope Pius XI seems to express thoughts like those found in Ignatius’ meditation: “This kingdom (of Christ) is spiritual and is concerned with spiritual things …. This kingdom is opposed to none other than to that of Satan and to the power of darkness. (The Kingdom of Christ) demands of its subjects a spirit of detachment from riches and earthly things, and a spirit of gentleness. They must hunger and thirst after justice, and more than this, they must deny themselves and carry the cross.”

At the end of this liturgical year, my prayer today is an examen.

To Christ bearing Your standard of the magnanimous King,
I find myself reminded of Your Transcendent Presence.
Allow me to keep Your standard in sight and to be aware of how You are acting in my life.
I think of how often my mind and my actions are dominated by things without lasting value. I find my prayer increasingly becomes an intercession for forgiveness for my past and current failings. I find that, even in my service, at times I lose the focus as to why I am doing what I am doing. I worry when I find myself drifting away and I find peace in Your repeated welcoming and forgiveness of me, Your wayward knight.
I ask that You guide me in finding consolation and using it as tool in identifying the direction of my call.