For some years, now, I've been thinking about the name of today’s feast: Christ the King. Kings are outdated. You do not talk about them anymore and the few that exist in today’s world have no real function, just keeping traditions as this feast’s name suggests. Besides, if you look at history you will find that these kings were only there to send out their subjects to die in battle. Most were unjust and abused of their authority. So the connotations we have with the word “king” isn’t that nice and positive.
Jesus spoke of a kingdom, a new kingdom. But ruling this kingdom isn’t a “king” in the traditional sense, but rather a servant. “You call me Lord, but I come to you as a servant.” And he puts on the apron and starts washing the feet. The King would never call me his friend, but he calls all of us his friends as he tells us all he knows from the Father. This King had the right to choose his birth, and he insists on a crib surrounded with animals and bad smell. This King would have power and would have never allowed us to crucify him and say nothing.
So I do not see the title – Christ the King – fit in his spirit and message. And today, he even tells us in the gospel of this feast to look for him in the weak, the naked, the hungry and thirsty, the sick and the prisoner. That is where to find him. It’s like: don’t look up on a throne… look down in the nobody, the least of your brethren.
So it’s not more appropriate to call him “Christ the King” but rather, “Christ the neighbour.” And whatever you do to the least of your brother and sister, you do it for me.
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