November 24, 2024: Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King
John 18:33-37
Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
What does it mean to belong to the truth? To live in an honorable way, a loving way? I have often thought about how St. Ignatius of Loyola says in the Spiritual Exercises that when we are headed in the right direction in our lives, we have a deep peace within our hearts – what Ignatius would call a sense of “consolation.” Vinita Hamptom Wright on the website IgnatianSpirituality.com says, “We know we are moving in [the right direction] when we sense the growth of love or faith or mercy or hope – or any qualities we know as gifts of the Holy Spirit.” And to align ourselves with what Wright calls “God’s active presence in the world” we must really pay attention to God’s still, small voice within.
But when we are headed in the wrong direction in our lives, we will experience turmoil and unrest, or a sense of “desolation”. Again, Wright says, “We know we are moving in [the wrong direction] when we sense the growth of resentment, ingratitude, selfishness, doubt, fear and so on.” When we are in desolation, according to Ignatius, God will try to get our attention so we can get back on track. In other words, God wants us to belong to the truth, and to do so requires that we listen to God’s voice.
But so many things crowd out God’s voice in our hearts, don’t they? Most of us are so chronically preoccupied with the stressors of daily life that we aren’t able to hear God speak to us. Life can feel so very complicated that the truth God longs us to hear seems very far away. How do we pay attention to God when we are so weighed down by the concerns of living?
We need to take time away to be quiet and to listen; to “rest in the Lord.” It is only when we become still and open ourselves to God’s presence that we can hear what God has to say to us. And God’s message is always that we are good, that we are loved, and that God longs for wholeness and fullness of life for us. Who wouldn’t want to hear that message?