In these uncertain times we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. He holds society and the cosmos in his hands. Isn’t that hard to believe today? Isn’t the world in the hands of the powerful, of those who have more money and more weapons? Hasn’t Christ failed in his attempt to bring peace to the world?
The gospel speaks of the final judgment. It shows us the way in which Christ is the judge of the world. He did not come to triumph with money, weapons, or prestige. How then did He triumph?
We can be helped by the different ways of approaching negotiations. There are some where one wins because another loses. These are called «zero-sum» games. They are negotiations without creativity. In this way, history does not move forward.
Other negotiations are called «win-win» because everyone benefits. One no longer sees the other as a competitor, but both try to find alliances and synergies. The sum is no longer zero, because there are benefits for both parties.
But even in this case there is no real creativity that moves the world forward. Both win, but each wins separately. A philanthropy that lifts the other one out of poverty is not enough, because each one goes his own way. Jesus brought another innovation. What is it?
He asks us not only to help the poor, but to become one with them, as he did with us, in order to be enriched. «Whatever you did for one of these humble brothers of mine, you did for me». Now we go beyond a «win-win» negotiation because a common «we» has emerged. It is no longer a win-win for two isolated partners, but a community of those who win together. It is no longer «win-win,» but «we win. History moves forward because a community is created, a community of giving and receiving. We win not only in material wealth, but also in personal wealth.
This is the logic that appears in the works of mercy. They are works of mercy that Christ did for us so that we can do them for his humble brothers. They have a corporeal meaning, and from this corporeal meaning a deeper spiritual meaning opens up.
«Give drink to the thirsty». Water indicates the source or wellspring from which we drink and which refreshes us. Society today does not recognize an origin in the Creator. It believes that we come from chance or from the anonymous laws of evolution. But without a source, how can the river of history flow forward? Christ brought us water because he revealed to us our source in the good Father. And we too can quench the thirst of our brothers and sisters. I am thinking especially of parents, educators and all those in authority. They are called to reveal to others the good source from which life comes. When this happens, history moves forward like a river from its source. When this happens, Christ is King.
«Feed the hungry. What is it that satisfies us? The consumer society revolves in a circle of desire that wants more and more. But this is not how history moves forward. Christ came to give us the bread that truly satisfies when we become one body with one another and with him. What satisfies is the giving of oneself to form communion. He gave himself as food. And he has given us the strength to do the same. Think of spouses who live for each other by giving their lives. When that happens, history moves forward and Christ reigns.
«Clothe the naked. One force that seems to move history is the pleasure that the body gives, especially in sexuality. But when this pleasure is isolated in itself, it degrades man. Christ came to clothe the naked, to restore the dignity of our bodies. He revealed that the body is made for love, for the gift of self and the acceptance of the other. In today’s Gospel, the Judge says to the just: «Whatever you did for one of these little brothers of mine, you did for me». The wicked, on the other hand, are those who have not discovered in the little ones the brothers of Christ. To discover in the neighbor the brother of Christ is to discover his dignity. He was bought with a great price. His body has been redeemed. Do not desecrate it! Each time we honor the dignity of our neighbor, his body opens to a deeper mystery. And then history moves forward. And then Christ reigns.
«Give shelter to the pilgrim. Our society lives without homes and families. It even tries to redefine the family, forgetting what every little child experiences: that the family is precisely that place that is given to us, that we do not choose, that precedes us in welcome and love. Christ came to restore to man the stability of the family: God has united man and woman; let not man put asunder what God has joined together. And he asks us to build a family, a place where we give and receive. The family is the first mercy that man finds when he is born and to which he can always return. Where the family is built according to the Creator’s plan, history advances and Christ reigns.
«Care for the sick”. In our hearts there are wounds from the offenses we inflict on one another that paralyze our history. Christ came to bring the forgiveness of sins, which heals the wounds and allows us to move on. And Christ invites us to forgive one another. Where there is forgiveness, we care for the sick, and history moves forward. Where there is forgiveness, Christ is King.
«Visit the prisoners”. Our society believes it is free and thinks it is progressing in its freedoms. But these are freedoms without a goal, based only on autonomy, like that «freedom of the fugitive,» always on the run, of which St. Augustine spoke. Christ came to direct our freedom towards its definitive greatness. There is freedom when we choose the true good, which is love for our brothers and sisters and for God. Today’s Gospel makes it clear that God’s intended destiny for humanity is not hell («prepared for the devil and his angels»), but heaven. Wherever people are offered their final destination in God, history moves forward, and Christ reigns.
This is the law of history. To give water, so that the source may propel us. To give food, because in personal communion desire is satisfied. To give clothing, so that the body may recover its dignity and mystery. To give home, because the family is a place of stable belonging that builds up society. To give medicine, so that forgiveness heals wounds and reopens the future. To give freedom, so that we may have a final goal that Christ has already anticipated in his Church. This goal is the Resurrection, the hope of which is contained in the last work of mercy that the Church has added to the six we find in today’s Gospel, taking it from the Book of Tobit: «to bury the dead».
Christ is Lord of history because he has established in it the law of giving and receiving. History does not move forward in a «zero-sum» negotiation, nor in a simple philanthropic «win-win», but when the Church is built up in Christ as one body. Luigi Giusanni, commenting on John Paul II’s encyclical Redemptor Hominis, put it well. «The protagonist of history,» he said, «is the beggar.» And he added a phrase that I quote in slightly modified form: «Christ who begs the heart of man, and man who begs the heart of Christ”. Christ reigns by constantly creating a community of giving and receiving. History, against all appearances, belongs to him. Let us welcome him now as a beggar, so that later, when he comes as Judge, we will have full confidence in his judgment. Long live the King!