“Are you the king of the Jews?” Pilate knew very well what a king was – a
king in his day perhaps not being all that different from the princes and rulers of
our day. Pilate himself was an important servant of a king, the mighty Roman emperor.
Pilate could tell us that a king was one who lived in comfort and luxury
in a palace that also was a fortress to keep his enemies and his own people
out. A king and his wives and children
and cronies paid for their lavish lifestyles, not with their personal wealth
but with the taxes of his subjects. A
king had many servants to fulfill his every whim, and commanded mighty armies
who enforced his will at the point of a spear.
A king was judge and jury, whose word was law, no matter how capricious
or corrupt. A king like the Roman emperor
promoted a civic cult of his own divinity, as though he was of a different order
than the people he ruled.
And a king’s
throne was only wide enough to seat one person; only one could be king at a
time. To have two kings was to have
rivalry and division and war. “Are you
the king of the Jews?” when the Emperor already was king of the Jews, was a
question that could not be answered “Yes”, if one hoped to live.
“My kingdom
is not of this world”. In his reply to Pilate’s questioning, Jesus is telling
Pilate: ‘If you understood what it means to be a king in the kingdom of heaven,
your head would explode. My kingdom
contradicts everything you think you know about kings. In my kingdom, kings live among the farm
laborers and fishermen and widows. In my
kingdom, kings don’t wall themselves off; they actively go out among their people,
seeking those who are lost, curing those who are ill, bringing sight to those
who are blind, and hope to those who despair.
In my kingdom, a king doesn’t impoverish his subjects by extracting
ruinous taxes from them; instead, a king not only gives his shirt to one in
need, but his cloak as well. In my kingdom, a king is not one who makes
war, but one who brings peace.
‘And in my
kingdom, there are many thrones, and many kings. Indeed, everyone who is baptized into
citizenship in my kingdom is an exalted person; each and every one is priest,
prophet and king.’
Allison and
Phil, this is the kingdom of which little Gabriella is about to become a
citizen this morning: Jesus’s kingdom.
Fr. Rodolfo asked you a few minutes ago, “Do you clearly understand what
you are undertaking?”. It’s an important
question, because for disciples of Jesus, for citizens of his kingdom, there is
no halfway membership. Citizenship
demands, not only of our children, but of us as parents and godparents, that we
let go of the temptations and lures of this world, and commit to Jesus’s
kingdom, where everything seems backward and upside down to this world: where
being greatest of all means being least of all, where the crown is a crown of
thorns and the throne is a cross of wood.
Phil and Allison, you’re undertaking to teach Gabriella that it is
better to give than to receive, that it is better to serve than to be served,
that to whom much is given, much is expected.
You’re undertaking to teach her to forgive, not just once but seventy
times seven, and that we need to love our neighbors every bit as much as we
love ourselves, and that we even need to love our enemies.
Allison and
Phil, that’s what you’re getting yourself into by being the parents of this
precious girl standing on the threshold of Christianity, this incipient little citizen
of the kingdom where Jesus rules, this tiny one who is about to be wrapped in
the sacred garment of the priest, the mantle of the prophet, and royal robe of
the king, here in this place filled with other priests, prophets and kings, and
watched over by saints and angels, including her own guardian angel. Phil and Allison, if you’re ready to say yes
to all this, then let’s get Gabriella baptized.
How nice! A joyful and serious delineation of Catholic duties for parents and godparents. We never have baptisms during Mass, though recommitment of marriage vows often occur in the Saturday night Mass.
ReplyDelete