The King

Wednesday of the Second Week in Advent A

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Hb 2: 3; 1 Cor 4: 5 The Lord will come and he will not delay. He will illumine what is hidden in darkness and reveal himself to all the nations.

Collect Almighty God, who command us to prepare the way for Christ the Lord, grant in your kindness, we pray, that no infirmity may weary us as we long for the comforting presence of our heavenly physician. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Isaiah 25:6-10; Psalm 32; Matthew 15:29-37

When Jesus left there he came to the Sea of Galilee. Going up a mountain he sat there and there came to him great multitudes, having with them the dumb, the blind, the lame, the maimed, and many others. They placed them at his feet and he healed them. They marveled at seeing the dumb speak, the lame walk, and the blind see, and they glorified the God of Israel. Jesus called together his disciples and said: “I have compassion on the multitudes because they have been with me now for three days and do not have anything to eat. I will not send them away hungry lest they collapse on the way.” The disciples said to him, “Where can we find enough loaves in the desert as to fill so great a multitude?” Jesus said to them, “How many loaves have you?” They said: “Seven, and a few small fish.” He commanded the multitude to sit down upon the ground, and taking the seven loaves and the fish and giving thanks, broke, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the people. They all ate and had their fill. They took up seven baskets full of what remained of the fragments. (Matthew 15:29-37)

The King The foremost religious thinker of nineteenth century England was John Henry Newman, and especially was he the foremost champion of revealed dogmatic religion. By that I mean that with his great mind and powerful writing he stood uncompromisingly for the non‑negotiability of Christian dogmas as the basis of true Christianity. His story has been of interest to many both during his life and since his death, and one reason for this has been the drama of his change of religion from the Anglican Communion to the Catholic Church. One interesting detail of his last couple of years as an Anglican (1843‑1845) was his use of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola. The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius is a manual to assist a person in making a spiritual retreat and in seeking to know the will of God. It sets forth points and schema for various meditations, as well as points of advice and other prayers. As a manual it has received the highest sanction by the Catholic Church, and it highlights certain key features or aspects of the person of Christ and what it means to follow him with the utmost generosity. Especially important in these Exercises is the Meditation on the Kingdom. As far as I am aware, Newman does not indicate in his Letters and Diaries just what aspects or meditations of the Spiritual Exercises moved him the most during these last days as an Anglican. But I mention all this in order to introduce one feature of Christ which Ignatius of Loyola especially highlights. It is that of Christ as King. Christ is the greatest and most inspiring of kings and he calls each to follow and serve him with the utmost loyalty and dedication, and with a readiness to follow the path of suffering and humiliation that he trod. Undoubtedly this image of the King resonated with Ignatius because of his great military loyalty prior to his conversion, but it is also profoundly biblical.

Take any scene of the Gospels, any scene in our Lord’s public ministry, and place yourself in that scene and observe what kind of a king Jesus is. He is the Messiah‑King, and what power and compassion he displays! At the height of his public ministry the miracles he was working were truly spectacular. If we take any other kingly figure, let us say Alexander the Great and consider the power he exercised, what a difference there is! Alexander spread bloodshed and mayhem everywhere he went, and massacres flowed right and left. He was invincible in his military prowess but it all depended on the sword. Without his armour and weapons and troops, where would Alexander or his father Philip have got? Then look at what happened: at an early age he fell sick and died. The Old Testament describes him as proud, which indeed he certainly was. Now, consider Jesus Christ, and especially as presented in our Gospel passage today. He came announcing a Kingdom, the Kingdom of God as being very near. He was in the process of establishing and launching it. But consider his power. We read that “There came to him great multitudes, having with them the dumb, the blind, the lame, the maimed, and many others, and they placed them at his feet, and he healed them. The multitudes marvelled seeing the dumb speak, the lame walk, and the blind see: and they glorified the God of Israel” (Matthew 15:29‑37). Could Alexander, Julius Caesar, or any of the great and powerful ones who imposed their dominance by force of arms and crimes against humanity do anything of what Christ could do? The thought is laughable. Christ proved he had divine power and no other person in all of history could do what he did so effortlessly. He was truly invincible but in a different sense because as he said to Pontius Pilate, his kingdom was not of this world. Above all it involved the rule of God over the human heart. Our Lord proceeded in our passage today to feed great crowds with a few loaves and fish. This he did, barely uttering a word.

Let us place ourselves in the presence of Jesus in our Gospel scene today and ask him to admit us into his company. In fact he invites us into his company every day of our lives. If we are baptized, we are in him. The Church is his company and he is the Church’s head. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and he is the greatest treasure of man. In him there is every heavenly blessing and he is worthy of all our love and loyalty. Let us live for him and let us be totally loyal to him whatever this may bring, for he is our God and our Redeemer.

(E.J.Tyler)

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