1. We have come to the end of the road. The Feast of Christ the King is the end of the Liturgical Year Cycle B. For one whole year Holy Mother the Church had been evangelizing us, following the Apostolic Commission Christ gave at the end of the Gospel of St. Matthew. She had followed the steps shown us by Christ, Himself, when He was on earth. The steps were Repentance, Faith, Hope and Charity, interspersed during the whole year and which need a very knowledgeable priest to explain clearly in the homily. The expectation of Holy Mother the Church is that by now, we have a complete knowledge of the teachings of Christ as proposed by the Magisterium; i.e. that we have Faith. But we still have to progress towards Charity.
The reason we have the three Cycles A, B and C is to help us have the proper disposition to make a mature, perfect Act of Faith in preparation to proceeding towards Charity, for Faith without Charity is dead. The three cycles A, B and C is supposed to give us the four versions of the Plan of Salvation from the four Gospel. There is only one Plan of Salvation but the the three cycles can give us the four different views of the same doctrines.
2. We must be inside the Church.
We must be inside the Church either when we die or when we reach the General Judgment of the world. At the beginning of the existence of the Church some of us were cockles, others are wheat. As the end times approaches the cockles must have been slowly transformed to wheat as the early Jews expected cockles to become.
And so by General Judgment Day we must all be wheat, i.e. we must all be inside the Kingdom of God with Christ as our King. Anyone who is still outside is in grave danger of perdition.
So on Good Friday, the sixth day, Christ, in answering Pontius Pilate was distinguishing those who are inside His Kingdom and who are those who are outside. Remember, Good Friday, the sixth day is our last test and our last chance.
3. In the previous posts we saw the only reliable way by which we can know if we are inside or outside the Kingdom of God. This is through the four visible signs enumerated in the Nicene Creed or its expanded version in the 15 Marks of the Church explained by St. Robert Bellarmine. There is no other way in which we can recognize the true Church and this is the easiest way for us to know if we are inside the Church, i.e. if we have those visible signs.
The Gospel for today does not go into the details on what those signs are but merely shows the need to be inside the Kingdom of Christ the King.
4. The question of Pontius Pilate.
‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Christ gave two answers; one answer would show he was inside the Kingdom of God. The other will show he is outside the kingdom of God.
Christ asked; ‘Are you saying this on your own? If Pontius Pilate’ answered ‘yes’ then he would have Faith and, therefore, would be inside the Kingdom of God.
Christ second question; ‘have others been telling you about Me.’ If Pontius got his answer from the Pharisees then he would be outside the kingdom of God. ‘It is your own people and the chief priests who have handed you over to me, who said you are the King of the Jews.’
This is similar to the incident when it was Christ who asked His disciples, ‘who do people say I am?’ When the disciples gave answers given by men like ‘you are a prophet’ Christ considered that as an answer not from Faith. But when St. Peter answered;’you are the Son of the Living God.’ Christ considered that as an answer from Faith because it came from the Father and not from men.
5. My kingdom does not belong to this world. He referred to this in two ways. My kingdom does not belong to this world and is not in this world but in heaven. And My kingdom is in this world because I have a human flesh and as such I am king, also, of this world. It is for this reason that I came to this world, to testify to the truth. And those committed to the truth will join Me in the other kingdom that is not in this world.
Unable to understand what Christ was saying and unable to commit themselves to those truths they crucified Him.
They had no Faith that is why they could not understand Him and could commit themselves to him. Their absence of Faith is the reason they were not inside the Kingdom. And being outside the Kingdom they could not know the truth.
6. What is truth?
This is the state of the Church today. We do not know the truth. We do not know that grace is needed almost for everything and not to believe so is Pelagianism. We do not know that if we do not believe we are already condemned when Christ, Himself, had said so. How come Scalfari though an atheist can still go to heaven? We do not know that we cannot break up a marriage though Christ declared that marriage is indissoluble. We do not know that sins of perversion as those committed in Sodom and Gomorrah
are sins that shout out to heaven for vengeance. We do not know that God is first just before he is merciful as clearly seen in the Beatitudes. We do not know the visible signs of the true Church so that whole Dioceses and Parishes do not have a single visible sign of the true Church and they think they are Catholics even daring to call others as non-catholics.
What is the truth? St. Thomas of Aquinas commenting on today’s Gospel and quoting Theophilactus wrote; ‘truth have vanished from the world because of general unbelief.’ And how come they do not believe? Because they are outside the Kingdom of Christ the King. That is the worst place to be in on the feast of Christ the King.
7. Be sure!
Make sure, therefore, that you are within a community that has either the four visible signs of the Catholic church enumerated in the Nicene Creed of better still, be sure you are part of a community that has the 15 Marks of the true Church according to St. Bellarmine.
Using other Scriptural bases, make sure you are with the Woman of the Apocalypse who have left the world and have flown with two giant wings to a place in the desert in a place specially prepared by God for her. Or be sure you are in the boat in lake Tiberias where there were only 7 apostles and they caught 153 large fishes. Or be sure you have Faith, Hope and Charity.
Be sure you love the Church. Just make sure it is the right Church.
8. Pontius Pilate
Pilate is the personification of the present world who is asking the same question. The Pope, many cardinals, bishops, priests and sadly most laymen cannot answer the question because though they are asking the same question they do not want the right answers. Can you receive Holy Communion even if you are divorced, remarried and living in adultery? No! To do so you add more sin upon your sin of not loving your former wife and children, another sin for abandoning them, another sin for lustfully living with another, and an added sacrilege for receiving communion. Oh, but there is a new religion that is all mercy! Well, that adds a few more sin of apostasy, liberalism, naturalism, modernism. We can hear God saying; ‘Man have no reason to continue in existence.’ That is Justice, the very essence of God.