Tag: johnwmartens

Posted in CHRIST the KING, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, SAINT of the DAY

25 November – The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Posted on by AnaStpaul

25 November – The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

The political context in which Pope Pius XI, by the Encyclical Quas Primas, established the feast of Christ the King in 1925, was the still unresolved Roman Question, which concerned the papacy and the kingdom of Italy regarding the temporal authority of the popes and the Papal States.   For those of us who have grown up with the separation of church and state, the Papal States are a distant historical oddity.christ the king 3

Yet even if these political issues no longer resonate for us today, Quas Primas commemorated these same issues and problems by taking the view that marks the Church off as a unique society, one that is eternal, whose King’s authority transcends all political divisions and historical epochs.   The Church exists in the messiness of history and responds to events that emerge from that same messiness but claims a King who transcends it all.

Already in the book of Daniel and in earlier prophetic books, the hope for the true king, the one who would establish God’s kingdom, emerged in the language and imagery of ancient Near Eastern myth, when the prophet sees “I saw in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man.”   While scholars dispute the identification of the son of man as the messiah in Daniel, the earliest Christians understood that the one to whom “was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”

When would this King of all peoples, nations and languages arrive?   When would God’s kingdom, the everlasting dominion, be established?   The book of Revelation, written in opposition to the Caesars of Rome and their empire, declared that Jesus was already “the ruler of kings on earth” who “made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.”   And Revelation promised, evoking the language of Daniel, that Jesus’ first coming will be followed by a second coming with the clouds when “every eye will see him, every one who pierced him; and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.”Christ King header

Even Jesus’ disciples, though, who followed Him faithfully if unsurely to Jerusalem, must have wondered about the answer when they heard the Roman procurator Pilate, ask their teacher, “Are you the King of the Jews?”   Jesus answered, “My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world.”   It is a true answer, of course but also elusive, for though Jesus’ kingdom is “not from this world” and does not involve peach treaties, concordats, armies and diplomatic corps, it includes all of this world and all that is in it.

It is a point Pope Pius XI makes in Quas Primas (13), citing St Cyril of Alexandria, who wrote that “Christ has dominion over all creatures …by essence and by nature.”   Pope Pius XI also writes that though Jesus’ kingship is founded upon the ineffable hypostatic union, “Christ is also our King by acquired, as well as by natural right, for He is our Redeemer.” Jesus’ kingship is unlike any other by nature and by behaviour.CHRIST THE KING 6

But there is another consideration as to why Jesus declared that His kingdom was ‘not from this world’.   Pope Pius XI states that all people can enter “this kingdom, whoever they are and from wherever they are, since “this kingdom is opposed to none other than to that of Satan and to the power of darkness” (18).   This kingdom welcomes all kingdoms and all peoples.

If we see only the messiness of history and politics, we are missing the true story of eternity and the true King of all, who is already “the ruler of the kings of the earth.” I  f we believe it to be true, we must never despair of the politics of our age, for He came as King, is now King and is coming again in glory as King!christ the king lg

(From ‘King of All’ by John W Martens)

Posted in DOGMA, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MORNING Prayers, PAPAL SERMONS, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, The MOST HOLY & BLESSED TRINITY, The WORD

Second Thoughts for the Day – 27 May – The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Second Thoughts for the Day – 27 May – The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Adopted into the Family of God

“In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:3)
“For all, who are led by the Spirit of God, are children of God.” (Romans 8:14)

…”How would God be revealed to the other families of the earth?   How would the other families of the earth enter the Covenant and become heirs to the promises of God.
The language of families here is significant, for it is through the revelation of God as Trinity, the Divine Family, that all other families of the earth would be invited into the Covenant family.
For the reality of the Trinity did not emerge for the earliest Christians in the context of complex philosophical discussions but in the experience of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

As Pope Benedict XVI stated in 2006.
“the intimacy of God Himself, discovering that He is not infinite solitude but communion of light and love, life given and received in an eternal dialogue between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit – ‘Lover, Loved and Love,’ revealed the relational nature of God, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and by the incarnation of Jesus Christ.”    (Angelus, St Peter’s Square, 11 June 2006).

And it was by means of the revelation of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that the early Christians came to know themselves as children of God, adopted into the family and Covenant of God.   The Spirit, Paul tells us, empowers us to understand, that we too are children of God, for through the Spirit, we are able to cry “Abba, Father!”   This Spirit-infused call to God as Abba, is an explicit recognition of our lineage, we belong in this family, for “it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

But the pathway to entering the family as heirs, children destined to share in the gifts and promises of the Father, in the Kingdom of God, was blazed for us, by the obedience of the Son.   As Paul says in Galatians 3:29, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”   Christ through His suffering and death for us, has made us “joint heirs with Christ,” worthy of adoption into God’s family. We belong to the family of God, because we belong to the Son, who has made us “joint heirs.”   Through the true heir, we are simply joined with our Covenantal and Divine Family.

We are welcomed into God’s family as joint heirs because of the love of the Trinity for us. The Trinity models the nature of the family by allowing us to experience the source of all love.   It is because of the Trinitarian model of love for us and our experience of that love, that Jesus instructs us to go out and make the family bigger.   We belong to the family of God but so do those who have not yet come home.   We have learned something now about the nature of God and the extent of God’s family and the call is the same to all – come home and be loved!…John W Martens “The Word on the Street Year B”

John Martens is Professor of Theology at St Thomas University and Director of the MA in Theology at St Paul’s Seminary School of Divinity, Minnesota.lover, loved and love - pope benedict - holy trinity sunday - 27 may 2018