The Church celebrates the Feast of Christ the King as the culmination of the liturgical year. This feast holds up in Jesus an alternative vision of power for leaders in our world. Jesus testifies to truth that is not armed and ready to fight but to the truth he demonstrates in feeding the hungry, giving sight to the blind, raising Lazarus. Jesus reveals God’s power is love that heals and gives life.
Only in John’s gospel does Jesus have a conversation at his trial with the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. Pilate is an infamous character in human history.
The Jewish historian Josephus remembers this Roman finance minister and collector of taxes for his cruelty to the Jews of ancient Palestine. When they protested the images of Caesar on the standards of the Roman soldiers, Pilate turned the soldiers loose on the crowd. When Jews objected to using temple funds to build an aqueduct, Pilate again sent out the soldiers.
Christians may remember Pilate most as a politician who listens to the crowd. Sunday’s gospel focuses on the setting of Pilate’s dialog with Jesus, which takes place at the Roman headquarters in Jerusalem. Temple priests have brought Jesus before Pilate, who has the power to sentence Jesus to death. These officials stay outside the building to avoid Gentile contact that would prevent participating in Passover the next day.
Pilate meets with the religious officials outside in the public world and with Jesus inside in one-on-one conversation. Outside Pilate is a politician in charge of protecting the social order and negotiating with the leaders of the people he governs. Inside he, as an individual, encounters Jesus but resists making a judgment about who Jesus is.
In John’s gospel Jesus comes from above, from God. He is the pre-existent Word who was with God from the beginning and through whom all things came into being. In becoming human and dwelling among us, the Word reveals God. Jesus comes from God and testifies to what he has seen and heard with God (8.38; 12.45).
In John’s gospel those who believe in God hear Jesus’ testimony as from God. Pilate is not such a listener although Jesus intrigues him. In Pilate, we see a man who wants the crowd to free him from a decision he fears making. It is not truth that governs his decision making but political calculations and an acute lack of courage.
Making the expedient rather than the just or truthful decision is all too tempting for most of us. Pilate may be us.
- How are you like Pilate?
- What tensions do you experience between your private and public life?
Catholic social teaching is a helpful resource in our search for truth today. It presents a vision and set of principles for making practical Christian judgments in our world. The first and most basic principle testifies to the “singin’ something” in every human person, the sacredness and dignity of being made in God’s image and likeness.
The second principle recognizes the human person is social and thrives only in relationships with others. Other principles describe our rights and duties, the dignity of work and rights of workers, the need to care for creation and for the poor. Catholic social teaching urges global peace and development.
Catholic social teaching identifies three steps for getting at the truth — see, judge, act. The first step challenges us to notice and explore conflicts and tensions in our world. For example, what tensions do we see surrounding the national debate on separating parents and children at the border? The second step calls us to make judgments in the light of Jesus’ teachings in scripture and the Church’s teachings about social justice. These two steps obligate us to act, to make a difference.
- When did you first realize justice is a religious issue?
- How do you take time to listen to your “singin’ something” and give voice and melody to its insights?
In his exchange with Pilate, Jesus asks the procurator to make a judgment. Their dialog about whether Jesus is a king invites Pilate to see and understand who Jesus is. The see, judge, act process is simple, but Pilate cannot step outside the values of the Roman Empire any more easily than we can recognize ways our culture obscures the truth.
We live in a society in which the media daily hammers us with sound bites that may not be true in context and promotes fear to sell advertising. To follow Jesus we must testify to the truth within us, in the gospels, and in our tradition that recognizes the sacredness of every person. This requires making a habit of actively discerning and judging how we can contribute to the common good.
As Christians we can’t help but see Jesus in the least and can’t dodge the work of including the least in our care — in our families, our social circles, and global neighborhood. We must turn to one another to help out rather than take advantage.
- What truths do you hold self-evident?
- What local issues do you see needing action? What do you observe? What in your judgment needs to change? What actions will make a positive difference?