Be careful what you wish for . . .
Be careful what you wish for. Consider the case of the ancient Israelites. Samuel, prophet and judge, was growing old, and his sons proved unequal to the task of following in his footsteps.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint for us a king to govern us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel . . . And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them . . . (1 Samuel 8:4-7)
The Lord then instructs Samuel to warn the people of what will happen to them if they take a king: he will take their sons and daughters and force them into his service, he will take their land and produce, he will demand ” the best of your cattle” and “the tenth of your flocks (see 1 Samuel 8: 11-17a).” Samuel tells the people what the Lord has instructed him to say, and wraps up this litany of grasping despotism with a flourish:
. . . and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day. (1 Samuel 8: 17b-18)
That We Might Also Be Like All the Nations
That doesn’t sound too appealing, does it? And yet,
the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No! but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.” (1 Samuel 8: 19-20)
Don’t be too surprised that the Israelites were willing to enslave themselves to a mere man in order to be “like all the nations.” We do it all the time. All of us. Not just in the political realm, either. Not that politics isn’t a great temptation: I’m sure we all know people who have made politics their religion. Even those of us who really believe that God is our king, however, sometimes look to political figures, or political programs (and there are plenty of those, even in the Church) to bring about salvation. But that’s just the beginning. We can put literally anything on the throne reserved for our True Lord Jesus Christ. Food, drink, sex, a new car, the next pay raise; you name it, we can make it an idol.
Out of Their Lives
That’s why the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe is so essential. Pope Pius XI established the feast in December, 1925. Within the prior decade World War I and the various revolutions that followed in its wake had wiped out long-established monarchies across Europe. The totalitarian ideologies of fascism and communism were threatening to submerge both faith and human freedom around the world. At the same time, growing affluence and material progress was creating ever greater temptations to idolatry.
Pope Pius addresses both of these trends in Quas Primas, the encyclical inaugurating the solemnity:
. . . We remember saying that these manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: and we said further, that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations. Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ . . . (Quas Primas, 1)
Private affairs or politics, individuals and states: Christ is king of all.
Heart Turned Away
And so it was, even in ancient Israel. The Israelites got their king, Saul. He turned out to be every bit as bad as Samuel predicted. In fact, chapters 13-15 of the first Book of Samuel present a smorgasbord of transgressions in which reveal Saul refuses to acknowledge the Sovereignty of God over either the state or over himself as a man. Saul’s failure leads to King David, a man truly “after God’s own Heart” (1 Samuel 13.13, Acts 13.22).
David is indeed a much more successful King than Saul. And yet he, too, fails, both as man and king when he abuses his office to kill Uriah the Hittite in order to take the unfortunate man’s wife, Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12). David’s successor is Solomon, his son by Bathsheba. Despite his reputation for wisdom,
. . . the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice . . . (1 Kings 11.9)
Because of Solomon’s failure as both man and king, the Jewish kingdom was divided after his death, never to be reunited.
Son of David and Son of God
At least, it would never be reunited as a political kingdom under the rule of an ordinary ruler. No merely human king, however wise or pious, could do for the Israelites what they were asking from their king. Only a King who was both son of David and Son of God could truly rule in the hearts of men and over this world. Only one person could possibly fit the bill: the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Eternal Word, God from God, yet also born in a stable to a human mother of the line of David.
What was true for ancient Israel is still true for us today. If we’re looking for any man or woman “to govern us and go out before us and fight our battles” we’ll be disappointed at best (and the best almost never happens). Yes, we do need our human institutions, but they cannot bring salvation. Our Hope is in The Lord. And for that reason, today we turn our minds and hearts to Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
Featured image top of page: detail from Earthly Vanity and Divine Salvation, by Hans Memling, c. 1485.
