Four Things That Will Happen When Love Reigns Supreme: A Christ the King Meditation

How Can Love Reign Supreme in a War-Torn World?

Christ the King Sunday is approaching. On this last day of the liturgical year, Christians are called to celebrate the reign of Love over all the world.

And yet the world is gasping for life as the forces of fear, hate, war and greed suffocate our planet. How can Love reign supreme when peace seems beyond our reach?

Why, over two thousand years after the resurrection of the Prince of Peace, is peace so elusive?

The Subversive Power of the Cross

Part of the answer lies in the tragic reality of Christian history. Far too quickly, the forces of Christendom exchanged the subversive power of the cross for the more devastating but ultimately self-defeating power of violence.

Christ the King Sunday is meant to subvert the triumphalism of kings. On the cross, God in flesh became the victim of the world’s violence to show the world that violence has no place in God.

In Jesus, God was born into a world where the powerful rule by demonizing scapegoats and waging war against enemies, claiming divine power as they do so. Kings and emperors rule by conquest and might. “Almighty” God is thought to be all-conquering. If the world has gone astray from God’s will, the expectation is that God will conquer the world with overwhelming force.

But Jesus reveals God to be not the All-Conquering Warrior, but Love itself. On the cross, Jesus reveals that death is what God suffers, not what God commands.

Jesus reveals that God is in solidarity with the victims of the world’s violence. All people are living reflections of God, of Love. Yet, God is especially present in the poor and neglected, the outcast and demonized.

Jesus died to reveal the presence of God in those to whom it is most denied — the criminalized and condemned. And in the resurrection, God shows that even when we kill God in flesh, God loves and forgives us. The horror of the cross reveals that nothing can put us beyond the reach of Love.

Love ascends the throne of the human heart via the cross, not by overwhelming force but by overwhelming forgiveness. Where kingdoms spread throughout the earth by conquest and colonization, Love spreads by turning the heart from fear and hate to compassion and mercy.

Exchanging the Cross for a Sword

And yet, over time, the forces of violence polluted Jesus’ message of love.

When Constantine interpreted the cross as an instrument of conquest and used it as his battle standard, he turned the cross upside-down into a sword, in the words of Fr. Emmanuel McCarthy. Constantine’s conversion didn’t Christianize empire but rather imperialized Christianity. Christian imperialism poisoned the blood of Christ by shedding the blood of others.

The weaponization of Christianity twisted Jesus’ movement for the transformation of violence into yet another violent force. Rather than affirming the humanity of all, Christian imperialism demonizes non-Christians. It authorized conquest, slavery, and genocide. Even today, Christian imperialism divides the world into saved and damned.  The revelation of the cross —that humanity condemns God every time we condemn one another — is reversed to suggest that all who do not “believe” deserve God’s condemnation. And all kinds of cruelty result from this perversion of Jesus’ message.

Christian imperialism fuels the hatreds of racism, sexism, xenophobia and queerphobia and veils them under the veneer of righteousness. A movement that was meant to show us our deep interconnection and reveal God’s all-encompassing love was subsumed under the forces of otherization and demonization it was meant to thwart.

“Christ the King Sunday” celebrates the subversive power of Love. But if we think of Jesus as we think of other kings, conquering by force, condemning instead of forgiving, trampling over enemies instead of loving them into new life, then we miss the point completely.

Reign of Love Sunday

Nevertheless, the Love revealed through Jesus prevails in spite of the weaponization of his name. Love that transforms enmity with empathy is at work in every human heart. It surges whenever we see the good in someone we previously despised. And it grows almost imperceptibly whenever we are humble enough to admit our wrongs yet self-compassionate enough to strive for better rather than shut down in shame.

Love will prevail when violence finally cannibalizes itself. And it will empower, rather than conquer, all. People of all perspectives and faith traditions will live into the Love in which we are all made and care for one another regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

That’s why I prefer to think of “Christ the King” Sunday as “Reign of Love” Sunday. It sheds the triumphalism of imperialist Christianity for the transformative power of Love that lives in all of us and will bring us all into our fullest, sweetest selves.

And though the powers of fear, violence, and greed still rage, inflamed rather than quelled by the weaponization of Christianity, Love will one day reign supreme. Love’s will will be done on earth as in heaven.

And when Love reigns supreme, these four things will happen:

1. We will repent of all bigotry, including religious supremacy.

When Love reigns supreme, we will recognize religions as Love languages. We will not insist that everyone follow our religion, for “Love does not insist on its own way.”

Religions can be interpreted through a lens of sacrifice, using beliefs and practices to divide the world into sacred and sinful or enlightened and ignorant. But they can also be interpreted through a lens of mercy, recognizing the wisdom they hold as one path of many to living into the interconnection of creation. Violent interpretations of religion wage violence. Loving interpretations of religion wage love.

And Love is not exhausted by any one religious revelation. Christianity speaks to me because it reveals God’s solidarity with the condemned and the limitlessness of God’s forgiveness. But Judaism reveals God as a Liberator to enslaved peoples. Islam reveals how God leads people out of ignorance and oppression through listening to the prophets and following the pillars. Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism all emphasize ahimsa, the need to refrain from harm. Love transcends every religion and abides in those who claim any or no religion.

When Love reigns supreme, we who claim to be Christian will follow Jesus in Love and see Love in everyone. There will be no room for rivalry or violence, only compassion and care. Rather than condemn those of different faiths, we will appreciate the beauty of other accents and nuances of Love’s many dialects. And we will recognize that we can only experience Love’s fullness when we listen for it in every voice.

2. We will prioritize the poor.

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.”

The Kingdom of God, the Beloved Community, belongs to the poor because God builds it around them. Jesus reveals God to be Love especially through his solidarity with the poor— feeding the hungry, healing the sick, dining with the outcast.

The powers of conquest and imperialism seek to build glory at the expense of the poor. Exploited, neglected, and trampled, the poor build wealth for others that they cannot enjoy.  They suffer as their needs are ignored, or are criminalized when their presence is inconvenient.

Following Jesus means prioritizing the poor. If the Christianity that first landed on the shores of what became the Americas had followed Jesus rather than imperialism, perhaps the world would be quite different today.

But right now in the richest nation on earth, the official poverty rate of almost 12% is undercounted by over 100 million people. Healthcare, housing, and education are chronically underfunded. While the United States strives for economic and military dominance of the world, millions ache with hunger, shiver in the cold, and suffer from treatable physical and mental illnesses.

But when we follow the authority of Love, we will take care of each other. We will share resources and engage in mutual aid. We will recognize the struggle of the poor across international borders and understand that struggles for dominance rob people of their sustenance.

And when Love reigns supreme, poverty will be washed away as we ensure all needs are met. We will redefine wealth to appreciate the richness of relationship with one another in the embrace of Love.

3. We will take care of our planet.

When Love reigns supreme, we will love our planet with the care and tenderness we were made to embody as reflections of Love and stewards of the earth.

Right now, our world is in critical condition.

Unless we significantly reduce our carbon footprint in less than a decade, the impact of global warming could be catastrophic. Floods, fires, and famines already devastate the world. Without turning from the ways of destruction and consumption that imperil our fragile planet, the world could become uninhabitable for us and millions of other species. And the poor will suffer first and worst.

Jesus links famines and natural disasters with the rise of wars in his apocalyptic warnings. But “apocalypse” doesn’t mean the end of the world. It means “unveiling,” a revelation of a core truth previously obscured. That truth is that the violence to which some turn for survival and others turn for domination is destroying the world. But once the truth about violence is revealed, we can turn around. We can turn to Love.

When Love reigns supreme, we will acknowledge the interconnection of all creation. We will recognize that caring for the planet as well as one another is inseparable from caring for ourselves.

4. We will abolish war forever.

When Love reigns supreme, we will finally beat our swords into plowshares and study war no more.

War has no place in Love’s reign, and war has no part in Love’s coronation.

Love comes to power not through imperial might, but through humble solidarity with the poor, vulnerable, and outcast. Rejected, betrayed, beaten, and killed, Love nevertheless prevails. Love endures all things and overcomes evil with good.

Following Love means not responding to violence with violence. But that does not mean letting violence destroy us, but uprooting it at its source precisely by renouncing bigotry, prioritizing the poor, and taking care of our planet. By prioritizing connection over dominance, though we will still have conflicts, we will strive to work through them with compassion.

When Love reigns supreme we will be reconciled to the source of Love by finally understanding that ultimate power lies not in dominance, but in service and compassion.

When Love reigns supreme, we will love one another.

Taking Stock and Welcoming Love Anew

As the liturgical season draws to a close, we are called to take an honest look at our world today.

Love has ascended the throne, but are we following?

Where is Love calling us to follow? How is Love opening our eyes to our biases and pressing upon us to care for others and our planet? How can we answer Love’s call to uproot violence at its source rather than let it drown us in its rage?

Advent is just around the corner. Though Love is always with us, we have an opportunity to prepare our hearts for Love’s birth anew. In the darkness, a new beginning is about to dawn. Another chance to nurture and follow Love.

Come, Love Divine, and reign.

Image: Photo by Mayur Gala via Unsplash.com.