WHERE IS CHRIST KING?

‘My kingdom is not of this world.’

Jesus Christ told Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world: ‘Regnum meum non est de hoc mundo’ (Jn. 18:36). A liberal reads these words as if he had said that Christ’s kingdom is exclusively supernatural, heavenly, never with natural and/or earthly dimensions. The argument is as repetitive as it is old. The tragedy lies in the fact that Catholics repeat it as their own.

What Christ said is not that his kingdom is not ‘here’; in several passages of the Gospels, it is said that he announced that the Kingdom of God had arrived, that it was among us. ‘World’ does not designate a place opposed to ‘heaven’ but rather the origin and root of his royal power. His words mean that his Kingdom does not originate in the world; that its beginning is not worldly nor founded on earthly powers, that it is not surrounded by worldly honors; but that it is divine and, being so, exercises power over all creation, even over the world.”  and on human life in its fullness.

Christ—it was said in the times of Christendom—affirmed that his kingdom was not of this world to refute Pilate, who believed him to be merely a man. Therefore, his words state that he is not king by human hand, and yet he is the king of the world. Such is the teaching of Conrad of Megenberg. This counterargument is classic: that it is not of this world means that it is not constituted in a human manner, because in this world (adds Augustine Trionfo) we have the vice of sin.

Nor did Our Lord say that, being heavenly, his Kingdom does not unfold on earth, in the world. Christ is not consecrating the "autonomy of the temporal," as is often said, for he immediately replies to Pilate that he would not have that power over him if it had not been given to him from on high. We can hardly say that Christ separated the supernatural from the natural and abandoned the human world to its own fate. In truth, Christ the King is an earthly monarch with a view to the homeland.  “The kingdom where Christ will reign eternally with his own,” Calderón Bouchet affirms, “is not of this world, but is incorporated into it. One of the essential conditions for the existence of the Christian city is that Christ rule and reign in it as ‘priest and king.’”

Juan Fernando Segovia, The Dogma of the Kingship of Christ. Quas primas, of Pius XI.

WHERE IS CHRIST KING?

“‘My kingdom is not of this world.’

Jesus Christ told Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world: ‘Regnum meum non est de hoc mundo’ (Jn. 18:36). A liberal reads these words as if he had said that Christ’s kingdom is exclusively supernatural, heavenly, never with natural and/or earthly dimensions. The argument is as repetitive as it is old. The tragedy lies in the fact that Catholics repeat it as their own.

What Christ said is not that his kingdom is not ‘here’; in several passages of the Gospels, it is said that he announced that the Kingdom of God had arrived, that it was among us. ‘World’ does not designate a place opposed to ‘heaven’ but rather the origin and root of his royal power. His words mean that his Kingdom does not originate in the world; that its beginning is not worldly nor founded on earthly powers, that it is not surrounded by worldly honors; but that it is divine and, being so, exercises power over all creation, even over the world.”  and on human life in its fullness.

Christ—it was said in the times of Christendom—affirmed that his kingdom was not of this world to refute Pilate, who believed him to be merely a man. Therefore, his words state that he is not king by human hand, and yet he is the king of the world. Such is the teaching of Conrad of Megenberg. This counterargument is classic: that it is not of this world means that it is not constituted in a human manner, because in this world (adds Augustine Trionfo) we have the vice of sin.

Nor did Our Lord say that, being heavenly, his Kingdom does not unfold on earth, in the world. Christ is not consecrating the "autonomy of the temporal," as is often said, for he immediately replies to Pilate that he would not have that power over him if it had not been given to him from on high. We can hardly say that Christ separated the supernatural from the natural and abandoned the human world to its own fate. In truth, Christ the King is an earthly monarch with a view to the homeland.  “The kingdom where Christ will reign eternally with his own,” Calderón Bouchet affirms, “is not of this world, but is incorporated into it. One of the essential conditions for the existence of the Christian city is that Christ rule and reign in it as ‘priest and king'.”

Juan Fernando Segovia, The Dogma of the Kingship of Christ. Quas primas, of Pius XI.