One person cannot form a Kingdom

One of the famous sayings of Carl Jung is “Where love rules, there is no will; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.” Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Power could be thought of as power in the society, power in the family and power as a personal energy. The worst abuses of power are of recent origin especially in the 20th and 21 century. We have witnessed worst leaders and we know that at the end innocent people suffer. Most of the failures in marriages are results of the misuse of power. Most of the personal problems are the results of the faulty conceptions of the term ‘power’. All the dollar bills carry the phrase, ‘In God we trust’. All the families should have Christ as their head. Lord’s Prayer talks about ‘your kingdom come’. In reality, our hearts hardly carried those values. The phrases like: In God we don’t trust; Christ is not the head of our families; may my kingdom come every day – portray the present nature of the Church.

Pope Benedict XVI has remarked that Christ's Kingship is not based on "human power" but on loving and serving others. This metaphorical title ‘King’ has meaning only when he reigns in the hearts of people both by reason and will. We cannot see Jesus as King if there are no people to form the Kingdom: One person cannot form a Kingdom. This person of Jesus as King is best expressed in the title ‘Shepherd’. The Shepherd is not a handsome, clean, active and fresh looking person that we often see on the photos or sculptures, rather a tired, worn out, sweating & bleeding and hungry and thirsty Shepherd watching over the lost sheep.

Our King and Lord carry the message of Love. Everyone has the right to be happy. Everyone owns God irrespective of one’s conduct and behavior. The hungry, thirsty, naked, ill, prisoner, stranger are all results of man’s wrong interpretations and wrong exercise of power. The genuine understanding of power starts with the feeling of gratitude that God has done so much for us and we are fortunate. Our feeling of gratitude should lead us to be sensitive to the feelings of others.

Indifferentism is the evil that affects our modern society. Everyone needs to be respected and loved simply because he or she is the image and likeness of God. Husbands have absolute respect and love towards wives and children; wives towards husbands and children, children towards parents. Respectful and loving families make great societies. What is the most important lesson that our parents left behind for us to follow? What lesson do you want to leave behind for your children to follow? Name one. Amen.