Christ the King and a call to solidarity

Are they the only ones with a king? The celebration unfortunately was not and has never been founded on some kind of pride or triumphalism nor is it a show off. On the contrary, it is first, a common act of witness, a public acknowledgement by Christians of the supremacy of Christ in their lives. […]

Are they the only ones with a king? The celebration unfortunately was not and has never been founded on some kind of pride or triumphalism nor is it a show off. On the contrary, it is first, a common act of witness, a public acknowledgement by Christians of the supremacy of Christ in their lives. At the same time, it is call to onlookers to judge the Christian by the standards they have set for themselves by acknowledging publicly that Christ is their King. The issues of public witnessing to Christ are the stuff of the martyrdom that has characterized the history of Christianity. So this celebration is as much an expression of the right to worship as well as being disciples of the Prince of Peace.
Over the years, successive Popes have drawn attention by way of apostolic exhortations and letters, encouraging Catholics all over the world to continue to make the Eucharist the central part of their lives. Pope Pius XI who became Pope in 1922, barely four years after the end of the First World War, would actually live through the Second World War. The world had lost well over fifteen million men and women, with another 35 million civilians suffering all forms of injuries.  In the wake of that tragedy, the world was tempted to become cynical about the faith, wondering where God had been and confused about His efficacy and power. Many had lost faith in the salvific claims of a good God who created and cared for the world. Thus, secularism, the rejection of God and His will as the source of morality and authority began to take hold of the world. It was to avert his and call public attention to this danger that the Holy Father noted that: The chief difficulties under which the world is laboring are the evils arising from the fact that men have cast God out of their lives.
The Pope warned against the emergence of new kings seeking to replace God. Today, the world at large and Nigeria in particular needs to heed this same message. Today, the size and circles of the units of competing loyalties have and continue to widen. Against the backdrop of the state’s seeming lack of capacity to ensure security, justice, freedom, provide social services and amenities, food and health, more and more citizens have continued to sign on to new loyalties. Along with the traditional units of loyalty such as the family, the community and society at large,  social clubs, political association, community organisations, other networks both for profit and not for profit are constantly competing for the attention and loyalty of citizens. It is little wonder that Nigerians have very little time and energy left to address the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. Thus, today, a Town Union, or Social, Sports Club or Party meetings take precedence over our worship of God.  
Along with these loyalties arise the need and temptation to shift allegiance to different kings and authorities. Men and women fear the sanctions of their Tribe or Political Party more than that of their faith community or God. What we see is a society where earthly kings lord it over their subjects, a society where those with some little form of power, exercise it without control and use it to both terrorise those under them and indulge themselves. Imagine the consequences of disobeying Party, Town Union or Club Chairman today!
The feast of Christ the King is meant to call attention to the need to destroy these little altars of competing loyalties so we can fill the space with the genuine love of our brethren and our country as enunciated by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The message and example of Jesus have given us a road map to every area of life. To properly understand this, Christians who acknowledge the kingship of Jesus have no choice but to use the life and example of Jesus as their model. Thus, when we say that Jesus is the Prince, we see that He is a prince of Peace, one not tied to the privileges of a kingdom. Peace is His gift (John 14:27). He comes as a King not to be served but as one who serves (Matt 20:28, Mk 10:45). By calling himself the good shepherd, He is pointing out that not all shepherds are real. The good shepherd lays down His life for His sheep, the thief comes along to steal and to kill(John 10:14ff).
Jesus is Lord. All things were created through Him (Jn 1:3, Col 1:16). He is our Redeemer. There is no other name by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12). He purchased us by His blood and by His wounds we have all been healed (Is 53: 3, 1 Pet 2:24). He holds the world in His hands (Jn 5: 21ff). His Kingdom has no end and He rules over all nations. At His name, every knee shall bow (Phil. 2:9ff).
Today, the dead hand of secularism is rearing its head again. This is the reason why, all men and women of good will who believe, especially our Muslim brothers who share with us the belief in the supremacy of God over all creation, need to appreciate this feast. This is an urgent need for religious believers to stand together amidst the creeping threats of secularism. We can see it today in the distortions between belief and action in our society. We can see it in the fact that we claim belief in God but the reality of our lives suggests something completely different.
The Churches and mosques are full, but the cheating, the corruption, the theft(even inside places of worship) has not abetted. The electoral fraud, theft of government property, outright looting of state resources by public officials who apparently use same to go on pilgrimages,show very clearly that these people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far away( Mt 15:8). The increasing resort to hedonism, blind materialism and acquisition, misuse and abuse of resources as we see daily in stupendous expenditure and celebrations marked by conspicuous consumption are all illustrative of a world that calls on God but does not honour His will.
Thus, when Christians publicly proclaim that Jesus is our King, we are calling on the world, represented by those who were on the streets as onlookers, those who are not our members, Muslims, other Christians, unbelievers or even those who had no idea what we were doing, we were asking them to be our judges. The question then is, after this feast, what have Catholics committed themselves to? Are we committed to ending the fraud that has come to mark daily life in Nigeria? Are committed to adopting the silence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament as opposed to the riotous and chaotic humdrum that has come to characterize our lives?
For us, the Catholic community in Sokoto, this year’s celebration had a special ring to it because it had never happened before in the history of the Christian community here. When we applied to the Commissioner of Police, it was wonderful to note that he did not say one word about security, fear or threat in the same way that he had done during Palm Sunday this year. He did not ask any questions. All he did was simply to inform his people on the ground to prepare to accord us the usual protection and guide. The military and other security agencies took their places and it all passed very peacefully. I was deeply impressed and remembered the Muslim Commissioner in Kaduna some years back who, when he received our letter informing him of the proposed Eucharistic Procession on one Sunday, simply smiled and said: There is no Police man irrespective of his or her faith who does not know about this procession, Father. We all know it, so just pray for us and our country.
When I told my congregation that we would apply to have the procession, a few people wondered. However, after over two years in Sokoto, I believed I had enough confidence in the people, the government and the security agencies that we could have a peaceful procession in exercise of our rights of freedom of worship. I also have always believed that it is wrong for us to keep off the streets on grounds of security threat of fear. St. Paul enjoined us that: We know the law is not made for the righteous but for lawbreakers, rebels, the ungodly and the sinful(1 Tim 1:9).  Our duty as believers is to obey all good laws and fight against bad laws, if any.
I have consistently objected to the notion that somehow, we should suspend or change our public prayer lives as Christians or Muslims on the grounds that Nigeria is not safe. When will it be safe and can prayers not drive out those who threaten safety? In my two or so years in Sokoto, we have marked all our Easter, Christmas and New Year celebrations at the usual times, ending allour Masses well after midnight.
As a believer, the question I should be asking is, does the God I worship no longer possess the power over the whole of creation? Can the God I worship not use my public acknowledgement of Him to answer our prayers for our communities, states and nation? But even more importantly, why should the criminals take possession of the streets and keep the rest of us out? We should be the ones to drive them off our streets because their numbers are insignificant. They are afraid that is why they are armed. We are in millions and how many of us can they kill or terrorise. They want to destroy us and our nation, we want to build our country!
For me personally, the Catholic faithful and I believe other Christians in Sokoto, last Sunday was a great and memorable day. But even more so, the people of Sokoto, the Sultan, the Governor and all should also be glad about what happened in our city last Sunday. We demonstrated to the world that we are a peaceful community of believers. We demonstrated that although we have many problems in our society, we cannot sustain the notion that somehow Christians are unsafe nor should we feel threatened here or anywhere in our country, nor should any believer feel unsafe. As our procession went on through four streets over an over two hour period last Sunday, as we sang and praised God, I was struck by the appreciation and the smiles on the faces of people who did not even know what was going on. All cooperated with the Police and Security agencies and respected what they did not understand. I felt really grateful to God and appreciative of my new home.  Someone suggested that we should give the Governor of Sokoto a bill because we have demonstrated to the world that Sokoto state is safe and open for business. We are still discussing that option, but I doubt that the Lord would approve of that.
Finally, all of us who are believers in God, irrespective of how we express that belief, must rally around to help rescue our country. We must, as the late Sardauna said, work and worship. We must really and truly find a way of making our faith count and determine how we behave in public life and how we must change our society by offering it a stronger moral voice. All the best political and economic systems in the world will not solve human problems. The peace we desire can only be given by God who created us and has given us this dear country. We pray that the Prince of peace will indeed give true peace to our dear country. Hail to Christ our King!
Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, is the Bishop of Catholic Archdiocese of Sokoto.