Reflections on Colossians 1:12–20 and John 18:33–37
In Festo Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Regis – I Classis
“He hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love…” (Col. 1:13)
On the last Sunday of October, Holy Mother Church raises our eyes and hearts to the Sovereign Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 through the encyclical Quas Primas, the Feast of Christ the King was given its original place in the liturgical calendar to confront the growing secularism, atheistic materialism, and liberal nationalism of the age. And how much more necessary it remains in our own time!
In the epistle for the feast, St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians (1:12–20) proclaims the grandeur of Christ’s dominion — not merely over the Church, but over all creation. The Apostle shows that Christ is no mere moral teacher, no symbolic head of an abstract brotherhood, but the very “image of the invisible God” (v. 15), “the firstborn of every creature,” through whom and for whom all things were created.
This is a cosmic Christ, the Logos, the Word made flesh — and the Fathers of the Church echo this exalted vision.
The Primacy of Christ Over All Creation
St. Athanasius, in his great work On the Incarnation, affirms that the Word, by whom all things were made, entered into His creation to renew it:
“The Word of God came in His own person, because it was He alone, the image of the Father, who could recreate man made after the image.”
Christ’s kingship, then, is not acquired by conquest or human ascent, but by divine right — ab aeterno and per naturam. His dominion is rooted in His very identity as the eternally begotten Son and co-creator with the Father.
St. Irenaeus likewise teaches this universal headship of Christ, emphasizing that in Him all things are recapitulated:
“He has therefore, in His work of recapitulation, summed up all things… so that He might be shown to be truly the Only-begotten of God, the Word, and the perfect man” (Adv. Haer., III.18.1).
Thus, when St. Paul writes that Christ is “the firstborn from the dead” (v. 18), he is not simply speaking of chronology, but of primacy — in creation, in resurrection, in the Church. Christ is King because He is the principle and end of all that is.
A Kingdom Not of This World
In the Gospel of John (18:33–37), we witness a dramatic scene of royal irony. The eternal King stands bound before a temporal governor. Pilate, the representative of worldly authority, asks, “Art thou the king of the Jews?” And Christ, robed in silence and majesty, answers, “My kingdom is not of this world.”
This response has often been misread as a denial of Christ’s kingship in earthly affairs — but the Fathers interpret it differently.
St. Augustine masterfully clarifies this in his Tractates on the Gospel of John:
“He says, ‘My kingdom is not of this world,’ not meaning that it is not over the world, but that it is not from the world.” (Tractate 115)
In other words, Christ’s authority does not derive from the powers of earth, but from Heaven. His reign penetrates history but is not confined by it; it judges earthly kingdoms without being judged by them.
In the trial before Pilate, we see the confrontation between two realms: one of temporal might, the other of eternal truth. Christ proclaims His kingship not with armies or threats, but with witness to the truth: “For this was I born, and for this I came into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth” (Jn. 18:37).
Origen reflects on this truth-bearing kingship in his Commentary on John:
“Christ is King, and those are His subjects who are governed by Him. All those who believe in Him and obey Him are of the truth and hear His voice.”
The Feast of Christ the King: A Liturgical Catechesis
This great feast, placed at the end of the liturgical year in the traditional Roman calendar, functions as a catechesis in gesture. The year begins with longing (Advent), it unfolds with manifestation (Christmas), sacrifice (Lent), and victory (Easter), and it closes with the glorious proclamation of Christ’s dominion. The message is clear: history is not aimless, but ordered under the Kingship of Christ. All must submit to Him — nations, families, and souls alike.
Pope Pius XI, writing in Quas Primas, stated:
“If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth… it must be clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from His empire. He must reign in our minds, in our wills, in our hearts, and in our bodies.”
This is not mere piety — it is a call to action: to enthrone Christ in society, to reject the secular myth of neutrality, and to rebuild all things in Christ (instaurare omnia in Christo), the very motto of St. Pius X.