Jesus King of Love Series - Respect vs Intimacy

The Enthronement, then, properly understood, is, to put it briefly, Jesus King of Love, coming to the threshold of the home and asking for His place in it; one which belongs to Him by divine right, the same which He was offered in the villa of Bethany. And it is a place of honour because He is King (John xviii, 37) Who, at no distant time and by His loving conquest of the families, will reign over the whole world. It is also a place of intimacy because He wants to be in very truth the Friend (Cant. v. 16) In a word, the Enthronement teaches us how to dwell with Jesus in our homes.

Alas! How little Jesus is known! and consequently how little He is loved!.... The majority of those who call themselves Christians fear Him, and keep far from Him.... If not with their lips then by their works they say to Him: "Remain in your Tabernacle, O Lord, that we may live our family life as we wish, without your intruding too intimately upon it. Do not come too close to us, do not speak to us, lest we die of fear." (Exod. xx, 19)

Thus did the Jews speak to Jehovah, thus do His children go on speaking to their Father and Pastor! We persist in not seeing in Jesus our Saviour, Who is so sweet, so accessible, so gentle and so simple, the King of Love, whose "delights are to be with the children of men" (Prov. viii, 31), Who in His mortal life rejoiced to lodge in the house of sinners (Matt. ix, 11), or to preside at the Marriage in Cana (John ii, 2), showing us in a thousand enchanting and marvellous ways that the delight of His Heart was to share our life with all its difficulties and joys.

We plead our unworthiness! What an absurdity! As if Zaccheus was worthy, who out of curiosity and for no other reason, put himself in the path of his Saviour. As if such persons as the Woman of Canaan, the Woman of Samaria, Simon the Pharisee, and so many other sharers in our moral leprosy and fallen state were worthy. No, not one of them was worthy; but they believed in the merciful love of the Master and accepted in all simplicity of heart His divine condescension. Happy those unfortunates whose afflictions attracted and moved the Heart of the Redeemer! For, with Him, salvation, peace and conversion entered those houses and those souls. "This day is salvation come to this house." (Luke xix, 9) And what a Pharisaical pretext is respect! It is indeed effrontery and insolence, when the God of all Majesty strips Himself of His kingly robes, calls us, holds out His arms, and offers His hand, that we should presume to read Him a lesson by maintaining our distance, as if we would say: "Remember that Thou art God and King, withdraw Thyself apart." There are thousands and thousands of pseudo Christians, who in spite of the Redemption, pretend to serve their Redeemer by establishing between Him and them valleys, mountains, abysses, and all of this out of respect!

Excerpt from Jesus The King of Love - by Father Mateo