King of the universe — in all directions

iStock/Nonowon Later this month, we celebrate the solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

This cosmic title certainly underscores the epic proportions of Christ’s reign. According to science, the universe is 94 billion light-years wide and has existed for over 13.7 billion years. Jesus is and has been Lord of all of it: from the most significant, epoch-making moments in human and natural history, to the largest stars and the remotest of all the galaxies.

Jesus’s reign is expansive. It is total and complete. There is nothing “out there” that does not fall under his kingship — even aliens, if they exist.

But Christ’s kingship extends just as expansively in the other direction. Not just covering what is external and outside of us, but including what is inside and deep within. Not just to the farthest reaches of the universe, but to the deepest depths of our souls.

As St. John Henry Newman put it, each person is an “infinite abyss of existence” — more expansive than the universe. Jesus is king of this abyss as much as he is of all the universe’s black holes, red dwarfs and supernovas.

This, I think, can be alarming and even uncomfortable for us. While the idea of having a king whose reign extends across all external time and space might be reassuring — especially if he is our king — the idea of a king who is lord of our deepest depths can seem downright invasive.

Is there any space left for just ourselves? Is there any corner of this kingdom that can just belong to me?

Part of this fear comes from a worldly and distorted understanding of kingship. On this account, the more power the king has, the less freedom I experience. If he’s expanding, it means I’m decreasing. If he’s lord of all, it means I’ve got nothing.

It doesn’t work like that with Christ. His kingship is not in competition with our freedom. Rather, his kingship is aimed at restoring us to full freedom and fulfillment by restoring our relationship with God the Father.

In fact, the more Christ possesses our interiority, the more we can fully possess ourselves, because he invites us to join in his kingship. We participate in this reign; it isn’t an either/or.

By inviting Jesus more deeply into our inner lives — into our thoughts, feelings and desires — we gain more freedom and become more truly ourselves.

So, as we celebrate the feast of Christ the King, it can certainly help to marvel at the grandeur of the universe and the expansiveness of Jesus’s reign. But it might also help to take a look inward. What are those areas of our own interiority that we have not submitted to Christ’s reign? What patterns of thought or action are we still clinging to as “our own,” something that we falsely believe we need to possess to be free and authentic?

Turning them over to Jesus in prayer is actually the most freeing thing we can do. Because Jesus isn’t any ordinary king — he’s the alpha and omega of all existence, the one through whom we were made and the one who draws us back to worship our creator. Accepting his kingship isn’t an imposition upon us; it is the way things are meant to be, and the way to experiencing true peace, freedom and happiness.

Liedl, a Twin Cities resident, is a senior editor of the National Catholic Register and a graduate student in theology at The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul.