By an anonymous Franciscan Friar
That Christ is King is attested to by two fundamental realities: Creation and Redemption. Our Lord Jesus Christ is King because He is God and because He redeemed us. We owe to creation our existence in the natural order and our elevation to the order of sanctifying grace. We owe to redemption the restoration of that lost supernatural order.
In other words, everything we have and can ever possess as human beings, we owe to our Creator; and the greatest good of all, divine filiation, that is, being children of God, we owe to our Redeemer.
We have to look back to the past to fully understand the meaning of this celebration. The specific reason given by the Pope is the public rejection of Christ in civil life. This rebellion unfolded gradually over the course of three centuries, through three main events: The Protestant revolt, Rationalism, and the French Revolution.
The first rupture, that of Luther, brought the idea of a Christ without a church; the second, that of Rationalism, reason without revelation; the third, the French Revolution, a society without God.
Yet even these three events, which converged in Secularism, cannot be properly understood unless we cast a glance, however brief, at the civilizing work of the Catholic Church.
Let us consider Christ’s struggle against Pharisaism; let us consider the Church’s struggle against paganism, the Roman persecutions, heresies, schisms, Islam, and the loss of the sense of unity within Christendom, replaced by the greed and arrogance of those who ruled.
The Catholic Church had to educate and correct not only those outside its fold, but also, and primarily, its own members, specifically addressing two major forms of corruption: the entanglements between political power and religion, and the moral laxity among the clergy.
There is no reason to be surprised by this, since Christ, in His infinite wisdom, deigned to include Judas among the Twelve, thereby offering us a lesson to help us avoid falling for the sophistry directed against our beloved Mother, the Catholic Church. This, then, is the reason for the institution of the feast of Christ the King: He is King, not only for individuals, but for all nations, and not merely for Catholic nations, but for the entire world. It is a cry of devotion and piety in the face of impiety.
But this cry of the Pope was ignored by the Catholic nations and by the clergy itself. This happened because, from within the Catholic Church itself, instigated by people foreign to it and hostile to faith, a greater, more fully developed revolution was already taking shape: it was the revolution whose consequences we suffer today, which is called Modernism and is known to us by the name “Novus Ordo.”
Therefore, we must not be so naive as to consider the Vatican II as something that happened suddenly, as the beginning of something. Rather, it was both the gestation and the culmination of a centuries-long process, like a flower that sprouted from a hidden and destructive root.
Christ the King is the contradiction of ecumenism. We would also need to consider, to some extent, what a king is. A king is one who holds dominion and use of everything that we are and everything that we possess.
When Israel, tired of being different and wanting to be like the other nations (there is nothing new under the sun), asked for a king, God gave this response:
“This will be the right of the king, that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and put them in his chariots, and will make them his horsemen, and his running footmen to run before his chariots, and he will appoint to them to be his tribunes, and centurions, and to plough his fields, and to reap his corn, and to make him arms and chariots. Your daughters also he will take to make him ointments, and to be his cooks, and bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your best oliveyards, and give them to his servants. Moreover, he will take the tenth of your corn, and of the revenues of your vineyards, to give his eunuchs and servants. Your servants also and handmaids, and your goodliest young men, and your asses he will take away, and put them to his work. Your flocks also he will tithe, and you shall be his servants.”
1 Samuel 8:11
Last Sunday, the Gospel featured the parable of the king who was indignant with his servant, who owed him a large sum of money, and, “his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.”
Of course, the kingship of Christ is not like that; He created us in His eternal love and in that same love He redeemed us, and His kingdom is of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace. But it is not all that different either: God has given us a time to obey Him, and He will come at another time to settle accounts with us.
“The kingdom of heaven is likened to…”
So, until He comes, it is fitting that we sit down and reflect: what does Christ Jesus mean to us? To what extent do we obey Him? How much do we desire to obey Him? How often do we deny Him? To what degree do we try to escape His gaze?
Let us consider this in light of our everyday actions: how often a human commitment is deemed more important than a major Feast day, or work is prioritized over a Sunday, and how easily we feel excused from the precepts of the Church.
Let us be strict in this examination of conscience, and let us not be so indulgent with ourselves; our eternal life is at stake here.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary grant us the wisdom and the strength necessary to correct our lives!
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