CHRIST: THE
KING OF THE UNIVERSE
Today is the 34th Ordinary Sunday of the liturgical calendar
of the Roman Catholic Church. The liturgical calendar comes to an end with the
feast of Christ the King. Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent and the beginning
of the New Liturgical calendar year. This feast has a great significance in the
Catholic Church even to this day.
This beautiful feast emerged from a period of great difficulty. It is not
an ancient feast. It was created in 1925 by Pope Pius XI. At that time, it was
with a strong sense of symbolic power that the choice of last Sunday in October
was chosen for the feast, and of great importance in terms of the prevailing political
situation: the First World War had just come to an end, the Russian
communists came to power with their revolution of October 1917 and the Italian
Fascists in October 1922 with their March on Rome.
The specific instance for the Pope to make it a solemn feast was the
martyrdom of a Catholic priest, Father Miguel Pro, during the revolution in
Mexico whose shout and gesture just before his execution, “Viva Cristo Rey!” ("Long
live Christ the King!") rang throughout the entire Church. The institution
of the feast was almost an act of defiance by the Church against dictators who
at the time were seeking to make absolute their own political ideologies,
insisting boldly that no earthly power, no particular political system or
military dictatorship is ever absolute. The feast was to restate that only the
Kingdom of God is absolute, and that this Kingdom is everyone’s source of
power.
The year 1925 was also the sixteenth centenary of the Council of Nicaea
which in the Year 325 defined, proposed, and added to the Creed the words “of
his kingdom there will be no end.” Since the church calendar reform of Vatican
II in 1969, the feast celebrating Christ’s kingship is observed on the Sunday
just before Advent, when we begin a new Church year and liturgically wait for the
promised Messiah. At the end of the liturgical year the feast of the Kingship
of Christ sets the crowning glory upon the mysteries of the life of Christ
already commemorated during the year.
With great clarity and depth, Pope Pius XI articulated how he hoped the
feast would impact the laity, a long quote well worth reading and meditating
on:
“If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all
men, purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to his
dominion; if this power embraces all men, it must be clear that not one of our
faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds, which should
assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the
doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and
precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural
desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign
in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the
interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul,
as instruments of justice unto God.”
From the dawn of civilization, kings have arisen who have dreamed of possessing
a world-wide dominion, a universal kingdom that would last forever. But here we
have a King who is remarkably different from the kings of the earth. He came to serve all, even His enemies. He was a king, the God man, with a vulnerable
human nature and at the same time a person all powerful. To all intents and purposes, Christ, on the
cross, was the perfect picture of defeat. His enemies derided and mocked Him;
his companions, with the exception of John and a few women, had abandoned Him.
It remained for one of the thieves crucified with Him to recognize Christ for
what He was a King and he asks for a place in his kingdom and receives it.
Many in today’s democratic set up will discover that the title
"King" does not register too well.
Hence they feel that a better image of today's Feast is achieved by
presenting it as the Feast of Christ the Leader. However, the title “King”
makes a lot of sense, as Jesus who has conquered sin and death and made us the
heirs of the Kingdom of God.
Let this hymn echo in our hearts:
Hail Redeemer, King divine!
Priest and Lamb, the throne is thine;
King, whose reign shall never cease,
Prince of everlasting peace.
Angels, saints and nations sing :
"Praise be Jesus Christ our King;
Lord of life, earth, sky and sea,
King of love on Calvary!"
King most holy, King of truth,
guard the lowly, guide the youth;
Christ the King of glory bright,
be to us eternal light.
[Patrick Brennan (1877-1952)]
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