Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Getting Back to Christ

My dear brothers and sisters, the Solemnity of Christ the King, which every Catholic throughout the entire world is celebrating today, is a new thing.

The Church has existed for almost 2000 years, but this Solemnity is less than 100 years old. It was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925. He explained his reasons for doing so in an encyclical letter called Quas primas.

First, Pope Pius XI explained that throughout history liturgical feasts have been instituted in response to particular needs that arise in the life of the world and the Church (#22). He gives the example of the feasts in honor of the martyrs, of the celebration of Corpus Christi and the Sacred Heart. And then he explains which need this new celebration addresses.

He was writing this encyclical in 1925, when the world was still trying to recover from World War I, which had devastated Europe and shattered modernity's hopes for unlimited progress based solely on human reason. 1925 was also only a few years after the Russian Bolshevik Revolution, which had given birth to the world's first explicitly atheist totalitarian regime: Soviet communism. Everywhere the pope looked, he saw human societies abandoning Christian values and trying to build paradise on earth through other means.

But if humanity had been able to perfect itself by itself, without God's help, then Jesus Christ would never have come to earth. The fact is, Jesus did come. He brought his Gospel and his grace to a fallen race, and only by believing in that Gospel and accepting that grace can individuals and societies achieve true and lasting peace and prosperity.

Pope Pius XI instituted today's Solemnity as a way to remind the world that to reject Christ, either in private life or in public life, is to reject our only hope, and to accept him is to accept salvation.

Here I quote Pope Pius IX's writing: "...When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony... That these blessings may be abundant and lasting in Christian society, it is necessary that the kingship of our Savior should be as widely as possible recognized and understood, and to that end nothing would serve better than the institution of a special feast in honor of the Kingship of Christ." (Quas primas, 19, 21)

Renewing Our Loyalty to Christ the King

By giving us this liturgical celebration, the Church hopes that we will not forget about our King and his Kingdom. The Church is a wise mother. She knows that we have a built-in tendency to forget about these things.

The pleasures, possibilities and worries of life in this fallen world are real. They are strong magnets that try to monopolize our attention. But Christ is stronger. And he has much more to offer - eternal life, in fact, meaning, purpose, forgiveness, wisdom, and the strength of his grace.

And yet, he is not a tyrant. He offers us citizenship in his Kingdom, but he leaves us free to accept or reject that offer.

Today, let's renew our acceptance. When he proves his love for us once again in the sacrifice of this Mass, let's profess our love for him.

Let's invite him into our minds, and let him reign there through our firm belief in all of his teaching.

Let's invite him into our wills, that part of us where we make our decisions, and let him reign there through our loving obedience to his commandments - especially the commandment to love our neighbors as he has loved us.

Let's invite him into our hearts, that secret center of our souls where we treasure things, where our affections reside, and let him reign there by putting every natural desire in second place, behind our desire to know, love, and follow our King.

Today especially, before we receive our Lord in Holy Communion, let us put more meaning than usual into the words that sum up every Christian's fundamental mission and deepest desire: Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.

As a closing, I quote another part from Pope Pius XI:

"The faithful, moreover, by meditating upon these truths, will gain much strength and courage, enabling them to form their lives after the true Christian ideal. 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. If all these truths are presented to the faithful for their consideration, they will prove a powerful incentive to perfection." (Quas Primas, 33)