By Leon Bent –
On the last Sunday of each liturgical year, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, or Christ the King.
Pope Pius XI instituted this feast in 1925 with his encyclical “Quas primas” (“In the first”) to respond to growing secularism. He recognized that attempting to “thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law” out of public life, would result in continuing discord among people and nations. Today reminds us that while governments come and go, Christ reigns as King forever.
In 2019, the Church faces pressures from without and crisis from within. In addition to the challenges that Christians in a secular society must confront, the Body of Christ must also tend to the wounds inflicted on the Church by priests and bishops, who either committed acts of sexual abuse themselves or failed to respond to abuse with justice when they had the opportunity. Pope Pius XI reminds the faithful that Christ reigns as king of the entire world, forever. Let us rededicate ourselves this year to acknowledging the reign of Jesus Christ and his Sacred Heart in every aspect of our lives.
What is the Kingdom of God? What is the Kingdom of Christ the King?
Here is a beautiful explanation: The Kingdom of God is a space. It exists in every home where parents and children love each other. It exists in every region and country that cares for its weak and vulnerable. It exists in every parish that reaches out to the needy. The Kingdom of God is a time. It happens whenever someone feeds a hungry person, or shelters a homeless person, or shows care to a neglected person. It happens whenever we overturn an unjust law, or correct an injustice, or avert a war. It happens whenever people join in the struggle to overcome poverty, to erase ignorance, to pass on the Faith. The Kingdom of God is in the past (in the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth); it is in the present (in the work of the Church and in the efforts of many others to create a world of goodness and justice); it is in the future (reaching its completion in the age to come). The Kingdom of God is a condition. Its symptoms are love, justice, and peace. Jesus Christ is king! We pray today that God may free the world to rejoice in His peace, to glory in His justice, to live in His love.
Life Messages:
- We need to assess our commitment to Christ the King today. As we celebrate the Kingship of Christ, let us remember the truth that He is not our King if we do not listen to him, love him, serve him, and follow him. We belong to his Kingdom only when we try to walk with him, when we try to live our lives fully in the spirit of the Gospel, and when that Gospel spirit penetrates every facet of our living.
- We need to follow Christ the King’s lesson of humble service to the truth. Christ has come to serve and to be of service to others. “For the Christian, ‘to reign is to serve Him,’ particularly when serving ‘the poor and the suffering, in whom the Church recognizes the image of her poor and suffering founder’” (CCC #786).
- We need to obey the law of love of Christ the King. “Love one another as I have loved you.” On this great Feast of Christ, the King, let us resolve to give him the central place in our lives and promise to obey his commandment of love by sharing what we have with all his needy children.
The steady, incremental growth of the Lordship of Christ in our lives is greatly facilitated by the practicing Catholic spending time in the Presence of God, both, in the Holy Hour and in what St. Faustina referred to as our own “adoration chapel” at home. This cultivates our sanctification which is the “super highway” that, Christ the King travels on in establishing his reign in our hearts.
However, this is not the end of the story, for, in the presence of God, there is a Throne of Grace: “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). It is at the Throne of Grace where our fallen and wayward mind, will, heart, and body come under the sole ownership of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, where human resources are exhausted and the grace-filled life begins.
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.
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