St. Anthony the Abbot Catholic Church

Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King! It is the culmination of our liturgical year! Christ is the King of Kings! Is He truly our King? Does He reign over all aspects of our life? Probably not! On this feast the Church asks us to ponder anew the Lord’s kingship in our lives! As we end this year as a church, and prepare to enter a new year of Grace next Sunday, let our pondering lead us to resolution to surrender another part of our life to Christ our King! Let us begin the holy season of Advent, our new liturgical year; let us await the Glory of the Lord in our surrender to His Kingship!

Many critics of the Church blame Christianity for the evils of the modern world: war, racism, sexism…But the truth is just the contrary. The only culture in which those things are recognized as evils is precisely the culture that was formed by Christianity-western culture. Only through Christianity did the human family gradually come to realize that all people share the same human dignity and have the same basic human rights. Only through Christianity, for example, was slavery recognized as an injustice and gradually eliminated – in fact, in non-Christian cultures even today slavery persists.

We must not believe the lie that popular culture wants us to believe: that all religions are the same, and our faith in Christ should not overflow into the laws and customs of our communities. That is the lie that today’s Feast was established to expose. If we exclude Christ and Christian values from public life, we will only give more room for anti-Christian values to flourish.

As Pope Pius XI wrote in 1925, reflecting on the recent world crises of the time:

“The empire of Christ over all nations was rejected. The right which the Church has from Christ Himself, to teach mankind, to make laws, to govern peoples in all that pertains to their eternal salvation that right was denied. Then gradually the religion of Christ came to be likened to false religions and to be placed ignominiously on the same level with them. It was then put under the power of the state and tolerated more or less at the whim of princes and rulers. Some men went even further, and wished to set up in the place of God’s religion, a natural religion consisting in some instinctive affection of the heart.

 There were even some nations who thought they could dispense with God, and that their religion should consist in impiety and the neglect of God. The rebellion of individuals and states against the authority of Christ has produced deplorable consequences.” (Quas primas, #24)

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. 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 us 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 us invite Him into our minds, and let Him reign there through our firm belief in all of His teaching. Let us 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 us 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.  

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.

“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, Pope Pius XI)