CHRIST THE KING

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Tomorrow the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. This seems a sadly out-of-date kind of idea, especially in the United States that was founded precisely on the  rejection of the idea of kingship in favor of democracy. Well, not so fast. Take a closer look with me at this feast. 

In my previous post I wrote about how rationalists have banished God to "upstairs," where He is totally irrelevant, isolated from the concerns of the 'real" world. I'm not trying to pick a fight with anyone with this post, but I am suggesting that now, after humanity has been "liberated" from its servile superstitious belief in a Deity, and we humans have been in sole charge of the universe for some years, I don't see much visible improvement in the condition of the world. 

Pope Pius XI

In December of 1925, Pope Pius XI wrote an encyclical entitled "Quas Primas" establishing the feast of "Jesus Christ, King of the Universe." The world at that time was experiencing the rise of secularism as well as an increasing number of dictatorships in Europe.The pope saw a connection between the two. Christian Europe had been cut loose from its moorings of religious faith, and even Christians were rejecting the belief that God was somehow in charge of the world.

What Pius XI saw and responded to was just the earliest stages of the secular worldview that has swept around most of the world. His declaration that the world ultimately makes sense only when we see it as part of a larger picture (the story of a loving God , etc.) is more relevant than ever. He was writing in 1925, before Hitler and Hiroshima, before Stalin and Socialism, before global capitalism and greenhouse gas emissions. The brave new world that secular humanism promised has, to put it politely, yet to materialize.

So, against this background, celebrating a Feast of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, rejects the rationalists' two-storied version of the world, and offers us a couple of optimistic messages: First, this troubled world is not all we get: There's more to our existence than simply imprisonment in a meaningless world devoid of any ultimate purpose (that's the best that the two-storied world can offer us). Second, despite the chaotic mess that we humans are making of our world, God has a mysterious plan that we cannot understand (our intellects being no match for God's), and this plan is the Good News that one day we and our world will be transformed into the New Jerusalem under the reign of our infinitely loving Brother, Jesus Christ. Third, Jesus Christ became one of us, and is present with each of us in every place throughout the universe, rather than living like a recluse locked in a room on the second floor of the rationalists' universe.

Jesus Christ the King

Another pope, John XXIII once told us that world peace has to start first in the heart of each one of us. Perhaps we might suggest that Christ's reign as King of the Universe likewise has to start in the heart of each one us. Tomorrow's feast is a good opportunity to ask myself if Christ is reigning in my heart, or have I replaced him with someone or something else, gradually moved him upstairs and out of my everyday life.