Christ the King - Traditional Latin Mass
/Dominica D.N. Iesu Christi Regis (Mass of the 1962 Missal)
30 October 2022
IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY GHOST. AMEN.
In a Church with as much history as ours, we observe today a solemnity that is more recent in history. This solemnity of the universal kingship of Christ was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925. The Old Testament prophets proclaimed the coming Messiah and his kingship. The signs surrounding the conception and birth of our Blessed Lord made it clear that he was the fulfillment of the promise made of a descendent of David whose kingship would be firm and whose kingdom would have no end. We who live in societies with representative forms of governance need to make sure we do not easily dismiss or gloss over the kingship of Christ and his claim on us. In addition, observing the Kingship of Christ calls us to seek God’s kingdom with renewed vigor. Finally, we must admit a serious duty as Catholics to work to bring the world into greater conformity to the reign of Christ, and by prayers, and influence, and action, to return the world to its proper place under the authority of Christ. We should not fail to notice that with major elections just days away, we have an opportunity and a duty to vote in a way that shows we understand that Christ is our King and the King of all nations, all time, and all history.
The Gospel for this solemnity is the more private interrogation of the Lord by Pilate inside the praetorium. The Jewish authorities have their own charges against our Lord. But they bring him to Pilate because as the Roman authority he has the ability to condemn to death. As a Roman authority, Pilate is not interested in the religious charges. The Romans aren’t going to execute anyone based on a charge of blasphemy or some other violation of the Torah. But when Pilate hears the political charge of being a king, his interest is raised and he must inquire about who would claim a kingship contrary to the sole kingship of the Emperor. And so, to determine if there is potential treason involved, Pilate asks the Lord, “Art thou King of the Jews?” You can see that Pilate is not interested in any religious debate or charge when he says, “Am I a Jew?.... What hast Thou done?”
Here the Lord, who has preached often about the Kingdom of God, makes direct mention of his own Kingdom. His is a kingdom not of this world. Were it of this world the Lord’s subjects would act as any other members of a kingdom would act under threat, they would fight to preserve it: in this case they would strive to see that the Lord is not turned over to the Jews. But as it is, his kingdom is not here.
The Kingdom of Christ our King is not here. I think this deserves some focus and reflection. The result of this truth is by no means that we as Catholics ignore this world or fail to care for it or to have interest in it. No, we have a duty to see that our efforts and prayers and energies are employed to bring this world into greater conformity to the reign of Christ. But we must never make the mistake of thinking or acting that our primary or enduring focus is a kingdom in the realm of man. I think this important lesson needs focus and reflection because I am more and more convinced that many endeavors of man reveal the mistaken notion that we seek fulfillment here in a kingdom of this world. One might excuse the average man of thinking this way. But one cannot excuse a person of faith or someone in the Church. Yet, sadly, more and more do we not see so many endeavors in the Church that seem to rise from an erroneous foundation that views this world and this life as a kingdom of ultimate value or, worse, that views this world as our ultimate destination?
Our time is marked by a serious lack of supernatural faith. It is marked by a poverty of the fear of God. Sadly, we see this in the Church too. As a Church we expend massive amounts of time and energy and money on flashy programs and consultants and professionals yet one wonders what might happen if even a fraction of such capital was spent on actually proclaiming the Gospel with fidelity and courage. What I call “a franchise mentality” has somehow taken over our Church and many a bishop acts more like a bureaucrat than an apostle. Our leaders do just about anything to protect the body from any danger, as if death of the body is a worse evil than death of the soul. This inverted and perverted focus revealed itself in the Church when we deemed ourselves to be non-essential during COVID panic by closing down, choking off the proclamation of the Good News while proclaiming the secular “gospel of vaccination” along with most of the cultural elites. I would love for the Lord to return today and suddenly appear in the office of the Synod of Bishops in the Vatican and say, “My kingdom is not here.” I amuse myself with the notion that all the garbage and heresy fomented by that office would suddenly be given a voice, like the very stones of Jerusalem crying out to our King (cf. Lk. 19:38-40), to testify against the leadership for its culpable lack of faith and its scandal of causing us little ones to sin because of their betrayal of the Faith.
Yes, we need a potent reminder in our contemporary world – and even in the Church – that the Lord is King and even though we do not ignore this world that has been made by God to be good, we must always admit the primacy of the kingdom that is not here. Have we begun life in the kingdom here? Yes. But the fulfillment is not in this world. May our proclamation of the full meaning of Christ’s kingship be a catalyst that causes us to strive for greater holiness and to have zeal to arrive at the “kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, a Kingdom of justice, love, and peace” (From the Preface for the Mass of Christ the King).
IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY GHOST. AMEN.