Search
-
November 19, 2020After the Spanish Flu 100 years ago, Pope Pius XI gave Catholics the Feast Day of Christ the King to “hasten the return of society to our loving savior.”
Christ has always been known as the King. As Saint Paul told the Philippians, “At the name of Jesus, every knee should bend of those in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth.” In Revelations 19:16, “Christ is referred as to King of King and Lord of Lords.”
Since the 4th century, Catholics state in the Nicene Creed, “His Kingdom will have no end.”
Christ the King marks the end of the Church calendar before Advent begins. It is time to reflect on the Kingdom of Christ.
Even though Christ was King, he gave a wonderful example how lonely it can be as a Christian on the Way of the Cross. Luke 5:16 says, “Jesus withdrew into lonely places and he prayed.” Christ showed his human side when he said in Matthew 27:46, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Father Aaron Foshee, pastor of Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Ada, explained the feast in the following manner, “In the 17th century, Saint John Eudes, a French priest, wrote a treatise ‘On the Kingdom of Jesus.’ In it, he speaks to how our participation in the Body of Christ acts as a means by which to divinize us. Saint John Eudes wrote: ‘(Christ) fulfills his hidden life in us, hidden with him in God ... causing us to suffer, die and rise again with him and in him ... (so as to) live a glorious, eternal life with him and in him in heaven.’"
Father Foshee added the following, “By this, we can infer that if we listen to and obey Christ, we will participate in who he is. When we are reborn in the crystal waters of regeneration, we participate in his incarnation. When we proclaim his kingdom to the ends of the Earth, we participate in his ceaseless proclamation of the Kingdom of God. When we suffer, we struggle, and God-willing when we even die for the Good News, we participate in what our King Jesus has done for us.”
“And, with confidence we believe that we will rise again, and reign in majesty as kings and priests in God’s dominion, because we will be found within the loving and intimate embrace of him who loves us and has freed us from the cancer of our sin by his blood. For us, then, the meaning of kingship for which we must strive, and from which we will receive our strength, is to listen – not to the chaos of the world around us, but to the voice of truth, who we claim as the sovereign of our souls. To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.”
Charles Albert is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
A Prayer to Christ the King
Lord, Jesus Christ, our sovereign King
The beginning and end of all things,
you have made your Church to be a people
that bears witness to the goodness and beauty of your kingdom.
By your Holy Spirit, you have united us as one body,
called to live as one family of God.
Fill our hearts with your grace,
that we would be close to you
by being close to the vulnerable and marginalized.
Give us the patience to share one another’s burdens,
And, give us the courage to always be friends of the truth.
May we remain with you always.
Amen.
