Pat and I attended mass at Saint Catherine of Sienna Parish in Metcalfe this past Sunday and I have to say that Father Shroff gave one of the best Christ the King homilies that I have ever heard and I asked him if I could put it on my blog. Father refers to Pope Pius XI Encyclical Letter Quas Primas (December 11, 1925) | PIUS XI (vatican.va)
Thank you Father Shroff and God bless you!
Homily on the Solemnity of Christ the King Given at St. Catherine of Siena Parish on November 22, 2020 AD
by Fr. Hezuk Shroff
Today is the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year. In the modern liturgy,
this Sunday goes by the title of The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
King of the Universe. This title in English is somewhat unfortunate,
because it is not an exact translation of the original Latin. In the Latin title
of this feast day, Christ is not called “King of the Universe,” which might
give the connotation that we are celebrating a cosmic Christ or even a
New-Age Christ. The Latin title is Rex universorum, which means literally
“The King of All Things.” Christ is the King of all things. He is the King of
individuals (the King of hearts, of minds, of souls); He is the King of nations
and kingdoms and principalities; He is the King of institutions and
societies. He is even the King of governments and houses of parliament.
Jesus Christ is King of all things! Rex universorum.
Today’s feast day of Christ the King is not a very ancient liturgical
feast. In fact, it only goes back to 1925 (less than a hundred years, which
is a very short time in the history of the Church). It was then, in 1925, that
Pope Pius XI issued his famous encyclical letter Quas Primas. This
encyclical established in the universal Church calendar the feast day of
Christ the King and gave it the highest rank of feast possible: known at
that time as a Double of the First Class. In the modern liturgy, it is called a
Solemnity: the highest rank of feast.
Pope Pius XI decreed that the feast of Christ the King was to be
celebrated every year on the last Sunday in October. This date was chosen
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because this is the Sunday immediately preceding All Saints’ Day. Pope
Pius XI wanted to show the link between the holiness of Christ and the
holiness of His Saints. He wanted to show that the Saints were those who
willingly submitted themselves to the Kingship of Christ. The primary
reason for establishing this feast day, however, was to respond to the
growing spirit of secularism that was sweeping throughout the world in the
period between the First and Second World Wars. The rapid spread of the
secularist ideology wanted a world and a society in which man reigned
supreme, with no reference whatsoever to the primacy of God: and in fact,
even with no acknowledgement of His existence. Most of this took place
under the covert work of freemasonry, which wanted to destroy the
influence of the Catholic Church in order to set up its own ideology of the
Universal Brotherhood of Man, a brotherhood that is fully secular and fully
atheistic: a Brotherhood of Man without God.
Seeing all of this occurring in 1925, Pope Pius XI instituted the feast
of Christ the King and taught that the only truly sovereign monarch is
Christ Himself. All worldly kingship, all worldly authority and power, derives
itself from His. Pope Pius XI knew that when a society rejects the primacy
of God, this very quickly leads to an erosion of the rights of man. Man’s
rights quickly fall by the wayside, and the human race becomes
dehumanized, when God is set aside. This is because the dignity of man is
founded on the fact that he is created in the image and likeness of God.
So when God is cast aside, man loses his dignity. We saw the proof of this
recently in the fall of Ireland from grace, within this past decade. Catholic
Ireland (until she fell) was one of the greatest strongholds of the Catholic
Faith, even throughout the 20th century. But then, almost overnight,
Catholic Ireland rejected the primacy and Kingship of Christ; and as soon
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as it rejected its Catholic roots, it rapidly began spiraling downward,
legalizing almost every form of immoral behavior and lifestyle that it had
previously forbidden.
When Christ is rejected by a society or by a people, the members of
that society very quickly lose their human dignity. This is why Pope Pius XI
instituted the great feast of Christ the King. He wanted to show the world
that without Christ, there is no real dignity or freedom, and that a worldly
kingdom will quickly fall unless it acknowledges the primacy of Christ’s
Kingship.
Now the Kingship of Christ is fully revealed to us on the Cross. In
Mediaeval Europe, crucifixes often portrayed a Christ who was not naked,
but rather clothed in royal garments; and instead of a crown of thorns on
His head, He wore a royal crown with precious jewels. These Mediaeval
crucifixes were meant to convey one very important fact: it is from the
Cross that Christ reigns as King! In fact, a beautiful hymn that is sung
traditionally on Good Friday attests to this very truth. The hymn’s title is
Vexilla Regis. And in that hymn, there is a very powerful verse that says,
Regnavit a ligno Deus! Literally: God hath reigned from the Wood (that is,
from the Cross). These words remind us that Christ’s Kingdom is not of
this world, because no earthly king reigns from a cross. And yet, as Pope
Pius XI taught very clearly, even though His Kingdom is not of this world,
Christ’s Kingship must enter into this world and He must reign in this
world! St. Paul teaches the same thing in today’s second reading, from his
First Epistle to the Corinthians. He says, “[When the end of time comes],
Christ will deliver the Kingdom to God the Father after destroying every
rule and every authority and power. For He must reign until he has put all
His enemies under his feet.” (I Cor. 15:24-25). He must reign. In the Latin:
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opportet illum regnare. These words have been the battle-cry of Christians
from the very beginning. Pope Pius XI comments on this in his great
encyclical letter, where he writes the following words: “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. Indeed, He must
reign until, at the end of the world, He has put all His enemies under the
feet of God the Father.”
These powerful words from the Roman Pontiff express the Church’s
belief that Christ must reign, and that we must do everything that we can
to ensure that He does reign. In the words of another hymn that the
Church sings with great pride on the feast of Christ the King (a hymn that
we heard chanted at the 11am Mass this morning): Christus vincit,
Christus regnat, Christus imperat. Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ
commands!
In 1969, Pope Paul VI moved the feast of Christ the King from the
last Sunday of October to the last Sunday of the liturgical year. One effect
of this was that the focus of the feast day shifted. Nowadays, because
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Christ the King closes the liturgical year, we often think of this feast day as
a celebration of Christ’s Kingship at the end of time. Christ will reign as
King after the Second Coming, and He will reign especially in Heaven. We
also tend to think of His Kingship primarily as an interior kingship: Christ is
King of our hearts. Now while this is true (while Christ’s Kingship is one of
the heart, and while He will be King at the end of time, after the Second
Coming, in His Kingdom of Heaven), the problem is that we often forget
today that Christ’s Kingship is not just for the end of time. In fact, the
reason why Pope Pius XI instituted this great feast day was precisely to
show the faithful (and to show the rulers of nations) that Christ must reign
even in the here and now, even in our worldly societies: that is, in the
secular domain. Christ is not just to reign in our churches, in our homes, in
our families, and in our hearts. He must also reign in the public forum: that
is, in our schools, our hospitals, our business and industries, and Yes,
even in our Houses of Parliament! Many Catholics today have a faulty
understanding of what has been called the principle of separation of
Church and State. They think that the Catholic Church endorses this
understanding of Church-State religions. It doesn’t. The real teaching of
our Faith is not that the Church and State should be separate,
independent entities; but rather, that the Church has the right to impose
Christ’s reign even in the public sphere. A Parliament that makes laws
without taking into account the teachings of Christ will one day collapse;
and a State that passes legislation that contravenes the Commandments
of God will one day fall. In the end, the only principalities that will remain
are those kingdoms and nations that have submitted themselves willfully
to the one true Kingship: the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ!
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And so, on this feast of Christ the King, I would like to leave you with
a final quote to ponder over. It is a quotation from the great encyclical
letter of Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas:
The Catholic Church, founded by Christ as a perfect society, has a
natural and inalienable right to perfect freedom and immunity from the
power of the State. In fulfilling the task committed to her by God of
teaching, ruling, and guiding to Eternal Bliss those who belong to the
Kingdom of Christ, [the Church] cannot be subject to any external
power. Nations will be reminded by the annual celebration of this feast
day [of Christ the King] that not only private individuals, but also rulers
and princes, are bound to give public honour and obedience to Christ.
[This feast day of Christ the King] will call to their minds the thought of
the Last Judgement, wherein Christ, who has been cast out of public
life, despised, neglected and ignored, will most severely avenge these
insults; for His kingly dignity demands that the State should take
account of the Commandments of God and of Christian principles,
both in making laws and in administering justice, and also in providing
for the young a sound, moral education. It is Our fervent desire that
those who are outside of the Fold may seek after and accept the
sweet yoke of Christ, and that we, who by the mercy of God are of the
Household of the Faith, may bear that yoke, not as a burden but with
joy, with love, with devotion; that having lived our lives in accordance
with the laws of [Christ’s] Kingdom, we may receive full measure of
good fruit, and, counted by Christ good and faithful servants, we may
be rendered partakers of Eternal Bliss, and glory with Him in His
Heavenly Kingdom.
Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands! To Him, Christ the
King, be the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
