Back in 1925, Pope Pius XI looked out at the reality
of the world around him and he didn’t like what he saw. There were signs all around him that people
were turning away from God and turning away from the Church. Europe was devastated from the violence and
tragedy of WWI. Russia had become a Marxist state after the
Russian revolution. Governments in Mexico and in many European
countries were making things difficult for people to practice their faith. Secularism, modernism, fascism, and nationalism
were creating conditions that would later lead to WWII. In December 1925, 90 years ago, Pope Pius XI
issued the encyclical Quas Primas, establishing the feast of Christ the King on
the last Sunday of the liturgical year. The Pope explained that a majority of men in his
day had thrust Christ and God’s law out of their lives, that Jesus and the
values of his life and ministry no longer held supremacy in either in private
affairs or in politics. Pope Pius XI established the feast of Christ the
King in order to communicate to the world that it needed to look, in his words,
for “the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ.” In the same year that he issued this
encyclical, the Pope declared a special jubilee year to pray for peace
throughout the world. Fast forward to our own reality in 2015. As we celebrate the feast of Christ the King
today, we are also getting ready to celebrate the Jubilee Year of Mercy as
declared by Pope Francis, recognizing the mercy that God has for us and trying
to incorporate that mercy in the way we live out our own daily lives.
There is a
great story about the Napoleon, the emperor of France that is very relevant to our
celebration of Christ the King today.
Napoleon had won great military victories in Egypt and in Italy and had his
sights on conquering the rest of the world.
In his quest for power, he was declared emperor. To show his prominence and legitimacy, and to
root his authority in the French monarchy and in the Catholic Church, at
Napoleon’s request he was to be consecrated emperor by the Pope himself. He was
to be the first Frenchman to hold the title of emperor since the great Emperor
Charlemagne, who had been crowned emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III on Christmas
day in the year 800. Pope Pius traveled from Rome to Paris for the
ceremony at the great cathedral of Notre Dame. Yet, on the snowy morning of December 2, 1804, at
the moment the Pope was to crown Napoleon as emperor, Napoleon turned away from
the Pope on high altar, faced the congregation, and put the crown on
himself. Napoleon then put a crown on
the Empress Josephine. In his
arrogance and pride, Napoleon wanted to show that he was above the Church and
above God. Is that the way we behave in our own lives? Do our pride and haughtiness keep us from
truly acknowledging that Jesus is our king?
In our Gospel today, when Pilate questions Jesus,
Jesus explains that his kingdom is not of this world. Think about how every time we pray the Lord’s
prayer, we ask that “thy kingdom come.”
We try to live by the values of the Gospel and the values of Christ’s
kingdom so as to infuse our world with those values. However, so often, it seems that the values
of Christ’s kingdom are so different from the values of the world around us. The world can be a frightening place, can’t it? Just as Pope Pius looked out the world in 1925
and saw things that alarmed him, we all feel the same way today, don’t we? Perhaps
what frightens us most in the modern world is to see ISIS, Boko Haram, and
other terrorist organizations killing people at sporting events and concerts
and busy market places. Perhaps we question how safe we are in the world
today, and if the US will be the next target of an attack such as those that
just occurred in Paris. We hear about people being persecuted around the
world because of their religion, not only Christians and Jews, but also more
moderate and mainline Muslims attacked by Muslim extremists. And we see our religious liberties being
eroded and under attack in our own country and throughout the world, some
wonder how many Christian martyrs we may have one day soon here in the United
States. There are no easy answers to the reality we face
today, just as there were no easy answers to what the world faced back in 1925
when Pope Pius XI declared the feast of Christ the King. Our Church leaders and our faith offer us some
wise advice. Archbishop Charles Chaput
of Philadelphia calls us to place our confidence in the Word of God, to open
ourselves to the transformative power of Christ’s grace, and to truly believe
that we can realistically live out the values that the Church teaches. God calls us to mercy and courage and wisdom, not
anger or fear or frustration. When I was
pastor of St Mary Catholic Church in Yazoo City, one of the wise elders of the
Catholic community there, Mary Rutledge, told me about working with the little
kindergarteners in the nursery. She was
reading one of the children a book, and on one of the pages, there was a picture
of a little crown in the corner. Mrs.
Rutledge pointed to the crown, and asked the little boy, “John David, I wonder
what that little crown is for.” John
David responded, “That crown is for Jesus, the king of kings.” Even a little child, in his innocence and
honesty, can recognize Jesus as our king.
One of the
members of our Hispanic community said to me the other day, “Father Lincoln,
shouldn’t the feast of Christ the King be as important to us as Easter or
Christmas, for if Christ is not truly our king, what significance does all the
rest have in our lives?” In order for us to truly say that we belong to
Christ's kingship, to Christ’s kingdom, we are called to walk with Christ in
our daily lives, to walk in the truth that he embodies and proclaims. Through our actions and our spirit, we will show
the world that Christ is our King.
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