Christ the King… the feast of the laity?

The Solemnity of Christ the King was first instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical Quas Primas. He explains his rationale behind this feast, as a means to help restore peace in the common good of society by recognising the ultimate true source of peace - The Prince of Peace himself. 

During the liturgical reforms of Pope St Paul VI in 1969, the feast was moved from the originally designated last Sunday of October - to the last Sunday of the Liturgical year … ie, the Sunday before Advent. It was also slightly renamed to Christ the King of the Universe, emphasising more on the eschatological aspect of the Kingship of Christ rather than the previously emphasised Social Reign of Christ the King. 

Whichever emphasis you focus on, the one commonality that is often overlooked in this is the doctrine of the necessity of the laity in evangelising the culture, promoting the Kingship of Christ in the world and in their own lives. By living under the Lordship of Jesus the King of all hearts, we first put ourselves under the Divine Law of Christ through baptism and living according to Hos teachings. Then as the leaven in the world, the laity manifest the Kingdom of Christ through their witness and their actions, and purify the culture around them so that it confirms to Natural Law - the Common Good, and eventually to Divine Law and the Gospel. 

So while many people love to boldly proclaim “Christ is King!” on social media and their profiles, and berate the secular world about not submitting to Christ the King - but have they first submitted to it? Not submission in mere speaking of the lips… but in their intellect, reason and will - in their hearts?  

Pope Pius XI says it is the duty of ALL Catholics, not just the hierarchy. This is something we all too easily forget. We often moan that the Popes & Bishops have gone “soft and weak”, regularly calling them cowards. But it is not their job to evangelise society and the world - it is the duty of all the faithful and the baptised. 

The more that we personally submit and confirm to Christ, the more he becomes King of our hearts. That way He shines through is no matter where we are, every step we take as a follower of Christ is a step we are claiming for the Kingdom of God - this is what evangelisation and witness to the faith are supposed to be. The more Christ reigns in us, and sees the peace he gives us that the world cannot give - then the world will hunger & yearn for Him and His peace. 

When our personal private lives are rightly ordered and sanctified, this has an overflow effect in society. Society then becomes ordered towards the Common Good and people are better predisposed to receive the Gospel, to come under the Kingship of Christ and in obedience to Christ serve all others around them with the Charity of Christ. This takes each and everyone of us to live out our faith seriously, passionately and authentically. Many of us living in “western” society’s are now entering into a post Christian age. There is so much illiteracy of the faith among believers, that is it any wonder that we are now living in a new organised world?

The Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes rightly states that often the cause of atheism or denial of the faith is not due to the bad intentions or will of the unbelievers - but rather the failure of Christians and Catholics to authentically live their faith without hypocrisy or hardness of heart. I’m my own experience I have found this to be so true. Most people who say “I grew up Catholic .. but..” will go on to say how their parents or other family members lived double lives, or disowned their children in the name of God. 

They have been so hurt and rejected, it’s no wonder they reject the idea of God and Christianity. But when I ask these people to explain to me who they understand God and Jesus to be - it is always something different from who Jesus reveals Himself to be in the Gospels! They’ve never been given an encounter with the love and mercy of Jesus who reveals to us the Face of the Loving Father. 

When we have experienced the love and mercy of Christ ourselves, that encounter with Jesus changes us. It conforms us to him, so that His image begins to reshape us and transforms us. He begins to reign in our hearts so that He truly becomes the King of hearts - but not any generic heart. YOUR heart, MY heart. Each and every person is loved uniquely by Him and was created by Him for that beautiful intimacy and freedom He calls us all to, and that He offers us through His Church. The like Our Lady when she went to visit her cousin St Elizabeth - our life too will become a Eucharistic Procession, bringing Jesus to those around us, so that like St John the Baptist in the womb - they too can leap for joy in the presence of Jesus! 

Only Jesus can bring peace to the world, peace to our hearts. The more that the Kingdom of Jesus is established deep in our hearts and lives, the more the Kingdom is spread in the world and in the hearts of all those seeking for peace but unable to find it. But Jesus himself is our peace (Ephesians 2:14). 

If you want to truly see the world acknowledge Christ as King, if you desire peace in the world - then live your faith! Understand what you believe and why, then live it! Let people know by your way of life that Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. This means He has to be enthroned in your heart, into the centre of all you have and are. When Christ reigns in your heart, when His Kingdom is within you (Luke 17:21) then it will spill over around you and into the lives of others. You too will become not just a witness of Christ, but an Ambassador of Christ! (2 Corinthians 5:20) 

If you proclaim “Christ is King!” then enthrone him today in your heart! Seek first His Kingdom and everything else will flow from that and be added as the Lord wills (Matthew 6:33). Open wide your gates to the King of Glory and let His reign begin anew (Psalm 23:7-9), He is the King of all people’s and our King forever (Jeremiah 10:6-7). 

May the words of the Collect (Opening Prayer) for the Mass of Christ King of the Universe today, truly become our own prayer from our heart as well: 

Almighty ever-living God,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of the universe,
grant, we pray,
that the whole creation, set free from slavery,
may render your majesty service
and ceaselessly proclaim your praise.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

The Carmelite twofold Vocation, and personal mission

St Thérèse of Lisieux said that her vocation was to be love in the heart of the Church, and she believed her mission in heaven will be to help souls to love God. She chose to be a Victim of Divine Love and a Little Flower in the Garden of God to bring souls to blossom in the garden where they are planted.

St Teresa of Avila felt called to support the Church through personal holiness and through her reforms to provide dedicated, devoted and loyal friends to Jesus who would intimately love him through prayer. Teaching others to spend time with God in prayer, as intimate friends on the Way of Perfection was her mission. 

St John of the Cross taught the unconditional necessity of the way of Nada, of the purification and transformation of the Will in Love to arrive on the summit of Mount Carmel. He taught silence and renunciation as the key to union with the Beloved who Wounds us with Love and the guides us through Darkness and Faith to Transformative Union. 

St Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein) believed that it is the vocation of all Carmelites to intercede for others and like the Prophet Elijah to stand before the Presence of the Lord who lives. She taught that the Mystical Marriage and Bridal Union can only occur though the Science of the Cross.  

St Elizabeth of the Trinity said that Carmelites are called to become another Mediatrix together with Christ so he can continue the work of salvation through their humanity. She also believed her mission in heaven would be to draw souls into interior recollection with the Blessed Trinity. 

St Teresa of the Andes believed that the life of a Carmelite should be no other than of continually contemplating, adoring and loving God.  She wanted to be totally immersed in the Ocean of God so that she was captured by the Divine Fisherman, trusting in him as her Captain and Friend, so that others may learn to also fall madly in love with God. 

St Titus Brandsma believed his mission was to help reawaken in people the wonderful reality of mysticism, and what it means for us that we have the Indwelling of God within us as the ground of our being. The Virgin Mary is our examplar and guide in the mystical life of union with God, who teaches us to relive the mystery of the Incarnation in our own bodies. To be Carmelite for him, is to be completely Marian to the point of conceiving God and teaching others how to live this mystical transformative union. 

For myself as a Carmelite hermit, I see my own personal mission to be an example and witness for all those who feel unwanted or that don’t have a place in the Church. To follow the Holy Spirit to the places and people where others do not or would not go, living on the peripheries and bringing the Gospel to the dark places even when I myself feel lost in the dark. That even in the face of all my weaknesses and sins that there is always hope! So that I can help others not to fall into despair, but to trust that the Lord has a plan for each and everyone of them no matter how much they struggle or want to give up. If the Lord can work through me and change me, then he can do it for anyone!