Christ the King (2027)
By Fr. Conor Donnelly
(Proofread)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.
Day by day, ordinary men, both those who profess loyalty to God and those who do not, are made to feel the dreadful effects of the social disorganization brought about by the progressive apostasy of the nations and of their intellectuals. The reputed wise ones of the world sit in counsel to explore the causes of the disorders that are forced on their attention. Despite their sagacity, which is but foolishness with God, they are baffled in all their efforts to arrest the course of the social disintegration which is manifesting itself on all sides. They can but apply temporary palliatives to the disorders that are ravaging the body politic. There is grim irony in this, that men who boast that their only study and concern is with the affairs of this world prove themselves so helpless in the management of those very affairs to which they consecrate all their energies of mind and body.
A remedy that will heal the disease which is devouring the vitality of European civilization, they cannot discover, for they obstinately refuse to turn their eyes to that quarter whence alone salvation can come.
The city that is set on a hill they cannot see, for their eyes are earthbound. Their ears remain closed to the solemn warning that “there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), as we are told in the Acts of the Apostles, than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth. In publicly attributing to Christ full sovereign rights over all societies as well as over all individuals, the powers of the world are but paying a debt of justice. Christ, even while he was true man, is a divine person. Dignity, status, honor, observance are paid to the person, not to the nature. Hence, what is due to God is due to his Christ.
Saint Paul points this out in memorable words. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Phil. 2:5–6). It is not a usurpation on the part of Christ to assume the place of preeminence, the primacy of influence, and the sovereign respect that belong to the person of God in human affairs. For the prerogatives of the divine personality are not Christ’s only title to supreme authority in the affairs of men. As man, he is, in virtue of the hypostatic union, a king of men.
The Greek philosopher pointed out that the man to whom nature points as a rightful ruler is born so, that is, he is born with the capacity to rule. The human nature of Christ, by its hypostatic union with the divine nature, enjoys in virtue of its origin the chieftainship of all human beings.
He is supreme amongst men merely by what he is as man. He is not merely the greatest of men in every respect. His supremacy is not a matter of degree. That is, his greatness is not a superlative expression of what other men may have in some measure. His greatness admits of no comparison with that of other men. It is of a higher quality. It is transcendent. He stands a king of men. All this is implied and expressed in his quiet reply to Pilate’s question, “Are you a king?” “Yes,” said Jesus, “I am a king” (John 18:37). What fullness of royalty is implied in these simple words on the lips of God. They are reminiscent of the “I am who am” addressed to Moses (Exod. 3:14).
Christ was not only king of men by what he was, he was king too by divine destination, and by the influence he was to exercise in human affairs in consequence of that divine destination. He was commissioned by God to reorganize humanity. That is, to give it organic unity when it had been broken into countless fragments by Adam’s sin. He was to be the source of that bond that alone was capable of drawing all men into a perfect social unity.
His humanity, as the instrument of the divinity in the reshaping of the world, was dowered with the plenitude of divine grace. That grace, communicable by him to all men, and that without any perceptible diminution in its source, would weld all men to one another and to him in a social unity of a supernatural order. All men in him would form one social body, sharing in the same life. He was destined by God to be the head of that body and graced accordingly. That supernatural life was meant by God to take possession of man as a whole.
Hence, the supernatural unity which was the immediate effect of it would, in God’s intent, reflect itself visibly in the earthly sphere. Christ was predestined by God to be the source of supernatural life for the heads of states. They in turn, as enlightened and moved by his spirit, should consult the temporal interests and plan for the common good of the peoples entrusted to their care. The welfare of the subjects would depend on the willingness of the ruler to be the organ of expression for the mind and will of Christ.
In God’s plan for the ordering of the world, temporal rulers have a duty to exercise their sovereignty under Christ as their suzerain. It does not change things that they refuse to look upon their position in this light. It remains in the order of things that Christ is de jure head of man, organized first into one supernatural society, the mystical body, and then into the various natural societies into which mankind should group itself in accordance with natural instincts and preferences.
Jesus of Nazareth is not only entitled to rule all men, he is, as well, equipped in an eminent manner with all the qualities requisite for a ruler of all men. His humanity is united to the Word of God and divinely attuned to it. The Word is the divine expression of all that is within and without God. It expresses perfectly uncreated and created reality. The sacred humanity is therefore the living embodiment, the complete prototype of created order.
In itself, the sacred humanity is the realization of a harmonious hierarchy of all human and supernatural perfections. The mind of Jesus has a clear and comprehensive grasp of God’s plan for the welfare of men as persons and as grouped into states. His mind is as a sun radiating light over all creation.
It can enlighten the mind of every man, statesman and subject alike. If earthly rulers submit their intelligence to his, if they bring them into the stream of illumination that has its source in his thought, they cannot fail to see what order of things would most efficiently promote the happiness of the temporal state. Jesus reigns in virtue of his infused and beatific knowledge over all created minds. His sovereignty over wills is equally all-embracing. There is no impulse towards what is salutary or towards what is noble in human enterprises that has not its inspiration in the will of Jesus.
That will is preeminent in its perfection and in its influence. It is in perfect tune with the will of the Word and reflects its holiness. It assimilates God’s zeal for human happiness and moves Jesus to spend all his powers of mind and body in the service of humanity.
And his service is not of humanity in the abstract, but extends itself with love and providence and respect to every individual subject of his, no matter how lowly. No man is insignificant in his eyes. By him is acknowledged in perfection the worth and importance of the individual man. He values each person so highly that he would think it worthwhile to shed his blood for the safety of each one.
Jesus has the heart of a great prince. No king has loved his subjects so utterly as he. No human heart has ever been created so enamored of God and of man as his. No heart has burned with such an ardent flame for all that is gracious and good and noble. No one has been capable of stirring in all the ages and in all the conditions of men such utter loyalty.
The loyalty that he has received and receives from men is not an unworthy reflection of the loyalty he gives to them. No created being has ever been or ever will be loved by human hearts as passionately as Jesus Christ.
To his claims of universal rule of human affairs based upon his personality, upon the super-eminent dignity and primacy of his human nature, and upon his kingly qualities of mind and heart and will, is added the title of conquest. Jesus has fought a splendid and a tremendous fight to rescue mankind from slavery and to give it back its proper status. Disdaining the protective armor of the divinity, he with supreme fortitude flung his defenseless humanity against the forces of earth and hell that kept mankind in captivity.
In the conflict, he used no other arms than the graceful perfections of his human nature. Unflinching courage, perfect truth, uncompromising faithfulness to the true human ideal, undying hatred of hypocrisy and unreality, death-braving devotion to God and zeal for the well-being of man. These were the weapons with which he fought and conquered the empire of falsehood.
His realm is a realm of truth, and into this he opened the way for all mankind. Men de jure are the subjects of Christ because, in addition to all other reasons, they have been bought at a great price. Only in and through the accepted reign of Christ can human life, as God plans it, become possible.
Since human life cannot find its full expression and ultimate achievement, and this is true as well in the temporal as in the supernatural order, except through the forms of society, the order and peace that Christ won for individuals must extend to and be realized in those social and political forms to which men are inclined by the promptings of nature.
It is only the cooperation secured through the organism of state life that permits the complete expansion of the vast possibilities of human talent, science, and industry. Society therefore, as well as the individual, must draw from the sacred humanity of Christ the light which is to guide its destiny securely.
In the light of Christ only can be formed the constitutions capable of promoting the material, moral, and spiritual welfare of the citizens.
From his grace is derived the strength to translate right principles into good action. In docility to his teaching is found the possibility of constructing that social and economic framework within which the citizen may freely develop his personality. Outside of Christ and apart from Christ, God can discern no good in human things. Nothing but what calls forth the rigors of his justice. We are told, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him” (Matt. 17:5).
Whatever human thing gives evidence of inattention to or disregard of the son cannot please the Father. It can but provoke him.
It cannot but be admitted that in the world as reconstituted by the redemption, God appointed the humanity of Christ and its scale of values the regulative principle of human affairs, individual and social. Christ himself is the supreme ruler and guide of men, ousting the prince of this world of darkness from the position he had usurped through fraud, cunning, and treachery. Christ became prince of the world, made new and flooded with light.
From his heavenly Father, the savior of men has received power to make laws which mankind must observe and to enforce the observance of these laws by sanctions. Scripture is explicit on this point. “For neither does the Father judge any man, but has given all judgment to the son” (John 5:22), we are told in St. John.
The affairs of society are in order only when the citizens of the earthly city regulate their civic life in accordance with the laws which Christ has ordered them to observe and the principles to which he has bidden them to conform. It is unhappily true that men, for the most part, make ill use of their free will and revolt against the government of Jesus, a government inspired by love and marked by supreme prudence and justice. Yet in spite of their revolt, such men remain the subjects of Christ, and their rebellion is chastised by the temporal disasters that ever follow in its wake.
How true a triumph is certain for the Lord, when he shall have brought to naught all principality and power and virtue. “For he must reign, until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Cor. 15:25), we are told by Saint Paul.
Men need not fear that the acceptance of the law of Christ will mean a diminution of their liberty. Neither should their rulers believe that the recognition of his authority in the affairs of state would mean a lessening or overshadowing of their own. Quite the contrary. Man’s true freedom consists in the unfettered power to develop his personality to the utmost. The perfect freedom of the state consists in the unfettered power to create that external rule that best favors the development of fullness of life and personality in the citizens.
Now it is only when God’s justice and God’s law runs in earthly kingdoms and exerts its influence on governors and governed alike, that this perfect condition of things is possible of realization.
Slavery necessarily comes to press heavily on men in the state that denies God. In dispossessing God as the supreme authority, the state forces itself into his place. It becomes a god and demands man’s worship.
From legislative sessions and council chambers from which Christ has been banished, they pass enactments and demand obedience to what they have determined. Those who refuse obedience are declared criminals because of that disobedience and are visited with heavy sanctions. Those who submit are regarded as just. Human action becomes good or bad according as it conforms or fails to conform to prescriptions that have no other authority than that of man himself.
It is real slavery for a human being to have his acts declared good or evil by an authority no higher than himself. It is hard to grasp the fearful impiety that is implicit in this. It is virtually to claim that human reason is the rule by which things must be measured to test their truth, and the imperative of a human will the standard to which they must conform to be good.
In this is the primeval revolt being continually reenacted in human history. It is to act as Adam, for he aimed at making his reason the law of truth and his will the rule of good for man. This is again the sin of the race, not a sin of individual frailty or passion.
Human dignity is inextricably bound up with the rule of Christ. For the human person, to serve God is to be free, to serve man is to be a slave. There is no alternative between the acceptance of Christ as king and the acknowledgement of the absolutism of the state. Man’s pride, his fatal tendency to create a sovereign Lord to his own image, and his instinctive chafing against the transcendence of the supernatural, drive him to an acquiescence in the deification of the state.
But the god he has enthroned shares the ephemeral nature of man’s moods. The divinity in which the power of the state is successively embodied enjoys but a transient favor. Inevitably men rise in resistance to the claims of the divinity that they themselves have created.
No peace and no order, no stability can be established where the state is God. Disorder and unrest are bound to be endemic in such a state. And the only thing that can meet this disorder is force. Love is the constraining principle in the kingdom of Christ. Force is the constraining principle in the kingdom of man. The ruler that rules in independence of God can with reason claim no greater sanctity for the determinations of his will than can be claimed for the determinations of the subject’s will, when the latter chooses to rebel.
Both are of human origin, and in that respect, one has as much inherent right to prevail as the other. The only solution of the tension is force.
When on the other hand, earthly princes are true to their character of vice-regent of Christ and discharge their functions in his name, things are very different. Resistance to them becomes resistance to God. In demanding submission to their ruling, they can claim that they are demanding submission to God. For God, in creating man, willed that he should work out his destiny in the framework of society, and therefore wills all that is required for the proper functioning of the social organism.
He therefore makes docility to the earthly prince be docility to his own arrangement of things. Human law becomes thus a created image or participation of divine law. Conformity to it is clothed with the form of supernatural justice. Its accomplishment is righteousness, its violation is sin. The ultimate court of appeal is not on earth, its site is in heaven itself.
Christ, in the exercise of his overlordship, does not undertake to regulate in detail the affairs of human society.
He demands no more than that these affairs be regulated in harmony with the principles of the Christian law which he has promulgated. Within the limits traced by that law, he leaves his creatures free to determine for themselves the forms of polity according to which they choose to live. Man is allowed by Christ full liberty to organize his social and political life, to regulate his domestic and foreign affairs in the way that is determined by natural inclination and historical experience. Each people, following its own temperament and its own qualities, can freely evolve the culture and civilization that proves to be the fullest expression of its natural character.
All that Jesus demands is that his spirit should breathe through the laws, direct the councils, purify the manners, and direct the actions of both rulers and ruled.
The sovereignty to which he lays claim is established when the spirit of the gospel permeates the institutions of state and finds expression in the social, cultural, and economic life of the people. When public life and social manners bear the imprint of the mind of Christ, the individual finds in the tone of society a powerful aid to walk in the way of righteousness.
The great Greek philosophers held it as a first principle that it was the principal function of the science of statesmanship to make the citizens virtuous. This meant promoting the social order and establishing the social institutions most favorable to the practice of right living. The social and political setting in which the citizen finds himself exerts a constant and profound moral influence on him. If it is Christian in its spirit, it tends to mold him to the Christian way of thinking and acting. If it is not, it tends to blur the outlook on life that is logically deducible from the Christian faith.
When error finds expression in legal enactments or in social provisions, it easily penetrates into the minds of individuals and takes firm root there.
Hence the effort to make the individual Christian without endeavoring to make the system in which he lives Christian too, is bound to suffer a measure of frustration. What is done in the church is partially undone in the marketplace.
In establishing the feast of the Kingship of Christ, the church bids us fix our attention on the regal figure of Jesus Christ. She bids us pay honor to the sovereignty which he exercises over men as gathered into that perfect organic social group called the state. It is the duty of Christians to acknowledge openly and profess undisguisedly the right of Christ to influence the councils of men, to establish the norms for their laws, and to fix the limits of temporal jurisdiction. His church has been appointed to be the infallible interpreter of his mind to men in all matters that have a bearing on their eternal destiny.
The church, the mystical Christ, perpetuating on earth the physical Christ, is the ultimate court of appeal at which is decided authoritatively what is morally lawful and what is not in the affairs of men, public as well as private, international as well as national.
The right of the church to summon to its tribunal and to judge the morality of the acts of secular legislation that have a bearing upon the spiritual welfare of her children is one with the right of Christ to rule the nations. Christians must be ever ready to vindicate this right by every legitimate means in their power. It should be instinctive with them to evaluate by the values of Christ every movement that tends to give a new direction to the world.
Christians must learn to weigh all things in his scales and to approve what he would approve, condemn what he would condemn. The test to apply to everything affecting man’s way of living, whether that be a principle or a fact, must be, what would Christ think of this? Our views should be shaped according to the answer of that question.
Christ should be the light that illuminates our intelligence, and it should be our endeavor to secure that the education we impart or receive should be informed by his thought. On those who are charged with the formation of youth lies the obligation of cultivating tastes and appreciations in conformity with the principles of Christianity.
From Christian hearts should consistently rise the prayer that the governments of the world would at length abandon that naturalism which they have erected into a first principle, and which has wrought such havoc on the world. What profound peace would descend upon the nations if their rulers would only submit themselves humbly to the merciful and gracious rule of Jesus Christ. It is only thus that at length all would come to live in concord, free from fear and anxiety.
I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
EW