The impetus in 1925 for this feast was to call our attention to the development of totalitarian forms of governance in the years between the two great wars. Firstly, progress of industrialisation depended on the development of science and technology. More and more the canon or the measure of knowledge had become restrictive, in the sense that, scientific knowledge is perceived to be the only knowledge. The result can only mean that religion is sidelined to private belief. When faith becomes non-essential to the organisation of life, religion becomes useless. In that way, secularism paved the path for the rise in anti-clericalism in Catholic countries like Spain, Mexico and Brazil. Secondly, Communism gained its foothold in Russia and soon enough choked the countries behind the Iron Curtain. Thirdly, Fascism reared its head in Italy, Germany, Spain, Brazil and even Japan.
The Church, through Pius XI, pushed back against this move to “privatise” religion with the consequence of rendering it irrelevant. By proclaiming Christ as King, the Pope intended to draw attention to the social Kingship of Christ. It countered the modernist errors of relegating religious expressions to the margins of society thereby restricting it to a purely private plane. In other words, religion was becoming superfluous. The crisis of the modernism was the secularising of public and private life. God is sidelined when He should be at the centre of life and civilisation. The cure was to re-establish the reign of Christ over all individuals, families and peoples.
In terms of power and its exercise, the model of Christ’s Kingship is found in the Gospel. Ours is a crucified King. Nailed to the Cross, He is straddled between two thieves. The imagery of a Man hanging on the Cross runs counter to the word that “royalty” connotes. Pomp and pageantry, tarred with the brush of extravagance and wrapped in the excesses of power and status are not what one would think of when one encounters the bruised and bloodied Body of a King.
The King in the Gospel has no earthly power. The crowd, the leaders, the soldiers and even one of the thieves did not recognise His Kingship. Ironically the signage above the crucifix read, Jesus Christ, King of the Jews. Yet, He could not even commute the punishment imposed on the repentant thief. Compared to Mark, Matthew and John’s Gospel, the Lucan Jesus manifested His power through the forgiveness of sins and the promise of paradise to the thief who desired to be saved. In this lowly King, the repentant thief found his salvation. In other words, Christ displayed His strength through the sacrifice of His life in order to ransom slaves.
Christ is King not because we declare Him or announce Him to be. In fact, the present shape or structure of society today cannot comprehend the monarchical system. Has it become irrelevant to even suggests of Christ’s Kingship?
The relevance of this title is found in both in the examples of men or women and Christ Himself. The examples shown by men or women are a plenty. Herod, was King when he murdered the Innocents. Our notion of royalty is another good example where we mistake pomp and pageantry as a nobility of spirit. The noble spirits who are clothed in pomp and pageantry are a few and far between—King Henry II the Emperor, King Edward the Confessor, Queen Elizabeth of Hungary and her namesake Queen Elizabeth of Portugal, etc. These are Kings and Queens in the image of the Prince of Peace.
These Kings and Queens are monarchs only because they live Jesus. Earthly men and woman are fallen creatures and they abuse their power. Jesus Christ did not and have never abused His authority. The saints who are Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses are saints only because they follow Him. Some even have to sacrifice their own lives because they follow the only King who is truly a Royal Person.
The Kingship of Christ is established through His sacrifice on the Cross. His love for humanity showed that the Kingdom is not built upon this temporal world. “Mine is not a Kingdom of this world”. It is an eternal and a spiritual Kingdom as He ruled over all things created.
Thus, Christ will be King if we listen to His voice. He is the Good Shepherd who leads us through His Church. He is the Word of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. We live according to His example when we act in conformity to His will and His teachings. We exercise His Kingship by controlling our unruly senses and by reaching out to others in service of the greater good. Our morals should consist of ensuring that Christ can reign through our behaviour. Christ the King is not a title of pomposity. Instead we should not let our acclamation be empty gestures but full of the promise of Christ being alive in our lives.
