A blessed solemnity of Christ the King to one and all, in this last week before Advent, the last liturgical solemnity of the year, instantiated by Pope Pius XI in 1925 in the aftermath of the tragedy of World War I. As the Holy Father pointed out in his 1922 encyclical Ubi aracni Dei consilo, there can be no true peace, nor order, in society without the ‘kingship’ of Jesus Christ through His Mystical Body, that is, the Catholic Church. As Leo XIII had earlier taught in Immortale Dei (1881), a society without the true religion can never be well governed.
Originally celebrated on the last Sunday of October (in opposition to ‘Reformation Sunday’), the solemnity was moved after Vatican II to the last Sunday of the (liturgical) year, to emphasize Christ’s dominion over all time and space, the omega towards which all creation is being drawn, until the final apocalypse, when all will be revealed in God’s justice and mercy.
Christ is God, and God is omnipotent, with infinite power. As creation now moves in statu viae, in a state of journeying, we see much imperfection, suffering, evil, but this is temporary and fleeting, and in an instant, the veritable twinkling of an eye, all will be made well, and the (apparent) power of darkness overcome for all eternity by the power of light and goodness and truth.
From our perspective, God seems to be writing with crooked lines, but His providence is straight as an arrow, and all things are quite truly and firmly in His hand, and in His heart.
So have hope, and hold your heads high. Our redemption is, as always, near at hand.
Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat, alleluia.