Solemnity of Christ the King
This celebration is not at the level of a feast but at the level of a solemnity. It is the highest form of celebration in a liturgical setting. This is to indicate how important a place this recognition of our Lord Jesus Christ has in our liturgical setting.
The Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, was instituted as “Christ the King” by Pope Pius XI in 1925. It was initially celebrated on the last Sunday of October. However, with the reform of the Roman Calendar in 1969, it was moved to the last liturgical Sunday. In terms of Church history, it is a rather new insertion into the liturgical calendar. Pope Pius XI instituted this to contrast secularism that was pervading into the minds of the people. It was a thinking that excluded God from man’s way of life. It was as if God did not exist in the so-called “real world”.
The institution of the solemnity was to proclaim conclusively that Christ’s royalty over individuals, families, societies and nations.
We live for the Kingdom of God. Our orientation should be towards the Kingdom of God, towards the reign of the Lord. In all things is the Lord supreme? Is the Lord supreme in our way of thinking? Is the Lord supreme in our decision making? Is the Lord supreme in our stewardship? This celebration invites us to consider seriously the end; the end of time, the end of our life. We move on from this finite world to the eternal world where Christ is King. That eternal world begins with the here and now in our decisions and orientations that we take with regard to the world matters of our present existence.
Acknowledging Christ as the head of the Church should propel us to acknowledging Christ as King of my being.
Jesus through the resurrection conquered death and the realm of sin. In the consequence of defeating the armies of the enemy, Jesus is crowned King and Lord of lords. It is only right that we who believe in Him and want to be with Him bow in acknowledgement of his reign over all that we have and all that we are.
Jesus said, This is an evil generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of man be a sign to this generation. Luke 11: 29-30
Life as we know is never going to be the same again. How do we interpret the signs of time? Keep ourselves prepared for what is yet to come. Throughout salvation history every time we are desperate, we are seeking God, at the lowest point in our lives God alone gives us hope. As priest and prophet Ezekiel puts it in one of his oracles, after the fall of Judah and Jerusalem, the Lord Yahweh says this: “I am going to call the Shepard’s to account. I am going to take my flock back from them” Ezekiel 34:7
Currently with the COVID19 virus spreading throughout the world and surrounding us, we have successfully ring fenced ourselves and know that our loved ones are safe as we are now. We now move ahead and start asking the questions: “What’s next? How are we going to move on with our lives from here? How are we going to return to our normalcy? What is the new normal?”
We have moved on from the times when health care workers were working blind and the people affected with the disease came in hard and fast. We, as one nation came together to sacrifice our way of life and changed everything, we knew that was normal. We have formed a new norm. What have we learnt from history and looking forward, how do we lead our lives?
Looking back to pre COVID 19, our lives had a routine and in that routine we gave God his time. We were busy. Now God has given us all the time we need and is waiting for us. Are we going to give him more excuses? We had lost souls, mostly if not all because of pre-existing medical conditions along with COVID 19. The total number of deaths around the world are a lot higher and continues to go up. Bearing in mind the change in climate in most countries is only going to make the situation worse. As a small nation it is now, more than the times of blindness, we need God to take us in his fold. God alone knows the unknown. We need to pray for the leaders to be like the sheep blessed with wisdom, not the Goat that is mentioned in the Old Testament who are oppressive and self-centered.