Christ the King 25.10.15
The annual Christ the King Pilgrimage concludes today (Victoria, Australia).
Several hundred people are walking through towns and cities displaying their faith in Christ, specifically acknowledging His Kingship.
We want to proclaim Him to the world, for His own sake; and also to convert others to believe in Him and give Him allegiance. Every knee shall bow before Him, or must do so eventually. There is no option. He is Lord whether we affirm or deny it.
He cannot be dethroned by human opinion. The world, in general, tries to deny, ignore, or downplay Jesus Christ. They laughed at Him when He was on the Cross, and they laugh still. But they will not laugh when they see Him coming in glory.
The pilgrims are saying to one part of the world: Behold your God.
The message applies in every place and every time. There is no particle of the universe that does not come under the authority of Christ. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me (Mt 28,18).
Some will say that religion is essentially a private matter, and not to be intruded on ‘normal’ life; that Church and State should be separate, thus relegating religion to a minor and optional role in human affairs.
But the Church must direct the State, insofar as God's authority must be always respected.
It is God who rules this and every country.
The State can be separate insofar as we do not expect bishops to decide where to put new roads or set taxation rates. These things are not directly under the sphere of the Church but indirectly, through the involvement of Catholic laity, they still come under God's authority.
The Church is not just one particular type of humanity that thinks a certain way, and everyone else thinks another way.
The Church represents how everyone should think on the basic questions of faith and morality. We can differ on many things such as culture, temperament, ways of doing things – but we cannot differ on these basic things which affect all humanity equally (eg laws about marriage, the Ten Commandments).
The State runs itself but it must have the same beliefs that the Church has.
Are we not a democracy? We cannot govern ourselves if we will not first obey God.
Has the Church been discredited by too many scandals? How can we tell the world what to do when we do not do it ourselves?
The scandals make it harder to sell the message but they do not invalidate the message.
Christ is still King; and the Church is still His Body.
We must of course strive to heal the ugly human elements of the Church’s life. We must be Christ-like ourselves, in purity and charity. The Church can apologise but we cannot cease to be what we are.
It is, ultimately, not a message to be feared. That Christ rules the world is a good thing for the world. He has goodwill towards us; He wants to give us every good thing.
It is more straightforward than we make it. The human race has made it all a quagmire of conflicting opinions and desires.
The deeper people get into sin the less wise they become and then the more resistant to the truth when it comes. Someone who is used to the dark does not want to let the light in (…people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. Jn 3,19)
This is why there is so much hatred towards Christ.
We meanwhile must hold firm, live by the truth, proclaim it; take part in public displays of faith when we can.
Show forth our numbers. We are not such a minority as we might think. We can make the non-believers uneasy.
In the short term we have to do a lot of atoning for sin. We are still very much in the Gethsemane and Calvary stage as we follow our King.
It might be easier in the future but for now it is mainly getting crucified! Whether they love or hate you hold firm to Christ and you will be vindicated, as He will be in His glorious return.
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