When our Lord was on the final days of his visible life on this earth,
he was asked an interesting question by Pilate,
Are you a king then?
Jesus would answer as St. John tells us,
Caesar's authority are to put the Pharisees and scribes out of business.
He came in order to die as the king of love on Calvary,
so that Pilate, Caesar, the Pharisees and the scribes,
and all of humanity may be sanctified in his precious blood.
And so, today we honor the universal reign of Christ the king,
a feast established by the vicar of Christ, Pope Pius XI,
in order to counter what is transpiring in the modern world.
And so, we see very clearly that the vicar of Christ answers in the same manner
that Christ the Savior answered to Pilate.
Listen to these words of Pius XI as he begins his encyclical,
Quos Primos, on the kingship of Christ,
that would institute the solemnity, the feast that we celebrate today.
In the first encyclical letter which we addressed at the beginning of our pontificate
to the bishops of the universal church,
we referred to the chief causes of the difficulties under which mankind was laboring.
And we remember saying that those manifold evils in the world
were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ
and his holy law out of their lives.
And these had no place either in private affairs or in politics.
And we said further that as long as individuals and states
refuse to submit to the rule of our Savior,
there would be no real hopeful process,
there would be no prospect for a lasting peace among nations.
Men must look for the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ.
And he continues,
It seemed to us that the peace could not be more effectually restored
or fixed upon a firmer basis than through the restoration of the empire of our Lord.
We were led in the meantime to indulge the hope of a brighter future
at the sight of a more widespread and keener interest
in Christ and his church,
the one source of salvation.
A sign that men who had formerly spurned the rule of our Redeemer
and had exiled themselves from his kingdom
were preparing and even hastening to return to the duty of obedience.
Indeed, we can say this is the most eloquent commentary
on our Lord's words to Pilate.
And so we will learn, hopefully, that we have no reason,
indeed, we have no right to despair or to become discouraged,
at the lot of the modern world.
For we must declare as our King declared,
For this I came into the world.
Did not the Christ come to suffer and to die?
Did not the Christ, the King, teach us all
that we are to expect in society
the malaise, the evil, that our society is presently laboring under?
And so we must hold out to the world
the same message that Christ has,
held out to Pilate,
the same message that the vicars of Christ
have been trying to communicate to the mystical body of Christ,
especially in our times.
But it began with Peter and it will continue to the end of time.
Pius XI would continue,
His empire, lest anyone think
that the empire of Christ is not a universal empire
and that that empire is to extend to all mankind,
he declares definitively,
his empire includes not only Catholic nations,
not only baptized persons who through a right belonging to the church
have been led astray by error or have been cut off from her by schism,
but also to those who are outside the Christian faith,
so that truly the whole of mankind is subject to the power of Jesus Christ
and did not King David,
for see this when he said in his 33rd Psalm,
let all the earth fear the Lord
and let all the inhabitants of the world be in awe of him,
for he spoke and they were made,
he commanded and they were created.
And so it was at the command of the King that we were created
and so the kingship of Christ is based on that universal truth
that we are his creatures and hence he is our creator.
And so we must strive to understand this mystery of Christ the King
and most especially that it is a mystery of most profound love
for he rules as the king of love on Calvary.
And so his vicars on earth, the popes,
especially those of the 20th and 21st centuries
have been called to rule the church in an age of revolutionary change,
of a revolutionary spirit,
catastrophe has followed upon catastrophe.
All the landmarks and the nations of old
have been smothered in the stale and sterile air
and submerged by the flood of change
where old rules of tradition and precedent no longer avail.
And we see that in our society.
Try to communicate the love of Christ the King
to a world whose minds have become communized,
that is,
who seek salvation in the things of this world
and not in the Lord of all love.
And you can become very discouraged
for it seems almost impossible
for us to penetrate the ignorance,
willful in most cases,
that has crept over the human mind and into the human heart.
And perhaps it is because we are trying to operate
on the same level and in the same manner,
thinking that we can, as it were,
establish a political salvation,
a worldly solution to the problem of the modern world,
the absolute apostasy and rejection of the kingship of Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Savior.
And so, in this age of cultural warfare,
what Christopher Dawson, a Catholic historian,
described as the culture comp of the modern world,
the eyes of a hostile world, he would say,
have seemed to isolate the papacy,
and it seems to stand alone,
undefended and without allies,
against what Dawson called
the triumphant forces of modern secular civilization.
It seems that the papacy has been regulated
to a nice, jolly old man.
But it only seems so through the eyes of the world,
for behind the papacy stands someone,
stands someone most powerful,
who the Pharisees and the scribes
and Pilate and Caesar and the people
should have recognized as most powerful.
Did he not raise Lazarus from the dead?
Did he not change water into wine?
Did he not exercise his power in all manner of charitable works,
which he commands the mystical body to do in today's gospel,
i.e., exercise the corporal and the spiritual works of mercy?
He would do it on every level possible,
and most especially on the miraculous level.
And so, you cannot reject the love and the kingship of Christ
without a willful act,
for he has proven at every level
that he has the power and the authority
to do with us what he will.
And if we do not embrace his kingship,
then he will do to this nation and to this world
what was done to all the former nations
and all the former worlds in the past.
Ancient Egypt, ancient Babylon, ancient Assyria,
Phoenicia, Carthage, Rome,
all have gone by the wayside
because they refused to accept the kingship of Christ.
This kingship is not merely confirmed by the vicar of Christ.
It seems the whole theme of sacred scripture
alludes to or directly speaks of the kingship of Christ.
When the first king capitulated to sin,
immediately was promised to Adam and Eve
a new king and a new queen to come.
When, as it were, Nimrod,
that ancient devil of old in human clothing,
sought to literally, as the doctors and fathers tell us,
storm heaven by constructing the Tower of Babel,
literally to, as it were, throw out,
to cast out Christ and the good angels from the heavens,
he was scattered by a mere act of God's power
in which he confused them by creating the different languages
by which we all now speak.
Why did Christ do this?
Not as an act of his justice,
but as an act of his mercy,
so that what was scattered
at Babel would be regathered up in the kingship
that the Old Testament foretold from of old.
All in the old points to the kingship of Christ.
And so it is that all human hearts seek this kingship,
seek this peace.
And so, while the world seems to think the Holy Father
is an insignificant leader in the world,
he is the most significant leader
for one reason and one reason only,
because behind him
stands the full authority and power of Christ the King.
So much so,
that when the vicar of Christ, Pius XI,
or his successor Benedict,
offered a prayer to the Mother of God
to directly intercede
in the course of human events,
within a few weeks
began the appearance
of the Queen of Heaven and Earth at Fatima.
Even Catholics are not aware of that.
She came at the direct request
of the one who has the full authority
of the kingship of Christ
and exercises that authority as his vicar.
And so, we need not despair
because we should look forward
to the modern Tower of Babel,
the confusion of tongues,
and the chaos that has come into our modern world,
for it is precisely when man is most chaotic
that he begins to seek earnestly
for true peace.
And then he begins to seek
with his whole mind and his whole heart
the one who alone can bring peace.
And so, we as Catholics
have no right to despair,
no right to become
discouraged for this
we have been brought into the world,
and I mean the supernatural world
in our baptism.
For this we live
and for this we die.
This is our purpose and so,
while we live according to
the observance of the senses
in the worst times of the history of mankind,
for members of the mystical body,
we live in the greatest.
We have the most opportunity
to do the extraordinary work
of Christ our King.
And so, we must take up that banner.
For the Pope has been divested
of his temporal powers
and some lament.
The Pope has been divested
of his temporal powers
by the direct order of Christ the King,
for he cannot permit anything
unless it is his will.
And so, clamor as we may
with the traditionalist
and lament the fact
that the Pope has been divested
of his temporal powers,
it only proves you think
like the enemies of the church
in a material sense,
in a material kingdom.
Christ has ordered
the divesting of the temporal powers
of the Vicar of Christ
for a very precise reason.
And we need to begin to look
at the supernatural reasons,
why?
Because formally,
under the old Christendom,
in its first form,
it became essentially
a European thing.
And it had the authority of the Pope
and he had command
over the military soldiers.
But Christ did not come into this world
merely to conquer Europe.
He came into this world
to conquer all the seven continents.
He came into this world
to conquer every insignificant island
every insignificant hamlet
according to the eyes of men
because where souls dwell,
Christ the King wishes to come.
And so, he has ordered
not the military conquest
of the nations
but the spiritual conquest
and so, we have seen this
most extraordinarily illustrated
in the pontificate of Pope John Paul II
who went as the emissary of Christ the King
to untold nations
and untold lands.
And he would not even leave
the Eskimos alone
up in the cold tundra.
He seemed to have gone everywhere
because he seemed to be
another Christ
walking, living and breathing.
And it was the Eskimos
who perhaps offered the greatest homage
to the Vicar of Christ
that has been offered to him
in the modern world.
And when we begin to think
by way of the traditionalist
we do not understand what was done.
For you hear it railed
that he is almost an apostasy
because he accepted as it were
the head garment of the Indians.
That feathered garment
in which the leader of the tribe is invested.
And they did not understand the significance
for it was traditional.
Once the Indians began to convert
to Christianity
to hang that headdress
especially at Christmas
over the image of the infant
in the crib at Bethlehem
to recognize what?
His kingship.
It was an act of submission.
This is the King of Kings
and when it was placed
on the Vicar of Christ's head
it was to recognize his role
as the emissary of Christ the King.
It was done by way of submission.
And no Catholic
should be scandalized
by the pious
and loving act of another culture
just because it is not their culture.
Christ transcends all cultures
and so it isn't just as it were
in arguing one time
with traditionalists.
I asked would you object
if he had worn the baseball cap?
Of course not.
That's American.
Which simply shows
that they have restricted it
to a national experience.
But Christ's kingship
goes beyond
all experiences
and all cultures.
He wishes to imbue all souls
with the power to become holy
with the power to become saints
and so it would have to leave Europe
where it became entrenched
where the King gained his foothold
and as we all know
that when an army
gains a foothold
it does so in order to use it
as a starting point
to go forward
and to ultimately conquer the lands
and so the foothold
would become the way
and the means
into all nations
into all lands
so that Christ the King
may embrace the whole
of the habitable world.
And so a new apostolate
has come into the mystical body of Christ
to go forth
and to conquer all kingdoms
and it is a daring apostolate
and it is a courageous apostolate.
For we do not have the solace
and the comfort of knowing
that the armies
of the former European Christendom
stand behind us.
We must go forth armed
with only the spiritual weapons
that the Lord has given us.
But as Saint Maximilian Mary Colby
would so eloquently understand
that is a better way
to conquer for Christ
because it is by the way of love
not by the way of fear.
And it is perfectly in conformity
to the way Christ conquered souls
on Calvary.
Not by way of fear
but by way of love.
And that love is open to all
to Pilate and to Caesar
and to what the world would judge
the most insignificant Eskimo
on the tundras of Canada and Alaska.
For there are no insignificant souls
in the Kingdom of Christ.
There is not a superfluous soul
in the mind of God.
For the King created them
in order that they may be with Him.
And so in the new confusion of tongues
the papacy and hence Christ the King
stands as the one supernatural
and supernatural power
which can speak to the nations
the words of peace and reconciliation.
And all other attempts are natural
and all too often with a little bit
or perhaps not such a little bit
of preternatural manipulation
that is the work of Satan.
And so we ultimately are confronted
with the choice to choose
the work of Christ and His Kingdom
or to continue to compromise
with the Kingdom of Satan and His ways.
To choose peace or to choose chaos.
Ultimately the peace of Christ
will be restored
for He is the all-powerful King
and He cannot allow
especially the corruption of children
to go on unabated for too much longer.
He made that clear
and He made it clear as King.
And so as members of the mystical body
we must cooperate.
How?
It's very simple.
Our Lord gives us the key
to go forth with the spiritual
in the corporal works of mercy
exercised not by way of altruism
or philanthropism
but by way of love
for Christ the King.
For our Lord condemned
philanthropy in today's Gospel.
How many of us would deny
that the enemies of Christ the King
do not feed the poor
or do not clothe the naked
or do not visit the prisoners?
My goodness,
they're trying to free them all from prison
in a most imprudent act.
Who would deny that?
But what does our Lord say?
He says,
unless you do it
for the right intention
that is
for love of the King
then it abounds to nothing.
It does not as it were adhere
as a meritorious act.
Its reward is in this life
and our Lord is clear.
If those works are done
for any other reason
than the glory of Christ the King
then they only redoubt
to one's eternal damnation.
He makes it clear
in today's Gospel.
And we need to understand that
in the false modern push
for a misunderstanding
of ecumenism
that would compromise
the kingdom of Christ.
And whenever you hear
no matter where you hear it
that when we come together
and are gathered
with non-Christian brethrens
the name of Christ must not be uttered
and no prayers must be offered
in the name of Christ
then it is not
an authentic expression
of the doctrine of the kingship of Christ.
It is the deceptive words ultimately
of Satan
who alone is opposed
to the kingship of Christ
because he knows
that in Christ
we don't have a king
who is striving for victory
we have a king
who is all victorious.
The war is over.
The king has risen
as he said.
End of war.
The only thing
to be determined
is the tally.
How many sheep
that will glorify their God
for all eternity in heaven
and how many goats
who will suffer
the pains of rejecting
the kingship of Christ.
And so
all of these things
that are about in our modern world
all of these things
that cause us to despair
and to become discouraged
are things we have to begin
to look at
in a different way.
For they foreshadow the birth
of a new Christendom
a society which is not confined
as in the past
to a single group of nations
and a single civilization
but which is common
to every people and language
and unites all the members
of the human family
in the divine community
of the mystical body of Christ.
Long live Christ the King.
God bless you.