On the last Sunday of the liturgical year we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe. We offer the text and audio of the homily that St. Josemaría preached on November 22, 1970, and a brief historical review of the origin of the feast.
Text and audio of the homily: on the feast of Christ the King, pronounced on November 22, 1970 by St. Josemaría.
In 325, the first ecumenical council was held in the city of Nicaea, in Asia Minor. On this occasion, the divinity of Christ was defined against the heresies of Arius: «Christ is God, Light from Light, true God from true God». The council was convened by the Roman emperor Constantine I.
His main achievements were the settlement of the Christological question of the nature of the Son of God and his relationship to God the Father, the construction of the first part of the Nicene Symbol (the first uniform Christian doctrine), the establishment of the uniform observance of the date of Easter, and the promulgation of the first code of canon law.
In 1925, 1600 years later, Pope Pius XI proclaimed that the best way for civil society to obtain «just liberty, tranquility and discipline, peace and concord» is for men to recognize, publicly and privately, the kingship of Christ:
«For in instructing the people in the things of the faith,» he wrote, "the annual feasts of the sacred mysteries are much more effective than any teachings, however authoritative, of the ecclesiastical magisterium (...) and they instruct all the faithful (...) every year and perpetually; (...) they penetrate not only the mind, but also the heart, the whole man. (Encyclical Quas primas, December 11, 1925).
The original date of the feast was the last Sunday in October, i.e., the Sunday immediately preceding the All Saints' Day; But with the reform of 1969, it was moved to the last Sunday of the liturgical year, to emphasize that Jesus Christ, the King, is the goal of our earthly pilgrimage.
The biblical texts change in the three liturgical cycles, allowing us to fully grasp the figure of Jesus.
The Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe, which closes the liturgical year, is a proclamation of the kingship of Jesus Christ. Instituted by Pius XI, this feast responds to the need to remember that, although his kingdom is not of this world, Christ possesses universal authority over all creation and over every human heart.
Jesus is King not by earthly power or political domination, but by his redemptive love and his surrender on the cross. His Kingdom is a kingdom of truth, justice, holiness and grace; a kingdom of love, peace and charity. As the liturgy teaches us, he is the "King of kings and Lord of lords" (Rev 19:16), whose throne is the cross and its crown of thorns.
To celebrate Christ the King is to recognize his sovereignty in our personal lives and in society, committing ourselves to building a world according to the values of his Gospel. It is to look towards the end of time, when "Christ will be all in all" (Col 3:11), and his Kingdom will be manifested in fullness.
The liturgical year comes to an end, and in the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar we renew to the Father the offering of the Victim, Christ, King of holiness and grace, King of justice, love and peace, as we will soon read in the Preface. All of you perceive in your souls an immense joy when you consider the holy humanity of Our Lord: a King with a heart of flesh, like ours; who is the author of the universe and of every creature, and who does not impose himself by dominating: he begs for a little love, showing us, in silence, his wounded hands.
Why, then, do so many ignore it? Why is that cruel protest still heard? nolumus hunc regnare super nos, Do we not want him to reign over us? On earth there are millions of men who face Jesus Christ in this way, or rather, with the shadow of Jesus Christ, because they do not know Christ, nor have they seen the beauty of his face, nor do they know the wonder of his doctrine.
Faced with this sad spectacle, I feel inclined to make amends to the Lord. Listening to this clamor that does not cease and that, more than voices, is made up of ignoble deeds, I feel the need to cry out loudly: oportet illum regnare!, it is fitting that He should reign.
Many do not support Christ They oppose Him in a thousand ways: in the general designs of the world and of human coexistence; in customs, in science, in art; even in the very life of the Church! I do not speak -writes St. Augustine. of the wicked who blaspheme Christ. Rare indeed are those who blaspheme him with the tongue, but many are those who blaspheme him with their conduct.
Some people even resent the expression Christ the King: for a superficial matter of words, as if the reign of Christ could be confused with political formulas; or because the confession of the kingship of the Lord would lead them to admit a law. And they do not tolerate the law, not even that of the endearing precept of charity, because they do not wish to approach the love of God: they are ambitious only to serve their own selfishness.
The Lord has been pushing me to repeat, for a long time now, a silent cry: serviam!, I will serve. May he increase our eagerness to give of ourselves, to be faithful to his divine call - naturally, without apparatus, without noise - in the middle of the street. Let us thank him from the bottom of our hearts. Let us address to him a prayer of subjects, of children, and our tongues and palate will be filled with milk and honey, and we will taste like honeycombs when we speak of the Kingdom of God, which is a Kingdom of freedom, of the freedom that he won for us.
I would like us to consider how that Christ, whom - gentle Child - we saw born in Bethlehem, is the Lord of the world: for by Him all beings in heaven and on earth were created; He has reconciled all things to the Father, restoring peace between heaven and earth, through the blood which He shed on the cross.
Today Christ reigns at the right hand of the Father: declared those two angels in white robes to the disciples who were astonished contemplating the clouds, after the Ascension of the Lord: Men of Galilee, why do you stand there looking up to heaven? This Jesus, who has gone up from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have just seen him go up..
By Him kings reign, with the difference that kings, the human authorities, pass away; and the reign of Christ will remain for eternity, his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion endures from generation to generation.
The kingdom of Christ is not a figure of speech, nor a rhetorical image. Christ lives, also as man, with that same body which he assumed in the Incarnation, which he resurrected after the Cross and subsists glorified in the Person of the Word together with his human soul. Christ, true God and true Man, lives and reigns and is the Lord of the world. Through him alone everything that lives is kept alive.
Why, then, does he not appear now in all his glory? Because his kingdom is not of this world, although he is in the world. Jesus had replied to Pilate: I am king. For this I was born, to bear witness to the truth; everyone who belongs to the truth hears my voice.. Those who expected a visible temporal power from the Messiah were mistaken: that the kingdom of God does not consist in eating and drinking, but in righteousness and peace and the joy of the Holy Spirit.
Truth and justice; peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. This is the kingdom of Christ: the divine action that saves men and that will culminate when history ends, and the Lord, who sits on the highest point of paradise, comes to judge men definitively.
When Christ begins his preaching on earth, he does not offer a political program, but says: do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.; He instructs his disciples to proclaim this good news, and teaches them to pray for the coming of the kingdom. This is the kingdom of God and his righteousness, a holy life: what we must seek first, the only thing truly necessary.
Salvation, preached by our Lord Jesus Christ, is an invitation addressed to all: it happens as it happened to a certain king who celebrated his son's wedding and sent his servants to call the guests to the wedding.. Therefore, the Lord reveals that the kingdom of heaven is in your midst.
No one is excluded from salvation if he or she freely complies with Christ's loving demands: to be born again, to become like children, in simplicity of spirit; to turn the heart away from everything that separates us from God. Jesus wants deeds, not just words. And a strenuous effort, because only those who struggle will be worthy of the eternal inheritance.
The perfection of the kingdom-the final judgment of salvation or damnation-will not be on earth. Now the kingdom is like a sowing, like the growth of the mustard seed; its end will be like the fishing with the sweep net, from which -drawn to the sand- will be drawn, for different lots, those who worked righteousness and those who executed iniquity. But as long as we live here, the kingdom is like leaven which a woman took and mixed with three bushels of flour, until the whole lump was leavened.
Whoever understands the kingdom that Christ proposes, realizes that it is worth risking everything to obtain it: it is the pearl that the merchant acquires at the cost of selling what he possesses, it is the treasure found in the field. The kingdom of heaven is a difficult conquest: no one is sure of reaching it, but the humble cry of the repentant man succeeds in opening its doors wide. One of the thieves who were crucified with Jesus pleads with him: Lord, remember me when you have come into your kingdom. And Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise..
How great you are, O Lord and our God! You are the one who gives our lives supernatural meaning and divine efficacy. You are the cause that, for the love of your Son, with all the strength of our being, with soul and body, we can repeat: oportet illum regnare, while the song of our weakness resounds, because you know that we are creatures - and what creatures - made of clay, not only in our feet, but also in our hearts and heads. To the divine, we will vibrate exclusively for you.
Christ must reign, first of all, in our soul. But what would we answer if He were to ask: "How can you let me reign in you? I would answer that in order for Him to reign in me, I need His abundant grace: only in this way will every last heartbeat, every last breath, every least intense look, every most ordinary word, every most elementary sensation be translated into a hosanna to my Christ the King.
If we want Christ to reign, we must be coherent: we must begin by giving him our hearts. If we do not do so, to speak of the reign of Christ would be a mere lip service without Christian substance, an external manifestation of a faith that does not exist, a fraudulent use of the name of Christ, a fraudulent use of the name of the Lord. God for human compromises.
If the condition for Jesus to reign in my soul, in your soul, were to have a perfect place in us beforehand, we would have reason to despair. But Fear not, O daughter of Zion: behold thy King, who cometh sitting on a donkey.. Do you see? Jesus is content with a poor animal for a throne. I do not know about you, but I am not humiliated to recognize myself, in the eyes of the Lord, as a donkey: I am as a little donkey before thee; but I shall always be at thy side, because thou hast taken me by thy right hand., you lead me by the halter.
Think of the characteristics of a donkey, now that there are so few of them left. Not the old, stubborn, spiteful donkey that takes revenge with a treacherous kick, but the young donkey: ears stretched like antennae, austere in eating, hard at work, with a determined and cheerful trot. There are hundreds of animals more beautiful, more skillful and more cruel.
But Christ looked upon him, to present himself as king before the people who acclaimed him. For Jesus does not know what to do with calculating cunning, with the cruelty of cold hearts, with showy but hollow beauty. Our Lord values the joy of a young heart, the simple step, the voice without falsetto, the clear eyes, the attentive ear to his word of affection. Thus he reigns in the soul.
If we let Christ reign in our soul, we will not become dominators, we will be servants of all men. Service. How I love this word! Serving If only we Christians knew how to serve! Let us entrust to the Lord our decision to learn how to carry out this task of service, because only by serving can we know and love Christ, and make Him known and make others love Him more.
How shall we show this to souls? By example: by our voluntary servitude to Jesus Christ in all our activities, because he is the Lord of all the realities of our life, because he is the only and ultimate reason for our existence. Afterwards, when we have given this witness of example, we will be able to instruct with the word, with doctrine. This is how Christ worked: coepit facere et docere, He taught first with works, then with his divine preaching.
To serve others, for Christ's sake, requires us to be very human. If our life is inhuman, God will not build anything in it, because ordinarily he does not build on disorder, on selfishness, on arrogance. We must understand everyone, we must live with everyone, we must forgive everyone, we must forgive everyone.
We will not say that what is unjust is just, that an offense against God is not an offense against God, that evil is good. But, in the face of evil, we will not answer with another evil, but with clear doctrine and good action: drowning evil in an abundance of good. Thus Christ will reign in our soul, and in the souls of those around us.
Some try to build peace in the world without putting the love of God in their own hearts, without serving the creatures for the love of God. How will it be possible to carry out a mission of peace in this way? The peace of Christ is the peace of the kingdom of Christ; and the kingdom of our Lord must be founded on the desire for holiness, on a humble disposition to receive grace, on a strenuous action of justice, on a divine outpouring of love.
This is achievable, it is not a useless dream, if only we men would decide to cherish in our hearts the love of God! Christ, our Lord, was crucified and, from the height of the Cross, he redeemed the world, restoring peace between God and mankind.
Jesus Christ remembers everyone: et ego, si exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia traham ad meipsum, If you place me at the summit of all the activities of the earth, fulfilling the duty of every moment, being my witness in what seems great and in what seems small, omnia traham ad meipsum, My kingdom among you will be a reality!
Christ, Our Lord, is still engaged in this sowing of salvation for mankind and the whole of creation, for this world of ours, which is good because it came good from the hands of God. It was Adam's offense, the sin of human pride, that broke the divine harmony of creation.
But God the Father, when the fullness of time had come, sent his only begotten Son, who - through the work of the Holy Spirit - took flesh in Mary, ever Virgin, to restore peace, so that, redeeming man from sin, adoptionem filiorum reciperemus, We were constituted children of God, able to participate in the divine intimacy: so that it would be granted to this new man, to this new branch of the children of God, to liberate the whole universe from disorder, restoring all things in Christ, who has reconciled them to God.
This is what we Christians have been called to do, this is our apostolic task and the eagerness that should eat at our souls: to make Christ's kingdom a reality, that there be no more hatred or cruelty, that we spread on earth the strong and peaceful balm of love.
Let us ask our King today to make us collaborate humbly and fervently in the divine purpose of uniting that which is broken, of saving that which is lost, of ordering that which man has disordered, of bringing to its end that which is lost, of reconstructing the concord of all creation.
To embrace the Christian faith is to commit oneself to continue among creatures the mission of Jesus. We must be, each one of us, alter Christus, ipse Christus, another Christ, the same Christ. Only in this way will we be able to undertake that great, immense, unending enterprise: to sanctify from within all temporal structures, bringing there the leaven of Redemption.
I never speak of politics. I do not think of the task of Christians on earth as the sprouting of a politico-religious current - that would be madness - not even if it has the good purpose of infusing the spirit of Christ in all the activities of men.
It is the heart of each person, whoever he or she may be, that must be put into God. Let us try to speak for every Christian, so that wherever he is - in circumstances that do not depend only on his position in the Church or in civil life, but on the result of changing historical situations - he may be able to give witness, by example and word, to the faith he professes.
The Christian lives in the world with full rights, because he is a man. If he accepts that Christ dwells in his heart, that Christ reigns, the saving efficacy of the Lord will be strongly felt in all his human activities. It does not matter that this occupation is, as it is often said, high o low; because a human summit can be, in the eyes of God, a lowliness; and what we call low or modest can be a Christian summit of holiness and service.
The Christian, when he works, as is his duty, must not evade or circumvent the demands of the natural. If with the expression blessing human activities If it were to be understood as annulling or hiding its own dynamics, I would refuse to use those words.
Personally, I have never been convinced that the ordinary activities of men should bear, like a false sign, a confessional label. Because it seems to me, although I respect the contrary opinion, that there is a danger of using in vain the holy name of our faith, and also because, at times, the Catholic label has even been used to justify attitudes and operations that are sometimes not honestly human.
If the world and all that is in it - except sin - is good, because it is the work of God our Lord, the Christian, struggling continually to avoid offenses against God - a positive struggle of love - must dedicate himself to all that is earthly, side by side with other citizens; he must defend all the goods derived from the dignity of the person.
And there is one good that he should always seek especially: that of personal freedom. Only if he defends the individual freedom of others with the corresponding personal responsibility, will he be able, with human and Christian honesty, to defend his own freedom in the same way.
I repeat and will repeat unceasingly that the Lord has freely given us a great supernatural gift, divine grace; and another marvelous human gift, personal freedom, which requires of us - lest it become corrupted, turning into licentiousness - integrity, effective commitment to develop our conduct within the divine law, for where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty.
The Kingdom of Christ is one of freedom: here there are no other servants than those who freely put themselves in chains for love of God. Blessed slavery of love, which sets us free! Without freedom, we cannot correspond to grace; without freedom, we cannot give ourselves freely to the Lord, with the most supernatural reason: because we feel like it.
Some of you who listen to me know me from many years ago. You can attest that all my life I have been preaching personal freedom, with personal responsibility. I have searched for it and I search for it, all over the earth, as Diogenes searched for a man. And every day I love it more, I love it above all earthly things: it is a treasure that we will never appreciate enough.
When I speak of personal freedom, I am not referring with this excuse to other problems, perhaps very legitimate ones, which do not correspond to my office as a priest. I know that it is not my place to deal with secular and transitory matters, which belong to the temporal and civil sphere, matters that the Lord has left to the free and serene controversy of men.
I also know that the lips of the priest, avoiding all human banditry, must be opened only to lead souls to God, to his saving spiritual doctrine, to the sacraments instituted by Jesus Christ, to the interior life that brings us closer to the Lord, knowing that we are his children and, therefore, brothers and sisters of all men without exception.
Today we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. And I am not departing from my priestly office when I say that, if anyone were to understand the kingdom of Christ as a political program, he would not have deepened the supernatural finality of faith and would be one step away from burdening consciences with weights that are not those of Jesus, because its yoke is soft and its burden light.
Let us truly love all men; let us love Christ above all; and then we will have no choice but to love the legitimate freedom of others, in a peaceful and reasonable coexistence.
You will suggest, perhaps: but few people want to hear this, let alone put it into practice.. I know for sure: freedom is a strong and healthy plant, which acclimatizes poorly among stones, thorns or roads trampled by people. It had already been announced to us, even before Christ came to earth.
Remember the second psalm: Why have the heathen raged, and the people plotted vain things? The kings of the earth have risen up, and the princes are gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.. See? Nothing new.
They opposed Christ before He was born; they opposed Him, while His peaceful feet walked the paths of Palestine; they persecuted Him afterwards and now, attacking the members of His mystical and royal Body. Why so much hatred, why this preying on candid simplicity, why this universal crushing of the freedom of every conscience?
Let us break their bonds and shake their yoke away from us.. They break the gentle yoke, they cast off their burden, a marvelous burden of holiness and justice, of grace, of love and peace. They rage at love, they laugh at the helpless goodness of a God who renounces the use of His legions of angels to defend Himself. If the Lord were to admit compromise, if He were to sacrifice a few innocents to satisfy a majority of the guilty, they might yet attempt an understanding with Him.
But this is not God's logic. Our Father is truly Father, and is willing to forgive thousands of evildoers, provided there are only ten righteous ones. Those who are driven by hatred cannot understand this mercy, and strengthen themselves in their apparent earthly impunity, feeding on injustice.
He who dwells in the heavens will laugh at them, the Lord will mock them. Then he will speak to them in his indignation and fill them with terror in his wrath.. How legitimate is God's wrath and how just his anger, how great also his clemency!
I have been appointed by him king over Zion, his holy mountain, to preach his law. To me the Lord has said: You are my son, this day have I begotten you.. The mercy of God the Father has given us his Son as King. When he threatens, he is moved with tenderness; he announces his wrath and gives us his love. You are my son: he addresses Christ and he addresses you and me, if we decide to be alter Christus, ipse Christus.
Words cannot follow the heart, which is moved by the goodness of God. He tells us: you are my son. Not a stranger, not a servant kindly treated, not a friend, which would already be too much. Son! He gives us a free hand to live with Him the piety of a son and, I would dare to say, also the shamelessness of the son of a Father, who is incapable of denying Him anything.
That there are many who are bent on behaving unjustly? Yes, but the Lord insists: ask of me, I will give you the nations as an inheritance, and I will extend your dominion to the ends of the earth. Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and shalt break them like a potter's vessel.. These are strong promises, and they are from God: we cannot conceal them. It is not in vain that Christ is the Redeemer of the world, and reigns, sovereign, at the right hand of the Father. It is the terrible announcement of what awaits each one, when life passes, because it passes; and to all, when history ends, if the heart is hardened in evil and despair.
However, God, who can always win, prefers to convince: Now, you kings, you rulers, understand this well; let yourselves be instructed, you who judge on earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and exalt him with trembling. Embrace the good doctrine, lest at last the Lord be angry with you and you perish from the good way, for his wrath is suddenly kindled.. Christ is the Lord, the King.
We proclaim to you the fulfillment of the promise made to our fathers, which God has fulfilled before our children by raising Jesus from the dead, as it is written in the second Psalm: You are my Son, this day have I begotten you.....
Now therefore, my brethren, know that through Jesus is offered to you the remission of sins and of all stains from which you could not be justified under the Mosaic law: whoever believes in Him is justified. See to it that what is spoken in the prophets does not fall upon you: make reparation, you who despise, be filled with dread and be desolate; for I am going to accomplish a work in your days, which you will not believe in no matter how much you are told about it..
It is the work of salvation, the reign of Christ in souls, the manifestation of God's mercy. Blessed are those who accept Him!. We Christians have the right to extol the kingship of Christ, for even if injustice abounds, even if many do not desire this reign of love, in human history itself, which is the scene of evil, the work of eternal salvation is being woven.
Ego cogito cogitationes pacis et non afflictionis, I think thoughts of peace and not of sadness, says the Lord. Let us be men of peace, men of justice, doers of good, and the Lord will not be for us Judge, but friend, brother, Love.
May the angels of God accompany us on this - joyful - walk on earth. Before the birth of our Redeemer, writes St. Gregory the Great, we had lost the friendship of the angels. Original guilt and our daily sins had distanced us from their luminous purity,.... But from the moment that we recognized our King, the angels recognized us as fellow citizens.....
And since the King of heaven has willed to take our earthly flesh, the angels no longer shrink from our misery. They dare not consider inferior to their own this nature which they adore, seeing it exalted, above them, in the person of the King of heaven; and they no longer have any inconvenience in considering man as a companion.
Mary, the holy Mother of our King, the Queen of our heart, take care of us as only she knows how. Compassionate Mother, throne of grace: we ask that we may know how to compose in our lives and in the lives of those around us, verse by verse, the simple poem of charity, quasi fluvium pacis, like a river of peace. For you are a sea of unfailing mercy: the rivers all go to the sea and the sea does not fill up.
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