O King of All Nations: Let us pray for the Social Reign of Jesus Christ!

O King of all nations and keystone of the Church:

come and save man, whom you formed from the dust!

“The dethronement of God on earth is a crime, to which we must never become resigned. Let us never cease to protest against it.” – Cardinal Pie [1815-1880]

Jesus Christ is not King only in heaven. He is King over every nation on earth. Rulers on earth only have authority as stewards of the true King. Those who speak of Jesus as only being King and Ruler in heaven are mistaken. We either recognize His Kingship on earth or we treat something or someone else as King.

Is someone else king on the earth while Christ rules only in heaven? If that were true then wouldn't we on earth be justified in obeying earthly rulers in all things? Their authority comes from God after all. But we know that authority is limited because they are called to faithfully serve the true King.

Jesus told Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world." His kingship is not a political position where he takes over all the governments of the earth. It is a spiritual kingship that nevertheless imposes obligation on the temporal realm and governments. No government, from the government of the family to the greatest empire on earth, has the right to defy the true King, Jesus Christ. He rules over all the earth and those government leaders who oppose Him serve the prince of this world, Satan. Notice that Satan is called "prince," not king. There is one king alone, Jesus Christ.

Fr. Denis Fahey wrote this about Christ's kingship in 1931:

OUR supernatural life of Divine Grace comes to us from Our Lord Jesus Christ, Head of His Mystical Body, the Catholic Church, while we continue to receive our disordered natural life from the first Adam. "For, if by one man's offence, death reigned through one: much more they who receive abundance of grace, and of the gift, and of justice, shall reign in life through one Jesus Christ" (Rom. v. 17). Our Lord is then our Head. Now St. Thomas distinguishes a twofold function of the grace of Headship, analogous to the double role exercised by the head with regard to the members of the body. "The head," he says, "has a twofold influence upon the members: an interior influence, because the head transmits to the other members the power of moving and feeling; and an exterior influence of government, because by the sense of sight and the other senses which reside in it, the head directs a man in his exterior actions." (III. P. Q. 8. a. 6) St. Thomas then goes on to remark that Christ also, by His grace of Headship, has a twofold influence upon souls: an interior influence of supernatural life, because His Humanity, united to His Divinity has the power of justification; an exterior influence by His government of His subjects. The role of justification and sanctification is that of Christ as Priest, while the second prerogative of government and direction constitutes the spiritual Kingship of Christ. We have said the "spiritual" Kingship of Christ, for we must distinguish between the spiritual and the temporal Kingship of Christ or between His Primacy in the supernatural order and His Primacy in the natural order. 

"That this Kingdom, indeed, is in a special manner spiritual and concerned with things spiritual is quite plain from the extracts from Scripture above quoted; and Christ's own line of action confirms this view. He, however, would be guilty of shameful error who would deny to Christ as man authority over civil affairs no matter what their nature, since, by virtue of the absolute dominion over all creatures He holds from His Father, all things are in His Power. Nevertheless, during His life on earth He refrained altogether from exercising such dominion and, despising the possession and administration of earthly goods, He left them to their possessors then, and He does so today" (Encyclical Letter, Quas Primas, of His Holiness Pope Pius XI).....

But, because the temporal is in subordination to the spiritual and because the final end of man, the end which dominates all others, is supernatural, we must concede to the ruler in the supernatural order a right of intervention in the strictly natural sphere, a right which must be measured by the necessity or utility of maintaining and developing the Divine Life of grace in souls. The Spiritual Kingship of Christ, then, comprises the power of intervention in human affairs.

Fr. Fahey was inspired by Cardinal Pie's writings on the Social Kingship of Christ. 

Fr. Fahey's article is worth reading in full. [Go here.] As we prepare to celebrate the birth of the King meditating on that kingship offers tremendous fruit for His subjects. What does it mean to be a servant of the King? Are we willing to be His knights, to do battle in the Church Militant to advance His kingdom? He showed us the way. Pick up our crosses daily and follow Him and pray for the coming of the kingdom in our hearts!

May Jesus Christ, Our King, be worshiped in all the tabernacles of the world, even until the end of time!

Mary, our Queen, pray for us.