Christ is King over All Nations and People on the Earth Now and Til the End of Time

Today at our traditional Mass we celebrated the Feast of Christ the King instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI to fight the rising tide of secularism and Communism after World War I.

In 1970, Pope Paul VI moved the Feast of Christ the King from the last Sunday of October, just prior to the Feast of All Saints where it witnesses to Christ as sovereign over both the Church Triumphant and the Churches Suffering and Militant, to the last Sunday of the liturgical year. Why? The fact that Christ is ruler and king here and now on the earth interfered with the stress on ecumenism. The emphasis changed to present Christ Who will rule at the end of the world, but that His social reign is not for the here and now. That false belief has infected the Church and many no longer give witness to the social reign of Christ as ruler of all the nations of the earth.

When I wrote about Pope Leo XIII's encyclical on Jesus Christ last Friday, I did not include his statements about the necessity of Jesus Christ social reign over the nations. Many pre-Vatican II popes emphasized it, but today it appears to be an embarrassment that needs to be swept under the rug. Let us make sure that Jesus Christ reigns in our hearts over every aspect of our lives. When enough Christians do that, the social reign of Christ will come about in the nations.

May Jesus Christ the King rule our hearts and minds and transform the nations.