A Sunday Thought About Christ the King to Start the Week Off Right

(The "surprise" result of our recent Presidential election marked what may be a sea change in American politics with ramifications for our entire society. One view has it that a "revolution" of sorts was ignited on that election Tuesday. The "little people" spoke out against what they perceived as a system gamed against them. For decades, the middle class has been treading water economically, while a select few elites have been enormously enriched. We don't need to hash through all that now except to note that there's more than a grain of truth in all this. 

How things unfold in the coming months and years is anybody's guess. But one thing we Catholics may want to remember on this Feast of Christ the King is just that: Christ is King. To the extent that we invest ourselves in any individual (Trump or Hillary), any party (Republican or Democrat), any political persuasion (Conservative or Liberal) or anything other than Jesus Christ, we've been derailed. The issue here isn't one of Church and State. It's one of recognizing the Truth. And, as we know, the Truth is found in the Person of Jesus Christ. 

With that in mind, we re-post the following.)


Today's feast of Christ the King begins the last week of the Church's Liturgical Year. While any serious Catholic will easily grasp the fundamental importance of recognizing Jesus Christ as his or her King, many of us forget that all governments - at least in the West - once did the same. In other words, once upon a time it wasn't just a personal "choice" to formally place oneself under the authority and leadership of Christ; governments placed themselves under His authority and leadership too.

Today's twisted understanding of the "separation of Church and State" grew out of the Enlightenment - a time when human beings "freed themselves" from what they perceived as an oppressive Church. Let's be clear about this: the Church never was and never will be perfect. But the ensuing efforts on the part of many of the leading figures of the Enlightenment was not to "reform" that which needed reformation; it was to push the Church out of public life altogether. And in this, they have, for the most part, succeeded.

The United States has remained one of the last holdouts; at least it was until the 20th century, when calls to end even the hint of God - never mind our Holy Catholic Religion - gained momentum. In this we now follow the countries of Europe - what was once known as "Christendom" - who have  already constructed their "enlightened" secular culture, pushing God unceremoniously out the back door. Yet, even as we recognize the "reality" of the dominance of a secular culture, we note that most of the state constitutions of the United States of America continue to formally recognize God in some way. For example, the preamble of the Constitution of my home state of New York quite clearly states, even in its recently revised version,  


"We The People of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our Freedom, in order to secure its blessings, DO ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION."

(And so it goes for most of the other state constitutions. If you didn't know this, just look it up and you'll see for yourself.)

Of course, efforts continue, on the part of today's children of the Enlightenment, to rid our country, both at the federal and state level, of any formal recognition of God in public affairs. It's the final push to keep God under wraps, perhaps permitting the Creator of the Universe to exist in the hearts and minds of individuals, but certainly eliminating - indeed forbidding - all public references to Him. (I say "perhaps" permitting, because the secular pagan culture may not be satisfied with the singular elimination of public recognition of God. But that's a subject for another time.)

For now, we Catholics must remind ourselves that our reference to Christ the King isn't something that exists only in our holy religion, or in our individual hearts and minds. It is in fact an objective description of a rightly ordered society - a society the recognizes that authority ultimately rests in the hands of He who created the universe, in the person of His only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Anything less than this recognition of the true meaning of Christ the King simply won't do. I hope you understand this.

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