Today Is The "Original" Celebration of Christ the King
The Feast of Christ the King once fell on the last Sunday of October. It was moved to the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year (the week before the 1st Sunday of Advent) when the newfangled calendar was promoted after Vatican II.
Was the original more meaningful to Catholics than this new placement? Frankly, it would seem that just about anything was more meaningful to Catholics before the new stuff that sprung from the "Spirit of Vatican II" rained down upon us starting in the 1960s. So we won't bother debating the point.
But maybe it's worth taking a few Sunday moments to attend to the meaning of "Christ the King." We've posted the following multiple times, but not for the last five years or so. Here goes:
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.
(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 that recognizes that authority ultimately rests in the hands of Him 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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