Feast of Christ the King of the Universe, Nov. 25, 2012
(Complete sermon text. This is an excellent explanation of why the presence of the Catholic Church and its teachings is necessary for a wholesome society.)
If you saw the movie For Greater Glory, the “Cristiada” you will remember, had as its battle cry “Viva Cristo Re! Que Viva!” that exploded from the throats of all the men and women—and even children—to encourage them to fight—to struggle to die—if need be—for their home—for their families—for their king! Christ their King! Now this feast of Christ the King was the Church’s response to what had happened all over the world, because in all the revolutions in America and Europe and Mexico, Christ and His Church had been dethroned, eliminated, exiled, and expelled.
Jesus and His followers, in country after country, were persecuted, hunted down, imprisoned and often executed wherever the Revolution exploded. And the new masters—all atheists, anarchists, and socialists—in one nation after another made it their program to close down Catholic seminaries, hospitals and orphanages and universities and monasteries. Of course, they claimed that they were confiscating all this church property in the name of the poor people.
Keeping families off balance
But all those monasteries and church holdings already belonged to the poor people. Who do you think this church belongs to? You! I am only the caretaker. The governments seized all that church property for their friends; and everyone—except the poor people — grew richer from all that they had stolen.
These men of the Revolution lost not one minute passing laws and issuing edicts to exert ever tighter control over every aspect of the peoples’ lives. That of course meant tighter control over the family. The government never wants strong families. (The government wants no family loyalties and clan ties to stand in the way of governmental coercion. It is better for the government if families are always kept little off balance and on the edge. It is easier to control people that way.) So the Revolution did everything possible to break up the family—to destroy whatever the Church had taught that would foster the family. They promoted concubinage (living together and not being married) as well as civil marriage—and allowed for civil divorce. (Now they are promoting “gay” marriage.) They encouraged birth control and abortion; and in the name of free speech they permitted all manner of pornography to contaminate the lives of the people.
Social manipulation
All of these things are very subtle forms of social manipulation. The state knows that if you pander to people’s lower desires you more easily have them in your control.
And just in case that manipulation wasn’t strong enough, they invented public schools—the better to indoctrinate the youth of a nation in the principles and philosophies of the revolution where they would learn that there was no king but Caesar.
Well this is the world that needed to hear that Christ was King—not some gray-faced bureaucrat who had given up the religion of his mother and father in order to throw in with the atheists who were now in charge.
Being nice
And that is why the Pope started this feast of Christ the King. But this title of Christ the King means so much. It carries with it so many more implications than we can usually imagine. It does not simply mean that Christ is the King of our hearts and that we must be nice to each other as our King would want. My goodness, it means more than that. In a nutshell it means that all governments—including the government of the United States — need to correspond their laws and their lives to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
In other words, a nation—in order to fulfill its proper destiny to help the people fulfill their destiny—which is to get to heaven—needs to enact policies and laws that are in accord with God’s law and in accord with what God has revealed to us through Jesus and His Church.
“But, Father, are you actually saying that we need to enact the teachings of the Catholic Church into law in our country? You mean to say that the government must make laws to protect families and children against divorce and birth control and pornography and even adultery? That we need to pass legislation that protects life and prohibits things like abortion?
Church in the streets
But we can’t do that! This is America—We are not supposed to have anything to do with religion in America! That would be un-American! Religion is supposed to be totally private—in church on Sunday. And not out in the streets! And besides, once the politicians start talking about moral issues—then we have to be quiet—because that would be meddling religion with politics!”
Our problem is that we have been the recipients of two hundred years’ worth of propaganda that tells us that religion should have nothing to do with public policies and decisions—and that the Church cannot say anything about the life or laws of this country—because that would be imposing our beliefs on others.
Belief-free laws?
But there is a fundamental flaw here: Any law that is passed by anyone anywhere comes from the values and beliefs of the people who wrote that law and passed it. No law is belief free. No law is value free. No law comes out of a moral vacuum. Every law comes out of some sort of morality. Every law begins with some sort of prior belief about what is right and what is wrong —some prior morality.
Our only question is whose morality will we follow? The morality of the secularists? Or that of the Church? Do we listen to the atheist government? Or do we listen to Jesus and His Church?
So that is what the rule of Christ the King really means—We are saying that we believe that Jesus is God and the God of all—all the time. And His laws, and His way of life and His teachings are the standard—not just for Catholics—but for the whole world. If it is true, it is true in itself and for everyone. Western Civilization — its beauty and charity and order, formed and nurtured by the teaching of the Catholic Church for 2000 years can blossom again—but it can only do so under the beautiful rule of Christ the King.