This Sunday marks the end of the church year with the Feast of Christ the King. It is only appropriate, especially in today’s times, to acknowledge Christ as the King of our hearts, the King of All! The Church beautifully arranges feast days so that we may recognize God’s presence in our daily lives and acknowledge his reality more fully. Below is a bit of history on how this feast got its start. The Church and the world have and will always face turbulent times. Only when Christ is made the center of our being throughout the good and the bad, will the Kingdom of God come to grow within us as we become sowers of peace. May God bless the end of this church year and bring you blessings and renewed spirits in the new to come with the first Sunday of Advent.
On Dec. 11 of the jubilee year,1925, and in order to acknowledge perpetually the supremacy of Jesus Christ over all men, nations and earthly allegiances, the pope issued the encyclical Quas Primas, which added the feast of “Our Lord Jesus Christ the King” to the annual Church liturgical calendar.
In his encyclical, the pope noted that the continuing disorder of that era, what he called “the plague of society,” had long been festering and was the result of nations rejecting Christ. “The rebellion of individuals and states against the authority of Christ has produced deplorable consequences … the seeds of discord sown far and wide; those bitter enmities and rivalries between nations, which still hinder much the cause of peace; that insatiable greed which is so often hidden under a pretense of public spirit and patriotism, and gives rise to so many private quarrels; a blind and immoderate selfishness, making men seek nothing but their own comfort and advantage, and measure everything by these; no peace in the home, because men have forgotten or neglect their duty; the unity and stability of the family undermined; society, in a word, shaken to its foundations and on the way to ruin. We firmly hope, however, that the feast of the Kingship of Christ, which in the future will be yearly observed, may hasten the return of society to our loving Savior. “ POPE PIUS XI Encyclical Quas Primas