27/10/2024
VIVA CRISTO REY!
Reflection: In Festo Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Regis
โโยกViva Cristo Rey!โ As Filipinos, children of Mother Spain, we are accustomed to proclaiming this royal cry. Not to a mortal king, but to the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. To he who is the firstborn of every creature. For in Him were created all things in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether Thrones, or Dominations, or Principalities, or Powers. All things have been created through and unto Him, and He is before all creatures, and in Him all things hold together. (Col 1:12-20.) This, my dear friends, you have heard proclaimed in the Epistle.
โTruly, it is from Him, for Him, and through Him that all things were created; and all of creation rightfully gives Him praise. But, I dare ask dear friends, have we truly given Him praise?
โIt is such an easy thing to say, that I am a Christian. That yes I do believe in Christ! I believe in the Creed! I believe the Gospels! I believe in the Church! To the best of my abilities, I have done everything that has been asked of me. Yes, He is King! Such a simple feat.
โWe say all this, yet look around you. In our homes, our parents no longer love one another as Christ and His Bride the Church do. Our children no longer seek good and holy aspirations in life, easily being swayed by the latest trends of validation on social media. Our communities cast aside their identities to adapt to the โchanging times.โ The government we elected, hoping that they would fulfill their mandate to protect and serve the people, now seek to pass laws that will result in the complete opposite. Many of these people, like you and I, are Christians! Proudly wearing scapulars while they call for the murder of innocents in the name of their individual rights, since for them, โitโs just a lump of cells!โ They flock to the church squares on major feast days, proclaiming the Child Jesus, the Child King, yet they are the same people who call for the separation of families - damning the children to a fate of misery. They righteously go to Mass on a Sunday, fulfilling their obligations, but angrily shake away the beggar that knocks on the windows of their cars. They keep close friends with those who undoubtedly live sinful lives, but in the name of their friendship, say nothing of it and smile.
โFrom the smallest error, to the greatest sin, we are all guilty of hypocrisy. That is a painful reality, whose responsibility is solely ours. Rightfully then, you might ask, where is our King? Look to the Cross! There He sits upon His throne of glory! Look to the Tabernacle, He is there - for two-thousand years, He has been waiting for you. Our King is present everywhere, and His reign is supreme - except in our hearts.
โโYet living as we do in an age of superficiality, rushing frenetically from one thing to another without really knowing why, and ending up as insatiable consumers and slaves to the mechanisms of a market unconcerned about the deeper meaning of our lives, all of us need to rediscover the importance of the heart.โ (Dilexit Nos, Pope Francis)
โThe reign of our Lord is secure and everlasting. By His grace and by His death on the Cross, He saved us from eternal slavery to death and sin. Hence we say โO death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?โ (1 Corinthians 15:55). We have already won! This religion of ours, the one true and victorious religion, was born in the darkness of defeat. Yet if so, why does sin continue to persist?
We have a King, yet we refuse His reign upon our hearts!
โWhen Pope Pius XI instituted this great feast in 1925, the world was infected by a plague of anti-clericalism, secularism, and the rising tide of the heresy of modernism. Every facet of society was redirected from God, to serve the needs of the secular state. Even the hearts of men were utilized by the inhuman machinery of socialism - built on the false promise of human liberty and the fruits of industrialization. Where else can we find the good fruits of salvation if not from Our Lord? When we replace His righteous kingship over our hearts with the false idols of our time; money, social status, power, false liberties, individualism that sacrifices the innocent on the altars of progress - pain and suffering is the natural and logical result.
โDoes our sin, our refusal to acknowledge His kingship diminish its truth? No! He is King whether we proclaim it or not. But having been created in His image and likeness, it is only natural that we participate in the establishment of His Kingdom here on Earth!
โThus, when we shout ยกViva Cristo Rey!, let it be built on truth! When we bow with reverence and solemnity at the mention of the Holy Name, do not do so out of obligation to tradition; but out of the sincere belief โthat at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.โ (Philippians 2:10-11). That way, every act we commit in submission to His Kingship is built on the foundations of sincerity and truth. Our hearts, filled with the goodness of His reign, will guide us, give us strength, and the will to proclaim the Gospel.
โThe laws that we pass will no longer seek to endanger the soul of the human person. Our communities will no longer fall sway to the tides of errors in the name of modernity. Our children will see just how superficial trends can be, and they will live happy and meaningful lives away from the social pressures they often fall victim to. Our parents will learn to love one another as Christ loves His Church.
โToday, as you prepare to receive Him in the Most Holy Eucharist, pray that your heart be opened to His reign. Become living Tabernacles and carry Him worthily. Once you depart from this chapel, in your own little ways, establish His kingdom. Our human hands were not made to destroy; they were made with love that through love, the world will know His love.
โHis kingdom is not of this world, as you have heard from the Gospel today. But you and I, gathered here, we have the right tools to begin the task He has left for us. One day at a time, one small gesture of sincere kindness and Christian charity. Love in the way He loves you. Forgive in the way He has forgiven you. Become the living testament of the Gospel for all around you. That way, those who do not know Him or are distant from Him, can slowly move towards accepting Him in their hearts.
โOur King reigns supreme. Over the entirety of the infinite universe. Every galaxy, every star that goes supernova, the immensity of every black hole, the sheer power of a million suns - all of it bows to the Alpha and Omega. Let your human heart do the same.
โWith sincerity, ยกViva Cristo Rey!
