The remedy is the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ
By Fr. Daniel Pinheiro, IBP - Christ is King not only of individuals, but also of societies, nations, states
Note from the translator: Sermon from father Daniel Pinheiro, Superior of Good Shepherd Institute in Brazil, in 2014. The original text can be read in Portuguese here.
May the leaders of the nations honor Thee publicly, may teachers and judges worship Thee, may laws and arts proclaim Thee. 1
Vespers - Hymn
The Feast of Christ the King, dear Catholics, was instituted by Pius XI in the holy year of 1925 by the Encyclical Quas Primas. In the traditional calendar, it is celebrated on the last Sunday of October and not on the last Sunday of the liturgical year, to make it clear that Our Lord is not King only at the end of time or at His last coming, but that He is King from now on, here. and now. Before the institution of the Feast of Christ the King, there were feasts in which the reign and royalty of Our Lord were remembered — Epiphany, Palm Sunday — but not explicitly and directly. Pope Pius XI then wanted to create the Feast of Christ the King, in which Christ's reign is explicitly and directly recognized, confessed and honored.
Pius XI, in the Encyclical Quas Primas, makes very clear the reason for the institution of the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King. The Pope says:
If We ordain that the whole Catholic world shall revere Christ as King, We shall minister to the need of the present day, and at the same time provide an excellent remedy for the plague which now infects society. We refer to the plague of secularism2, its errors and impious activities. This evil spirit, as you are well aware, Venerable Brethren, has not come into being in one day; it has long lurked beneath the surface. The empire of Christ over all nations was rejected. The right which the Church has from Christ himself, to teach mankind, to make laws, to govern peoples in all that pertains to their eternal salvation, that right was denied. Then gradually the religion of Christ came to be likened to false religions and to be placed ignominiously on the same level with them. It was then put under the power of the state and tolerated more or less at the whim of princes and rulers. Some men went even further, and wished to set up in the place of God's religion a natural religion consisting in some instinctive affection of the heart. There were even some nations who thought they could dispense with God, and that their religion should consist in impiety and the neglect of God.
The Pope then enumerates the tragic fruits of this apostasy of individuals and states. Some of these fruits are the germs of hatred scattered everywhere, the envy and rivalries between nations. Fruits of this apostasy are the unbridled ambitions, which are often covered up with the mask of public interest and the love of the country, and its sad consequences: civil dissensions, blind and excessive selfishness, with no other objective or other rule than personal advantages and personal benefits. The result of this apostasy is the disruption of domestic peace, by forgetting and neglecting family obligations, the weakening of unity and stability within families, and finally, the shaking of society as a whole, which threatens to collapse.
Christ is King not only of individuals, but also of societies, nations, states.
The Pope said this in 1925. Almost a century later, we see all these lamentable fruits and many others that perhaps the Holy Father had not even imagined. The social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ must therefore be opposed to the evil of secularism. Christ is King not only of individuals, but also of societies, nations, states.
He is King because He is God. But He is also King as a man, in virtue of his hypostatic union with the Word and because all power in heaven and on earth has been given Him by the Father. He is also King by right of acquisition, having shed His blood on the cross and redeemed us. Christ's reign is not merely an individual reign, but a social reign as well.
Every creature must submit to the Creator, that is, to God, to Our Lord Jesus Christ. Civil society, the state, is also a creature, out of the hands of God. God created man as a social animal, as a being who needs to live in society to perfectly provide for his needs. Thus, in creating man, God also created society. Like every creature, the state must recognize the sovereign dominion of God and submit to (this) sovereign dominion of God, of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The state submits to the kingship of Christ when rulers publicly honor Our Lord Jesus Christ, when magistrates and judges revere him, when laws and arts express the kingship of Christ and conform to the laws of the Church, when the true Church of Christ, the Catholic Church, is recognized as such.
this sacrilegious divorce
— between the State and the Church —
brought to the world the problems that now trouble it
As Leo XIII tells us, when an organism corrupts and perishes, it is because it is no longer influenced by the causes that gave it form and constitution. To make this organism healthy and flourishing again, it is necessary to bring it under the vivifying influence of the same causes as before. Society, in its effort to escape from God, has rejected the supernatural order and divine Revelation, it has rejected the Church. Society has placed itself outside the influence of Christianity, which is clearly the most solid guarantee of order, the strongest fraternal bond between people, the inexhaustible source of all virtue, public and private. Still according to Leo XIII, this sacrilegious divorce — between the State and the Church — brought to the world the problems that now trouble it. Thus, it is under the orbit of the Church that this lost society must enter if it wants to possess its good, its rest and its salvation again.
Church and state must be united without being confused. They must be distinct without being separated. When it comes to the salvation of souls, it is the Church that has the word and the State must submit to it and its laws.
The remedy for society is not simple anti-leftism, nor simple anti-liberalism, nor simple monarchy — which in Brazil, by the way, never shone for its exemplary catholicity while it existed. The real solution is the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which penetrates society and all its institutions with truly Catholic principles. The paganism of antiquity — which is already revived in our times with even worse hues — was not extirpated by a human doctrine, nor by a monarch, but by the Church and the gradual submission of society to Christ the King and his Church.
And this reign of Christ must begin in our soul as we live in divine grace. It must begin with families, with the Sacred Heart enthroned in homes not only in ceremony, but effectively. May families have Jesus Christ as the King of the home and submit to His easy and light yoke.
The feast of Christ the King must give us, dear Catholics, the most vivid hope of accelerating the much-desired return of humanity to its most loving Savior. We must also do our part. The Feast of Christ the King is, due to the current circumstances of our society, one of the most important in our times, dear Catholics, and that is why we celebrate it with great solemnity and devotion, to recognize the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ and to seek it in our lives, in our families and in the environments in which we live. Social reign will not be restored overnight. He will come for our conversion to Our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In latin it reads: “Te natiónum Prǽsides Honóre tollant público, Colant magístri, iúdices, Leges et artes éxprimant.”
In the official translation the word “anti-clericalism” is used in opposition to “laicism”. However, the original in latin reads “laicismum” which translates to secularism in english. Anticlericalism differs from the so-called secularism, as it implies an open hostility towards the clerical world, due to the fact that it has social or political influence. Secularism only rejects the influence of the Church in the public sphere. In the context of the encyclical it is worth noting that not only a harsh opposition to the church is condemned (Anticlericalism) but also a its subtle rejection or lack of being given the proper place (secularism).