468. Solemnity of Christ the King (III)

Meditations no. 412 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

To reign with Christ we must die to ourselves.

The liturgy of the day reminds us that there is a kingdom of heaven on earth, that all earthly realities have to be subject to the King of this kingdom: for to him, to Jesus Christ, has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. He has been constituted King of kings and Lord of lords. In him are fulfilled those words of the Psalm: Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your heritage, the ends of the earth for your possession.

Today it seems very appropriate to me, my children, to begin our prayer where we sometimes finish, repeating the words the Church asks us priests to recite: We give thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. This is the cry of love that is sung eternally in the kingdom of heaven; but we can already begin to intone it here on earth, if we submit to Christ’s reign: a kingdom, as we read in the preface, of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.

Our Lord’s universal kingdom is not some figure of speech. Christ is alive; he lives as a man, with the same body he took when he became man, when he rose after his death, the glorified body which subsists in the person of the Word together with his human heart. Christ, true God and true man, lives and reigns. He is the Lord of the universe. Everything that lives is kept in existence only through him. Why, then, does he not appear to us in all his glory? Because his kingdom is not of this world, though it is “in” this world.

Precisely because it’s not of this world, the kingdom of Christ suffers violence on earth. Our Father reminded us of this, referring to the struggle we have to wage against ourselves to establish God’s kingdom in our hearts, and also to the external difficulties that are always present in some way or other, since the Church always suffers persecution, even bloodily, in some part of the world.

Our Founder said sorrowfully in 1967: Just recently, I’ve received news that persecution against our Catholic brothers and sisters in Eastern Europe has intensified. And no one is protesting: political expediency leads people to keep silent. This is prudence according to the flesh. But I’m not silent, I can’t stop asking: Lord, your kingdom is there too! Lord, you drew light from darkness: draw forth truth from error! Lord, silence the slanderers! Lord, stop the swords of those who are assassinating, in cruel martyrdom, your faithful children who form part of your kingdom on earth!

But the Lord can answer us with those words of the Apocalypse, also proclaimed in today’s liturgy: worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing. Yes, my children, we must die in order to reign with Christ. But the death Jesus asks of us is not a violent one, with the shedding of blood. He asks you and me to die by mortification, by penance, made sweet and lovable by our intimacy with God, by the Bread and the Word, by talking with this Lamb who sacrificed himself on the Cross and sacrifices himself each day in the Sacrament of the Altar.

Love-sorrow, when we’ve failed to follow Christ on the Cross.

How will Christ reign in the world? By first reigning in each of us. And how will he reign in each of us? By reigning in each of our actions, thoughts and desires. To this end we need to take up Christ’s Cross and die to ourselves: a death like that of the grain of wheat that decays beneath the soil. With its disappearance comes fruit, lushness, victory, resurrection. And in the meantime, so long as we don’t lose our supernatural outlook, joy and peace as well.

I can tell you that during the years I’ve spent working for Christ, I can hardly recall a single day when I didn’t have to suffer for the sake of Christ and his Work. Ours has to be mortification out of love, my children: Dignus est Agnus, qui occisus est… (worthy is the Lamb who was slain… ). Lord, through your death, may we die a little each day.

Our weaknesses are more than evident. How often we’ve refused Jesus the welcome he hoped for! How often we’ve shunned the cross he held out to us! But he hasn’t given up on us; he continues to support us. Besides thanking him now, we also ask him for pardon.

Gratias agamus Deo Patri… Let us give thanks to God, who has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. We thank him for the light we have received. At the same time, my children, be convinced that the best devotion is to make many acts of contrition - now! - for our sins, which have cost the divine Lamb his Blood. So many, many mistakes and errors rise up before our eyes, failings past and future, present ones!…

But God our Lord once again draws us into this Heart of Christ to receive his affection, understanding, and forgiveness. Domine, tu omnia nosti, tu scis quia amo te! (Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you!) Lord, you know my weary efforts, you know my blindness; Lord, you know my wavering; Lord, you know my sensuality; Lord, you know my foolishness. Despite everything though, you chose me ante mundi constitutionem (before the foundation of the world): before the heavens and earth came to be, he was already thinking of you and me, of each one of us, and loved us with preferential love.

Lord, most sweet Heart of my Jesus: thank you because you are Father, because you are Brother, because the Holy Spirit is dwelling in my soul, enabling it to carry out human deeds that, at the same time, become also divine. And St Paul continues: by his (Christ’s) blood we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. He who is our King, the Firstborn of every creature, he who is our God is also our forgiveness.

United to Jesus we can do everything: superiority complex.

Despite our weakness, Christ wants our help to establish his kingdom. It is the Son himself, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who has sought us out to help him co-redeem. Eripuit nos de potestate tenebrarum, he has freed us from the power of darkness; per sanguinem crucis eius, by the blood he shed on the Cross; et vocavit nos vocatione sua sancta, and he called us with his holy calling.

Haven’t I often told you that we should have a “superiority complex”? But Father, wouldn’t that be a sign of pride? No, my children! It’s a consequence of humility, a humility which leads me to say: Lord, you are who you are. I am negation personified. You have every perfection: power, strength, love, glory, wisdom, dominion, dignity. If I unite myself to you, like a child in his father’s strong arms or his mother’s wonderful lap, I’ll feel the warmth of your divinity, I’ll feel the light of your Wisdom, I’ll feel your strength coursing through my veins.

With St Paul, let us once again give thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Holy light, light from God! This is what St Paul means. For you, my children, the light of your lay mentality and priestly soul. How many people fail to understand our way in the Work because they don’t have this light! They don’t understand, Jesus, they don’t understand! They don’t know what it means to serve, to work for the Church without burdening her, without compromising her by creating human factions …

There comes to mind once again our “superiority complex”: for I am in God’s hands, and he is my Father, holding dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth! Everything, absolutely everything, is subject to Him! Et adorabunt eum omnes reges terrae; omnes gentes servient ei. All kings will adore him, all nations will serve him.

Even Satan serves him. Even creatures condemned for all eternity render God service. So, a “superiority complex”, because potestas eius potestas aeterna, quae non auferetur: et regnum eius, quod non corrumpetur; his dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.

So we should become aware that you, Lord, can do all things. And rectify our intention, as a ship’s course is rectified at sea. Always looking at the star, looking to Maty. Then I’ll always be sure of reaching port. And I’ll point out the reefs; I’ll have a holy shamelessness in showing them to people. Sometimes it’s a minor snare; other times, brazen ignorance, or hateful motives. And at times it’s just the powerlessness of men who can’t tolerate the fruitfulness you grant to others.

You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation, we pray. His line shall endure for ever, reads the Psalm. And we, my children, belong to that lineage, God’s seed, because we want to travel all the pathways of the earth, which conserve the traces of Christ’s footsteps. What a joy to be God’s, to be children of all that love and all that power of God’s majesty! What a joy to be able to offer him our whole heart!

We ask our Lady: Mother, bring us into your Immaculate Heart, and purify us there, cleanse us, enkindle us, so that your Son can establish his kingdom in us, and by our cooperation, in many other souls.