dimanche, octobre 28, 2007

Sermon for the feast of Christ the King

Certainly in spite of himself, Pontius Pilate is the instrument of God’s Providence. Asking Our Lord if He really is a King, he receives this short, precise and elegant answer: Thou sayest that I am a King. He takes these words for granted and he ordered to put a title on the Cross of the condemned: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. The protests come immediately but Pilate would not yield. Quod scripsi, scripsi! – What I have written, I have written. The title of the Cross would remain forever, written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, as a universal proclamation of the Kingship of Christ. Many centuries later, Bossuet would address the following words to Pilate:
Then write, O Pilate, write the words that God dictates to you and whose mystery you do not understand. No matter what they assert and what they present: do not change what is already written in heaven. Let your orders be irrevocable, because they are the enforcement of an unchangeable decree from the Almighty. Let the Kingship of Jesus Christ be promulgated in Hebraic language, which is the language of the people of God; in Greek language, which is the language of the learned people and of the philosophers; in the Roman language, which is the language of the empire and of the world, the language of the conquerors and of the politicians. Now come, O Jews, heirs of the promises; and you, O Greeks, inventors of the arts; and you, Romans, masters of the earth: come to read this admirable title and kneel in front of your King.


The Nations of the earth are invited to acknowledge the Kingship of Christ. The Father has delivered all things to the Son (Luke 10:22) and now all things have to be restored in Christ.

At the very beginning of his pontificate, Pope Saint Pius X took the pen and expressed his fears to the Bishops about the sacrilegious war which is now, almost everywhere, stirred up and fomented against God. In his first Encyclical Letter E Supremi, he planned out the goal of his pontificate, asking the collaboration of all the Bishops for such a huge task: To restore all things in Christ!
For in truth, the Pope wrote, "The nations have raged and the peoples imagined vain things" (Ps.2) against their Creator, so frequent is the cry of the enemies of God: "Depart from us" (Job 21).


At the beginning of the XX century, the Church was indeed in serious trouble. The old Christendom was coming to its end and the States, little by little were getting rid of all the elements of a Christian social order. The great heritage which had been built throughout the centuries was about to disappear. A civilization was about to die. The Eldest Daughter of the Church was achieving her work of destruction of the Catholic faith when she struck the Church with the Law of Separation between the State and the Church in 1905, sending her army and her police into the churches and monasteries. Italy was not in a better state after her unification which had been done at the expense of the Pontifical States. Pius IX considered himself as a prisoner of the Vatican.
Today it seems to be a different world. Christendom exists no longer. Even among the Catholics, many think that it was a necessary thing because the temporal order has to be distinct from the religious order. They have given up the battle for the social Kingship of Christ and believe that religion is merely a matter of private life. The attitude of certain ‘Catholic’ politicians regarding this issue is particularly telltale. The defenders of secularism could not be more pleased and find better allies. They say that the Church cannot be involved with politics.
One century ago, Saint Pius X noticed the consequences of such an ideology: As might be expected we find extinguished among the majority of men all respect for the Eternal God, and no regard paid in the manifestations of public and private life to the Supreme Will - nay, every effort and every artifice is used to destroy utterly the memory and the knowledge of God.

Today, laws which offend the grandness of God are numerous. Abortion, same sex marriage, and divorce are considered by many as legitimate and good things. When the Church raises her voice and says that we cannot accept these laws because, not only do they offend God, but they also hurt men and societies, the free-thinkers and all the clique of politically-correct people condemn the Church for her intolerance.
Is she really intolerant? I hope so, because how can you in good conscience tolerate what is evil? How could a mother who would let her children do evil be a good mother? How would she help them become mature and reasonable by displaying such a tolerance? I hope our Mother the Church is not so tolerant, and I know for sure that she is not, thanks be to God. The Church is a loving mother and love cannot accommodate itself with evil.

Today, she tells the States that they have to acknowledge the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, as the hymn of Vespers reminds us: May the rulers of the world publicly honor and extol Thee; May teachers and judges reverence Thee; May the laws express Thine order and the arts reflect Thy beauty.
Do not be mistaken, dear Brethren. Today, Christ is not publicly honored by the States and the Nations, even here in the United State of America. Certainly, the American Constitution mentions God; certainly the pledge of allegiance reminds us that America is one Nation under God; certainly it is written on the bills that In God we trust. But what God is it about? Is it the God of the Revelation or the God of the Masonic lodges?
Do not be mislead by false prophets who invoke God but do not follow Him. Certainly we have to render unto Caesar those things which belong to Caesar (Matthew 22), but only those things which belong to him. And we have to let him know that he also has to render unto God those things which belong to God.

The Nations have their own vocations in God’s plan and we can hope and pray that they will follow them. It is our duty to remind our rulers that they have to govern according to God’s will and not according to the thought of the majority. It is our duty to pray for them and for their conversion. As Pope Saint Pius X said to the French – but it is true for every people – a Nation is great as long as it acknowledges the supreme sovereignty of God. In another words, a Nation is great when it proclaims Christ for its King. Today, the greatest Nations are certainly not those of whom we think about first.

May Our Lady, Queen of heaven intercede for us and for our Nations, so that Her Son can be publicly acclaimed as King of the Nations and His authority be respected.


Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!

The Kings of the earth receive their crowns from the King of Kings

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