The Feast of Christ the King is a relatively young feast. It was initiated by Pius XI in 1925 – the period between two world wars. It was really a feast which promoted peace. The way toward peace, Pius XI said, was to allow Christ to reign in our hearts and our relationships.

This Feast is the Church’s New Year’s Eve. Next Sunday is the beginning of Advent and the start of a new liturgical year. This last Sunday of the Church’s year is an invitation to look back over the previous twelve months, look back at our own lives and our world, at everything that has happened – the good and bad, the happy and sad – and see in everything the redeeming presence of Christ.

It is easier to say that Christ is King if the past twelve months has been a happy and satisfying one. It is easier to say that Christ is King if we feel that we have been blessed this year through hard work or good fortune, or our talents have been appreciated and our presence valued. It is much harder to raise our voice in praise if this year has been hard for us; if we have lost someone close to us, if we have battled sickness or pain, if we have been suffering from grief or sorrow or heartache. And in a world that always seems on the brink of crisis of one form or another, are we still confident to say that Christ is, indeed, King? But that’s the point.

Christ is King of the world, indeed all creation, as it is – today – not as how we would like to be. Christ is King in the midst of a world that knows suffering and death, sorrow and terror, grief and anguish. Christ is also King in the midst of a world that knows joy and hope, prosperity and abundance, peace and harmony. What we celebrate today is that given the reality of our lives, given everything, given all our failings and our sin, all our blessings and our triumphs, God holds the world firmly in the grip of love. On this day, the Church’s New Year’s Eve, we proclaim with confidence, “Christ is King!”

Peace and blessings for the week ahead,

Fr. Anthony