The Feast of Christ the King
Christ's Kingship has been celebrated by the Catholic Church from the beginning of her existence. The revelation of His Kingship is not a modern idea tied to the contemporary notion of monarchy; His Kingship goes back to the Cross itself. But it was only in the 20th century that an official feast day proclaiming Our Lord's Kingship came into being in the general calendar of the Roman Liturgy. The Feast of the Kingship of Christ was formally instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 in his masterful encyclical letter Quas Primas (click here to read the encyclical).
In recent decades, and perhaps even the last few centuries going back to the establishment of Freemasonry, the Kingship of Christ has undergone tremendous attack. Early on, these attacks came from outside the Cathoilc Church. But in recent decades, tragically, they come even from within.
They Have Uncrowned Him is the name of a popular book first published by Angelus Press in 1988, showing how the Kingship of Christ was undermined from within the Catholic Church by revolutionary forces that sought to dethrone Our Lord. Why did they do this? Because His Kingship was seen to be the perfect expression of a Church that was "triumphalistic," a word used in the post-Vatican II era that was just as wrought with negative connotations as was the word "clericalist." But what is the source of true triumphalism, i.e. where does this sense of the triumph of the Church come from? It is not from hyper-clericalism, but rather from the Gospel itself. And from the Catholic Tradition. The Church in this world is called the Church Triumphant, and to be ashamed of that is to embrace a false sense of humility. The Church is triumphal because Christ is triumphal. Her triumph is ultimately linked to His. The triumph of Christ is probably best expressed, musically, in the hymn that was traditionally sung on the Feast of Christ the King:
Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat!
(Christ is victorious, Christ reigns, Christ commands!)
While most modern Catholics associate the Feast of Christ the King with the last Sunday of the liturgical calendar, "from the beginning, it was not so" (cf. Mt. 19:8). In Quas Primas, the Holy Father established the Feast of Christ the King in these words:
By Our Apostolic Authority, We institute the Feast of the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ to be observed annually throughout the whole world on the last Sunday of the month of October — the Sunday, that is, which immediately precedes the Feast of All Saints. We further ordain that the dedication of mankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which Our predecessor of saintly memory, Pope Pius X, commanded to be renewed yearly, be made annually on that day.
The saintly Pope went on to explain the choice of this last Sunday of October in the following words:
The last Sunday of October seemed the most convenient of all for this purpose, because it is at the end of the liturgical year, and thus the Feast of the Kingship of Christ sets the crowning glory upon the mysteries of the life of Christ already commemorated during the year, and, before celebrating the triumph of all the Saints, we proclaim and extol the glory of Him who triumphs in all the Saints and in all the Elect.
We see from the above that the Feast of Christ the King was the day on which the entire Church renewed her annual consecration of all mankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The last Sunday of October was chosen by Pope Pius XI because it is the Sunday immediately preceding the Feast of All the Saints (All Saints' Day), and the glory of the Saints flows from the glory and triumph of Our Lord Jesus Christ: His Life flows in great abundance into the lives of His holy ones. Thus the Church preceded All Saints' Day with a Sunday celebration of Our Lord's Kingship.
The Kingship of Christ and the Blessed Sacrament
The Blessed Sacrament is a most appropriate place to extol the Kingship of Christ, for the Sacrament contains the fullness of Our Lord's Divinity and of His sacred humanity. Christ is King both as God and as Man. In Poland, and in some other parts of the world, it is not uncommon to see monstrances topped with a golden crown in recognition of the Kingship of Christ. In many parishes in such countries, the monstrance-crowning takes place on the Feast of Christ the King, to show that Jesus is our Eucharistic King. He is King in the Blessed Sacrament, and He reigns there as from His Eucharistic Throne. All of this, of course, points to (and is meant to elevate the minds of the faithful to) Christ's triumphal Throne in glory, where He is seated in majesty at the right hand of His Eternal Father.
The awareness of the Blessed Sacrament as the Kingly Sacrament is the reason why Catholics bend the knee before the Holy Eucharist and why, when the Blessed Sacrament is solemnly exposed in the monstrance on the Altar, Catholics fall on both knees and bow down to the ground. This double-genuflection, as it is called, sadly was suppressed in the changes to the liturgy after Vatican II. The reformed liturgical instruction simply says, "The double genuflection is no longer observed." Is it any wonder, then, that belief in the Real Presence, and in the social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, have diminished to the extent that they have? As the well-known maxim goes, Lex ordandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi : the law of prayer [determines] the law of belief, [which determines] the law of living. In other words, the way in which we pray will influence what we believe, which in turn will have an impact on how we live (and the converse is true as well). If we do not bend our knees before the King of King present in the Most Blessed Sacrament, then one day we will no longer believe in the Eucharistic Kingship of Jesus Christ.
Perhaps it is time then to restore the "suppressed double-genuflection" before the exposed Blessed Sacrament so that all may come to believe that Jesus Christ is truly King — not just in Heaven, but also here below in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
Pilate therefore said to him: Art thou a king then? Jesus answered: Thou sayest that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world... (-Jn. 18:37)