Viva Cristo Rey
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November 22, 2025Today is the last Sunday in our liturgical calendar which can be seen as the culmination of all the things we have had throughout the liturgical year, pointing us to what we celebrate today, - the Solemnity of Christ the King of theUniverse.
This feast can be considered as quite young as it was only instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI during the celebration ofJubilee Year at the request of many bishops and faithful throughout the world as a response to a militant atheism spreading during that time and seen as trying to repress the belief in Christ and would ultimately suppress the presence of Christian faith in the world. One of their core beliefs was that they seek to free the people from the opium of faith in God. Some parts of the world were experiencing religious and clerical persecutions and thus denying the faithful from receiving the sacraments particularly Jesus in the Eucharist.
Similarly, the same rejection we see when Jesus has proclaimed and inaugurated his kingdom which was totally different from what the world was expecting. Who would have thought or even imagined that the so called king was hanging on the cross not seated on a golden throne, his body was bathed with blood and not clothed with royal robes, his head with crown of thorns, not with gold and diadem. In our Gospel, Jesus was ridiculed and humiliated by the Jews, Pilate had ordered that an inscription be placed above his head: "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." A King who was mocked instead of being paid homage to him by the chief priests, roman soldiers, ordinary passers-by and even one of the criminals crucified with him. He was totally rejected and derided saying, "If you're truly the king of the Jews, the Messiah, the Christ, come down from that Cross and save yourself." That was how they understood the kingly power of the world.
But one among them has understood and have that glimpse of who Jesus is, - the other thief who was crucified at the side of Jesus. That thief has recognized the reign of Jesus, -his kingdom is of service, of love, of truth and of forgiveness. What the thief saw in Jesus hanging on the cross should also be the same things that we ought to recognize in his kingship, - love, truth, service and mercy. In the words of Fr. Roger Landry, he said, "The good thief grasped what almost everyone else was missing, that Jesus, mysteriously through suffering and death, was not about to lose a kingdom, but to establish one. He wasn't about to experience an ignominious defeat but a glorious triumph. With faith, therefore, he turned to the Malefactor in the middle - who would breathe his last before even the thief himself would! - and humbly begged, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!'"
This is ultimately asking the reign of God be in our life.Whenever we pray the Lord's prayer, we utter those powerful words, ìThy kingdom come.î It is to seek to enter God's kingdom, paying Christ true homage not humiliation, trying to live by his examples to make of our life a true offering out of love for God and others, and so to let him reign in our hearts as King forever.
"Viva Cristo Rey!" - "Long live Christ the King!"