“The Lord is King” (Ps.96:1)
Fr. Campbell
Since Apostolic times faithful Catholics have prayed: “I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.”
It
is clear from the revealed Word of God that God is not only the
Creator, but the King of Heaven and earth. The Psalms of the Bible are
filled with references to God as King:
“All you peoples, clap your hands, shout to God with cries of gladness, for the Lord, the Most High, the awesome, is the great king over all the earth… God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy; the Lord, amid trumpet blasts. Sing praise to God, sing praise; sing praise to our king, sing praise. For king of all the earth is God; sing hymns of praise. God reigns over the nations, God sits upon his holy throne” (Ps.46:2,3;6-9).
And as though to suggest the coming of Jesus Christ, the King of Glory:
“The
Lord’s are the earth and its fullness; the world and those who dwell in
it. For he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers…
Lift up, O gates, your lintels; reach up, you ancient portals, that the
king of glory may come in!... Who is this king of glory? The Lord of
hosts; he is the king of glory” (Ps.23:1,2;10).
The
idea that God’s authority to rule the earth as King should be denied is
an absolute absurdity, a blasphemous insult to our benevolent and just
God. God is King of all the earth. Yet when God came among us as the
Man, Jesus Christ, sent by the Father to be our King, He was rejected
even by His own. He was crucified on Calvary’s hill while His Mother and
other close disciples stood at the foot of the Cross in the most
profound sorrow.
Our
Lord had affirmed His own kingship in His response to Pontius Pilate:
“Thou sayest it; I am a king. This is why I was born, and why I have
come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of
the truth hears my voice” (Jn.18:37b).
Pope
Leo XIII speaks of the universality of the empire of Christ the King:
“His empire includes not only Catholic nations, not only baptized
persons who, though of right belonging to the Church, have been led
astray by error, or have been cut off from her by schism, but also all
those who are outside the Christian faith; so that truly the whole of
mankind is subject to the power of Jesus Christ.” (Annum Sacrum, May 25, 1899).
Pope Pius XI also states in his encyclical, Quas Primas (December 11, 1925): “…it is a dogma of faith that Jesus Christ was given to man, not only as our Redeemer, but also as a lawgiver, to whom obedience is due.”
Vatican
II and the conciliar church were to go directly against the teaching of
these great pontiffs by recognizing the autonomy of earthly states and
governments. Christian states would be no more. Countries once called
Catholic were instructed by the Vatican to disestablish the Catholic
Church, with the result that all man-made false religions have equality
with the one true religion revealed by God. There are no more Catholic
countries.
Pope Pius XI had stated in Quas Primas:
“If we ordain that the whole Catholic world shall revere Christ as
king, We shall minister to the need of the present day, and at the same
time provide an excellent remedy for the plague which now infects
society. We refer to the plague of secularism, its errors and impious
activities… The right which the Church has from Christ Himself to teach
mankind, to make laws, to govern peoples in all that pertains to their
eternal salvation, that right was denied. Then gradually the religion of
Christ came to be likened to false religions, and placed ignominiously
on the same level with them.”
Little
did Pope Pius XI know that his would-be successors on the papal throne,
like John Paul II and Benedict XVI, would one day stand shoulder to
shoulder in Assisi, Italy, with leaders and representatives of the
world’s false religions. In doing so they implicitly affirm the validity
of these false religions, even those that deny the Divinity of the Son
of God and the very existence of the Holy Trinity, and even those that
consider Jesus Christ an apostate and a criminal condemned to Hell. And
what shall we say of Francis Bergoglio? To paraphrase Our Lord’s own
words, “If they do these things in the green wood, what shall they do in
the dry?” (Lk.23:31).
God, of course, has the last word, as we hear from another psalm:
“He
who is throned in heaven laughs; the Lord derides them. Then in anger
he speaks to them in his wrath: ‘I myself have set up my king on Sion,
my holy mountain.’ I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: the Lord said
to me, ‘You are my Son; this day I have begotten you. Ask of me and I
will give you the nations for an inheritance and the ends of the earth
for your possession. You shall rule them with an iron rod; you shall
shatter them like an earthen dish’” (Ps.2:4-9).
But
how could we not be glad on the Feast of Christ the King? – “All you
peoples, clap your hands, shout to God with cries of gladness, for the
Lord, the Most High, the awesome, is the great king over all the earth”
(Ps.46:2,3).
“While
nations insult the beloved name of our Redeemer,” says Pope Pius XI,
“by suppressing all mention of it in their conferences and parliaments,
we must all the more loudly proclaim His kingly dignity and power, all
the more universally affirm His rights… Thus by addresses delivered at
meetings and in churches, by public adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
exposed and by solemn procession, men unite in paying homage to Christ,
whom God has given them for their King. It is by a divine inspiration
that the people of Christ bring forth Jesus from His silent hiding place
in the church, and carry Him in triumph through the streets of the
city, so that He whom men refused to receive when He came unto His own,
may now receive in full His kingly rights.”