The Solemnity of Christ the King was instituted by Pope Pius XI with the encyclical Quas primas.  The Holy Father speaks directly to the problem of what he referred to as “anti-clericalism,” by which he meant the attitude of those who were seeking to eliminate Christian influence from political life.  We see a version of anti-clericalism today, for example, when it is suggested that belief in Catholic teachings renders a person unfit for a judicial appointment.

Jesus said to his disciples:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him,
he will sit upon his glorious throne,
and all the nations will be assembled before him.
And he will separate them one from another,
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the king will say to those on his right,
'Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.’
Then the righteous will answer him and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
And the king will say to them in reply,
'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Mt. 25

When our nation is beset by civic unrest, racial tension, and a pandemic, we do well to turn to Our Lord, who reigns over every people and nation.

Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, the Incarnate Lord.

His kingship is founded upon the ineffable hypostatic union. From this it follows not only that Christ is to be adored by angels and men, but that to him as man angels and men are subject, and must recognize his empire; by reason of the hypostatic union Christ has power over all creatures. – Quas primas, 13

Jesus is fully God and fully man.  He is both the divine Lord and the man who suffered and died on the Cross.  In him, one person of the Trinity unites himself to human nature through the Incarnation and reigns over all creation as the Incarnate Son of God.

Jesus shares a law of charity to show the way to communion with God.

Not only do the gospels tell us that he made laws, but they present him to us in the act of making them. Those who keep them show their love for their Divine Master, and he promises that they shall remain in his love. -Quas primas, 14

By being close to sisters and brothers who are suffering, we draw close to Jesus.  We Catholics, as individuals and as parishes, can look for opportunities to minister to the needs of people who are hurting and, by doing so, we will be acknowledging the kingship of Christ.

The Church acknowledges the reign of Christ, not only privately, but publicly.

Thus by sermons preached at meetings and in churches, by public adoration of the Blessed Sacrament exposed and by solemn processions, men unite in paying homage to Christ, whom God has given them for their King. -Quas primas, 26

Today, religious freedom for many people means that we can believe whatever we want, but when we enter the public square or the marketplace, we must conform to secularist orthodoxy.  For Christians, when our faith is repeatedly marginalized in public life, we can fall into the habit of compartmentalizing our lives.  We love Jesus in our private lives, but we shrink from acknowledging the kingship of Christ in social life.  When we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King, we declare to the world and remind ourselves that Jesus is the Lord, not only of the Church, but of the universe.

Background on the Readings for the Feast

On the last Sunday of each liturgical year, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, or Christ the King.  

Pope Pius XI instituted this feast in 1925 with his encyclical Quas primas (“In the first”) to respond to growing secularism and hostility against the Church.  Today reminds us that while governments and ideologies come and go, Christ reigns as King forever.

During the early twentieth century, in Mexico, Russia, and in many parts of Europe, atheistic regimes threatened not just the Catholic Church and its faithful but civilization itself. Pope Pius XI’s encyclical gave Catholics hope and—while governments around them crumbled—the assurance that Christ the King shall reign forever. Pope Pius XI said that Christ “reign[s] ‘in the hearts of men,’ both by reason of the keenness of his intellect and the extent of his knowledge, and also because he is very truth, and it is from him that truth must be obediently received by all mankind” (Quas primas, 7). 

Quas primas continues to ring true.  The Holy Father speaks directly to the problem of what he referred to as “anti-clericalism,” by which he meant the attitude of those who were seeking to extirpate Christian influence from political life.  We see a version of this same attitude today, for example, when it is suggested that belief in Catholic teachings renders a person unfit for a judicial appointment.  And in recent years, aggressive secularist campaigns have sought to marginalize the Church and other religious institutions.  

When our nation is beset by civil unrest, racial tension, and a pandemic, we do well to turn to Our Lord, who reigns over every people and nation.

Reading 1: Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17

Thus says the Lord GOD: 
I myself will look after and tend my sheep.
As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, 
so will I tend my sheep. 
I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered 
when it was cloudy and dark.
I myself will pasture my sheep;
I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD. 
The lost I will seek out,
the strayed I will bring back,
the injured I will bind up,
the sick I will heal, 
but the sleek and the strong I will destroy, 
shepherding them rightly. 
As for you, my sheep, says the Lord GOD, I will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats.

• Ezekiel speaks to the pain and the hope of so many members of the Church in America today.  His message is directed to a people that has been taken into exile.  Judah had been carried away into Babylon when Ezekiel, who was both a priest and a prophet, presented these words.  The sheep, that is, the faithful remnant, would hear these words and recognize that the shepherd had not abandoned them.
• As our country faces both growing polarization and reckonings with racial injustices, all American Catholics would do well to consider how many people in this country have been in some way exiled from their homeland.  How many continue to experience this country as a place of exile rather than a home?  How can Catholics change that?
• Ezekiel also speaks a good word to a suffering Church.  Many whose faith has been shaken by the clergy abuse scandals can find hope in those words, “I myself will look after and tend my sheep.”  For many Christians, it is this hope in the Lord himself - the Lord who seeks the lost, shepherds rightly, and judges between the sheep and the goats – that keeps them holding on to the Church.

Reading 2: 1 Corinthians 15: 20-26, 28

Brothers and sisters:
Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 
For since death came through man,
the resurrection of the dead came also through man.
For just as in Adam all die,
so too in Christ shall all be brought to life,
but each one in proper order:
Christ the firstfruits;
then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ;
then comes the end,
when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father,
when he has destroyed every sovereignty
and every authority and power. 
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 
The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
When everything is subjected to him,
then the Son himself will also be subjected
to the one who subjected everything to him,
so that God may be all in all.

• The theme of the End appears in the first sentence of this passage, when St. Paul refers to Christ’s resurrection as first fruits.  The Apostle teaches that all who have received the kingdom, who belong to Christ, will rise from the dead.  Christ’s resurrection reveals what awaits all who are found in Christ.  This promise of everlasting life impels Christians to remain close to Christ.
• Christ’s kingship relativizes all earthly powers.  We rightly want to be good citizens, and we should always pay legitimate authorities the respect that is their due.  At the same time, we must recognize that every authority is subject to Christ.
• A great danger of both nationalism and secularism is that they can prevent us from seeing the proper ordering of things.  We tend to see earthly, temporal realities as ultimate.  Religion can in turn become instrumentalized.  That is, in this view, religion is good insofar as it is useful for achieving some political or personal goal.  The Solemnity of Christ the King challenges that tendency.  It is a feast that demands a re-ordering of priorities, for it reminds us that Christ is the goal of creation.

Gospel: Matthew 25: 31-46

Jesus said to his disciples:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him,
he will sit upon his glorious throne,
and all the nations will be assembled before him.
And he will separate them one from another,
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the king will say to those on his right,
‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.’
Then the righteous will answer him and say,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
And the king will say to them in reply,
'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Then he will say to those on his left,
'Depart from me, you accursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome,
naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’
Then they will answer and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison,
and not minister to your needs?’
He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.’
And these will go off to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life.”

• Just as in the Ezekiel passage, this text speaks of the shepherd who separates his own, the sheep, from the goats.  Perhaps easily overlooked is that by echoing the prophet, St. Matthew identifies the Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth, as the Lord of Israel.  By pairing this text with the passage from Ezekiel, the Church shows how Jesus of Nazareth identifies himself as the God who revealed himself to Moses and the prophets.
• As shepherd, the Lord cares for and watches over his people.  The shepherd and the sheep know one another.  The people of God show that they know Jesus by practicing the works of mercy.  In a homily on this passage, Pope Francis says: 

The one who accomplishes these works shows that he has welcomed Christ’s sovereignty, because he has opened his heart to God’s charity. In the twilight of life we will be judged on our love for, closeness to and tenderness towards our brothers and sisters. Upon this will depend our entry into, or exclusion from, the kingdom of God: our belonging to the one side or the other. Through his victory, Jesus has opened to us his kingdom. But it is for us to enter into it, beginning with our life now – his kingdom begins now – by being close in concrete ways to our brothers and sisters who ask for bread, clothing, acceptance, solidarity, catechesis. 

• By being close to sisters and brothers who are suffering, we draw close to Jesus.  People in our country are hurting right now.  Our friends, family members, and neighbors are suffering.  The economic downturn means that many people may be wondering how they will pay their bills or where their next meal will come from.  We Catholics, as individuals and as parishes, can look for opportunities to minister to the needs of people who are hurting and, by doing so, we will be acknowledging the kingship of Christ.
• It is not only as individuals that we can act for the good of others.  Caring for the poor requires both individual and collective action.  The state has a responsibility for protecting vulnerable people, and Christians should work toward the ordering of our common life to the good of all.  Furthermore, the Church as a society in her own right is responsible for serving the vulnerable.
• The Church has institutionalized many of these works of mercy, setting up schools, refugee resettlement agencies, adoption and foster care services, hospitals, and more.  The Church should play a vital role in our world’s recovery from the pandemic.  The Catholic Church is one of the great providers of charitable and social services in this country.  Of course, as the Holy Father often reminds us, the Church is not an NGO.  The Church’s public works are animated by the Spirit of Christ.
• Religious freedom means, at a minimum, that the Church has the space to continue to carry out these works.  When governments restrict the ability of the Church to serve in areas like health care, child welfare services, immigration, and education, they violate the rights of the Church.  As faithful citizens, Catholics must both promote religious freedom and use that freedom to serve others.