On the last weekend of the liturgical year, the most northern church in the Diocese, Christ the King in Benton, celebrated the Feast of Christ the King on Saturday, November 22.
The Solemnity of Christ the King was instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical Quas Primas, as a response to growing secularism and atheism that sought to push the Christian faith out of public life. The feast is meant as a reminder that while governments rise and fall, Christ reigns forever as King of the Universe. The celebration of this feast day also invites believers not only to worship Christ privately, but to acknowledge his sovereignty publicly.
Those who attended the Mass certainly did celebrate, as the choir led the congregation to lift their voices in songs honoring Christ the King.
In the Gospel reading, the well-known record of Jesus speaking with the two thieves who were crucified with Him was recounted. The one thief tells Christ to “save yourself and us,” while the other rebukes the first and asks Christ to “remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
“It’s a weird choice (of reading) for the Feast of Christ the King,” said Father Aaron Lynch, parochial vicar and celebrant. “These people are yelling at Jesus as He’s in the throes of His passion, moments away from death. They say, “Is this guy not a king?” …But they didn’t realize, they didn’t remember, that Christ had told them over and over again, “My kingdom is not of this world.””
Father Lynch continued that Christ’s greatest act of love was not one showing His power, but one that shows true love.
“At the end of the day, our home is with Christ,” he said. “Whatever we experience here…everything is in His hands. He has shown us what true love is.”
(Photos by Chris Heisey, The Catholic Witness.)
By Rachel Bryson, The Catholic Witness
