Christ the King Sunday by Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas © All Rights Reserved © Nov. 18, 2022

Today we have a recurring guest blogger:  Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, administrator of PRESENTATION OF THE B.V.M CHURCH, PORT EWEN AND SACRED HEART CHURCH, ESOPUS. For more information on this parish, check out their website at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary & Sacred Heart Churches - Port Ewen - Esopus, NY (presentationsacredheart.org) 

Scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe | USCCB

VIVA CRISTO REY (Spanish for “Long live Christ the King!”). For the first time in my life as a priest, I will celebrate the feast of Christ the King Sunday on two distinct days of the same liturgical year: today at Masses in the Ordinary Form as the last Sunday of the liturgical year and already on October 30th, the last Sunday of October, in the Extraordinary Form. The two distinct points in time indicate different emphases of the 1962 Missale Romanum (for Mass in the Extraordinary Form) and the Roman Missals used after the Second Vatican Council (“Vatican II”) to offer Mass in the Ordinary Form. In 1925, Pope Pius XI instituted the feast of Christ the King on the last Sunday in October as a response by the Church to the atheistic and barbaric Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917 in Russia. After the general turmoil and hideous violence of the preceding 125 years (including against the Catholic Church), Pope Pius XI wished to reiterate the lordship of Christ over all spheres of human life, including the pretensions of Caesar over marriage and family life, the education of children and youth, and public religious adherence. The Pope also scheduled the feast just before November, the month already dedicated to the Souls in Purgatory, to remind us of divine lordship over life and death, also against the pretensions of certain governments, politicians, ideologues, and philosophers. For more information, please read Quas Primas, the encyclical of Pope Pius XI (www.vatican.va, Vatican web page). With the changes opened by Vatican II to the celebration of Holy Mass, the administration of the sacraments, and the liturgical year, the Church shifted the date of Christ the King Sunday in the Ordinary Form to the last Sunday of the liturgical year. This change was meant to emphasize the eschatological nature of the kingship of Christ, that is, to focus on the last days and the Kingdom of God, whose fullness we await at the end of time, when Christ returns to “judge the living and the dead and His kingdom will have no end,” per the Nicene Creed that we recite or sing at Mass on Sundays, solemnities, and Holy Days of Obligation. The readings and prayers of Mass today in the Ordinary Form also point us to a different model of leadership exhibited by Christ the King, a contrast to what passes for leadership today, even if cloaked by labels such as “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or “democracy.” As Catholic Americans, let us consider Christ the King Sunday amidst recent events. Firstly, the defacement on Nov. 14 of the pro-life billboard southbound on Broadway at Ulster Park shows us that the abortion-on-demand mentality is very much a rebellion against the lordship of Christ over life and death, especially from the moment of conception. As reported by the Daily Freeman on Nov. 18 and demonstrated by the speedy replacement of the prolife poster on the billboard, the Ulster Deanery Respect Life Committee (www.ulsterdeaneryrespectlife.org) remains steadfast to Christ the King and His Gospel of Life. May there be enough resources for the Committee to erect more billboards or similar advertisements throughout Ulster County! Next, the advancement of the so-called “Respect for Marriage Act” in Washington, D.C. serves a new genre of error regarding God’s plan for life and love by obliging the Federal Government statutorily to treat “same-sex unions” at par with true marriages of one man and one woman at one time. When I think of how the U.S.A. soccer team lately changed the colors of its emblem to a perverted “pride” pattern instead of red, white, and blue and how in June the American embassy to the Holy See flew a flag with similar meaning and colors, I ask: how dare we hold ourselves as “one nation under God,” per the Pledge of Allegiance? How are you and I as Catholic Americans represented by that flag or that emblem? We are neither included nor are we represented, unless we too are in rebellion against Christ the King. To be sure, as patriotic Americans, we love our country. But as Christians, we love and serve God firstly and above all, per the First Commandment. VIVA CRISTO REY.