The feast of Christ the King is a very new one, although the image of Christ as King is as old as Christianity. Pope Pius XI established the feast with his encyclical Quas Primas in 1925 to remind the World after the horrors of World War I and its aftermath that God was in charge.
Prior to the American Revolution an English aristocrat related an incident in a letter. He asked an American servant who his master was, and the man responded unhesitatingly: My Lord Jesus Christ! The aristocrat found this hilarious, but the servant was reflecting a very old Christian view.
Christ Pantocrator is one of the more popular images by which Christians pictured, after the edict of Milan, Christ, the Lord of all. This representation ties in nicely with the traditional American cry of “We have no King but Jesus!” which became popular during the American Revolution.
Our wisest statesman have always remembered that behind the trappings of power of this World that God is ultimately the one who has charge of the fate of nations as well as individuals. Abraham Lincoln was utterly convinced of this as he indicated in a letter to Eliza P. Gurney on September 4, 1864 as the Civil War teetered in the balance:
The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom and our own error therein. Meanwhile we must work earnestly in the best light He gives us, trusting that so working still conduces to the great ends He ordains. Surely He intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no mortal could make, and no mortal could stay.
Christ the King and We have no King but Jesus remind Christians that the nations of the world and the manner in which they are ruled, and mis-ruled, while very important to us during our mortal lives, are of little importance in the next. They also instruct us that the State can never be an ultimate end in itself, can never override the first allegiance of Christians and that the rulers of the Earth will be judged as we all will be. Although my Irish Catholic ancestors will shudder, and my Protestant Irish and Scot ancestors may smile, there is much truth in the inscription supposedly written on the sarcophagus, destroyed or lost after the Restoration, of that “bold, bad man”, Oliver Cromwell, “Christ, not Man, is King.”
I confess I spend too much time, on-line chunking on the hysterics and violence against President Trump.
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Hillary or Trump: it makes no difference. Jesus is my President.
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Viva Cristo Rey!
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St., Dismas, pray for us.
I had to research the term “Christ Pantocrator” (Χριστός Παντοκράτωρ in Greek or Christus Omnipotens in Latin) mentioned in this blog post.
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“When the Hebrew Bible was translated into the Greek Septuagint, Pantokrator was used both for YHWH Sabaoth ‘Lord of Hosts’ and for El Shaddai ‘God Almighty’. In the New Testament, Pantokrator is used once by St Paul (2 Cor 6:18).”
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“…and I will be a father to you,
and you shall be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty…”
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“Aside from that one occurrence, John of Patmos is the only New Testament author to use the word Pantokrator. The author of the Book of Revelation uses the word nine times, and while the references to God and Christ in Revelation are at times interchangeable, Pantokrator appears to be reserved for God the Father except, perhaps, in Revelation 1:8.”
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“‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.'”
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I like it: Χριστός Παντοκράτωρ or Christus Omnipotens.
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Vivat Christus Rex!
¡Viva Cristo Rey!
The feast Christ the King reminds us of the contrast between how Jesus lived on earth with how He now lives in heaven. On earth in impoverishment; in heaven in splendor. Which, of course, brings up the obvious point of the majestic way most Popes have lived since the time of Constantine. I think the Church would be more successful if went about it’s affairs more like Christ did. Let’s save the splendor for heaven. The business part of the Church should be handled by lay people.
The Feast of Christ the King….celebrated at the end of October according to the Traditional Catholic calendar….as Sunday was the Last Sunday after Pentecost.
The Bishops of Poland have “recognized” Christ as the King of Poland. See the link:
http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/11/its-official-christ-king-of-poland.html#more