Christ the King 2017 - Viva Cristo Rey!

“Viva Cristo Rey!” “Long live Christ the King!” These were the last words Fr. Miguel Augustin Pro uttered before he was executed by firing squad by the virulently anti-Catholic government of Mexico on November 23, 1927.

When Mexico achieved its independence from Spain in the 19th century, it also sought to divorce itself from Catholicism. Mexico’s 1917 Constitution brought the seizing of church property, the outlaw religious orders, and the government’s insertion into internal Church affairs. The Constitution prohibited priests from voting or offering any comment on public policy. Priests were also banned from wearing their clerical attire or vestments outside churches. Public displays of faith like the Corpus Christi Procession or praying the rosary publicly were strictly forbidden.

Some Catholics rebelled against the government persecution; the Cristeros movement fought against the anti-Catholic regime, which by the 20s was executing priests and even young people who practiced their faith.

Pope Pius XI wrote three encyclicals denouncing the persecution in Mexico, calling upon faithful Catholics to defend the Church when possible. The persecution finally ended when a Catholic president, Manuel Avila Camacho, was elected in 1940. Yet, when Pope St. John Paul visited Mexico in 1979 it was still illegal for him to celebrate Mass in public.

The most famous martyr of this persecution is the Jesuit priest Blessed Miguel Augustin Pro. When Churches were closed by the government, Fr. Miguel would celebrate Mass in secret to provide the Eucharist for Mexico’s faithful. He became known throughout Mexico City as the undercover priest who would show up in the middle of the night, dressed as a beggar or a street sweeper, to baptize infants, hear confessions, distribute Communion, or perform marriages. Several times, disguised as a policeman, he slipped unnoticed into the police headquarters itself to bring the sacraments to Catholic prisoners before their executions.

Eventually, Fr. Pro was captured and arrested and sentenced to death. The President of Mexico ordered his execution to be photographed in great detail, hoping to incite fear amongst the Cristeros Catholics. You may have seen the photographs of Fr. Pro, dressed in a suit, facing the firing squad, with arms outstretched like Jesus on the Cross. The photographs, instead of inciting fear had the opposite effect, and Catholics began to show great devotion to the martyr—soon the government forbade the distribution of the very photos it had publicized!

When Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King for the universal Church in 1925, Christians were facing grave difficulties: the Mexican persecution of course, the rise of National Socialism which would become Nazism in Germany, Atheistic Communism in Russia, rampant Materialism, Consumerism, and Racism here in the States. The Pope instituted this feast for one, to show “the deplorable consequences” produced when individuals and governments rebel against and reject the Gospel.

Pope Pius XI also wanted to strengthen and encourage Catholics facing persecution, like the Cristeros Catholics in Mexico. This message, this feast, gave Fr. Pro and so many others, the courage to continue to work for the spread of Christ’s reign, despite formidable hostilities.

But this feast is also reminder to all Catholics: that amidst all the trials of life, when we submit our hearts and minds and wills and bodies to the reign of Christ the King, when we live in accordance with the laws of God’s kingdom, we are counted among Christ’s good and faithful servants. Our faith in Christ can and will sustain us in the most difficult moments of life, it can and will transform our fallen world, if we let it. And to those who allow Christ to reign in them and through them, our Good King will speak the words we long to hear: “'Come, you who are blessed by my Father.  Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

In the Gospel of the Final Judgment, Our King teaches us that he will judge us, he will determine our eternal destination on how we treated others in this life, whether or not we allowed his mercy to reign in us by feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, tending the sick, and bringing the freedom of truth to those imprisoned by the errors of secular culture.

The month of December, and the season of Advent, we know is filled with many demands on our time. So during all of the busyness of the month ahead, we must remember our deepest duty is to Christ: not to contribute to the growing godlessness of our culture, but to bring about his Kingdom through faith, hope, and charity.

The changing of a liturgical season is always a good time to do some self-examination: to examine whether selfishness, pleasure, lust, control, pride, reign in our lives, or Christian generosity, self-control, humility, and prayer. And it is a good time to make a good confession of the times we let sin reign in us, rather than Christ.

This week, I encourage you to plan ahead for Advent, which begins next sunday; plan additional prayer time with your family, additional spiritual reading, additional acts of mercy and charity. Perhaps, try to get to daily Mass throughout the week, to allow the peace of Christ to reign in you.
When we allow Christ to reign in us, he transforms us into instruments of his justice and his goodness. We become partners with Christ in reuniting divided humanity, in extending God’s mercy, truth, and love to all, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.