Meditation for October 25, Christ the King

In the beginning of Christian art, Christ was more often repre­sented in the attitude of a monarch seated on a throne, judging the living and the dead, than in the attitude of a suppliant showing His heart, asking that we deign to love Him.

Which of the two images, the Christ of Love or the Christ of Justice, is the nearest to true Christianity?

The two representations must be united instead of opposed, and that is indeed what the Church has done in giving us the Feast of the Sacred Heart and the Feast of Christ the King.

The Feast of the Sacred Heart is the manifestation of the titles of the Love we ought to love; the Feast of Christ the King is the manifestation of the sovereign rights of the Son of God, rights not to be indefinitely scorned, but rather profoundly respected and gen­erously served, not only by individuals, but by groups, societies and States.

At the time of Jansenism, under pretext of recalling the grandeur of God, some sects tended to forget His goodness; the Devotion to the Sacred Heart came opportunely to recall that if God was Ma­jesty He was also Love. In this age, when, under pretext of laicism, the world sought to modernize God, or to pass Him by in silence, or to destroy Him, the Church wished by a special Feast to recall to the world that God has His rights and that Christ is "Someone."

"We do not want Him to reign" cry some poor people who are either very thoughtless or beside themselves. And I, my Lord, I cry to You with all my power, "I want to see You reign over everything and every­one. And in order to begin with something that depends solely on me, I beg You to reign entirely over me. Let all in me be Yours. Let all in me recognize at every instant both Your sovereignty of right and Your sovereignty of love. I am Your possession, and I am Your spouse forever."
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)