CHRIST THE KING AND FAITHFUL RESISTANCE
This model sermon for the Feast of Christ the King was inspired by one I heard preached on this feast in 2022 at St. Bartholomew the Great in London which, regrettably, is no longer available online and also by a co-leader of my Sunday school group who introduced me to Paul Kingsnorth. The readings are from Year C and is intended to be used this year—the 100th anniversary of Quas Primas.
Almighty God, who hast created us in thine own image:
Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make
no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use
our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of
justice in our communities and among the nations, to the
glory of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God,
now and for ever. Amen.[1]
In the name of the ✠ Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
In October 2024, the English writer Paul Kingsnorth delivered the Erasmus Lecture for First Things magazine.[1] It’s a great talk and I recommend you listen to the whole thing but I’d like to hone in on one small part of it. Around the middle, he lays out certain categories of how people relate to religion. First, there is scientific atheism. Then there is liberal relativism—all religions are the same, all lead to the same God, etc. Third is serious religion. Fourth is cultural religion—people who come to mass on Christmas and Easter. Finally, there’s the subject of his talk, civilizational religion. Think of longtime atheists or agnostics who have recently converted but have done so in support of a broader political project. They have taken up Christianity—or a version of it—to “defend western civilization.” Yet, when pressed on that, it seems to often come down to something about immigrants, our LGBTQ+ siblings, or a nostalgia for a time that has never truly existed. In other words, it’s whatever they believed in the first place, with a nominally Christian gloss to advance their position in the culture war. This impulse toward letting our other partisan or tribal affiliations inform our faith rather than the other way around is not limited to these more opportunistic believers. Pope Francis issued a letter to American Catholic Bishops about immigration shortly after the Vice President—by all accounts a sincere Roman Catholic—invoked the ordo amoris in an interview to excuse the United States’ obligation toward the least of us. All too often, this impulse is wrapped up in a project that we now call Christian Nationalism— the fusion of nationalist politics with Christian imagery and symbolism.
One hundred years ago, with Europe still reeling in the aftermath of the First World War, Christianity faced threats from the outside by a time of rising secularism, nationalism, and active questions over whether the Church should engage in or retreat from society. In response, Pope Pius XI instituted today’s feast—the Feast of Christ the King—in his encyclical Quas primas. He wrote:
He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God. If all these truths are presented to the faithful for their consideration, they will prove a powerful incentive to perfection.[2]
This is not just a call to have the rule of Christ within ourselves. It is a call for the rule of Christ the King in the world. Monarchy, perhaps rightfully so, is no longer a fashionable political system. But the Church is not a fashionable institution. It is an institution that exists, first and foremost, to worship God and to form disciples. And it is through that lens that we must view the reign of Christ the King as an actual king, to not compartmentalize Him in our lives or to tuck Christ away in “his silent hiding-place in the church.”[3]
Our readings for today are instructive. The prophet Jeremiah, echoing other Old Testament prophecies, writes of a wise king who will execute justice and righteousness. Likewise, St. Paul writes of Christ as “the head of the body, the church.”[4] Just as we are members of the body of Christ, Christ himself is the head, who directs our doings and to whom we owe our entire allegiance. Towards the end of his gospel, St. Luke recounts that one of the thieves being crucified alongside Christ has a late conversion and asks for Christ to remember him when he becomes king. In an extraordinary move that is as powerful as it is merciful, Christ does even more than he was asked, promising the thief that he will be with him in paradise. Likewise, in the eucharistic prayer, the priest prays: “in the fullness of time, put all things in subjection under your Christ.”[5]
If we are to accept Christ as king—an actual king to whom we owe actual allegiance—then the problems with Christian Nationalism start to become apparent. I do not mean to suggest that someone must hold specific political beliefs to be a faithful Christian. It is almost a truism that neither the positions articulated by mainline denominations nor Catholic social teaching neatly line up with the positions of the United States’ dominant political parties. This truism is often invoked against those calling for the Church to do more for the least of us. I suggest that we invoke it against those who would happily drop the Christian plank of their program the second they no longer see it as advantageous. The current and most serious threat facing both the Church and the world today is Christian Nationalism. We are allowed to disagree on the extent of our social safety net, or tax brackets, or the precise details of our immigration policy. But Christian Nationalism is a different project altogether. It is a project incapable of following Christ’s commands in St. Matthew’s Gospel to care for the hungry and the stranger and to make disciples of all nations. It is a project that is leading our politics down a path that feels ever more difficult to recover from. Most of all, it is a project that is wholly incompatible with Christian doctrine.
If Christian Nationalism is calling for a certain type of Christian to be in power, then the response of faithful Christians must be for the reign of Christ the King. The response must be to infuse our political advocacy with the Gospel and to center a care for the least of us, a fervent desire for peace, and stewardship of the world around us at every step. In speaking about Christians and politics, Miroslav Volf referenced Swiss theologian Karl Barth:
Christians are, Karl Barth said, always "unreliable allies" to any government or any party. And the reason for that is their ultimate allegiance isn't the program of the party or the wishes of the government in power. Their ultimate allegiance is to God. God is the one who's independent of the interests of particular parties and makes claim upon our lives.[6]
At times we may find ourselves aligned with a specific politician or specific party. Yet we must not be wedded to such a view. We must never lose sight of the implications of our political actions on our most vulnerable siblings nor sacrifice the inheritance of the Cross for a pursuit of secular power. We have been given our directive: love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind while loving our neighbors as ourselves. God help us. Amen.
[1] Paul Kingsnorth, “Against Christian Civilization,” First Things, December 12, 2024, https://firstthings.com/against-christian-civilization/.
[2] Pope Pius XI, "Quas Primas," The Vatican, December 11, 1925, https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_11121925_quas-primas.html.
[3] Pope Pius XI, “Quas Primas.”
[4] Colossians 1:18 (NRSV).
[5] The Book of Common Prayer, 369.
[6] Rosa, Evan. “Miroslav Volf/War in Ukraine: Theological and Moral Reflections.” Produced, edited, and hosted by Evan Rosa. For the Life of the World. March 19, 2022. Podcast, MP3 audio, 31:33. https://for-the-life-of-the-world-yale-center-for-faith-culture.simplecast.com/episodes/miroslav-volf-war-on-ukraine-theological-and-moral-reflections.
