From the Friars: Happy 100th Anniversary!
This December 11th, we celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Quas Primas (“In the First”); the Encyclical Letter of Pope Pius XI which instituted today’s Solemnity of Christ the King. Pius XI had lamented the fact that a majority of men had “thrust Jesus Christ and His holy laws out of their lives”; that these had no place in either private affairs or in politics. On the surface, this seems like an astonishing claim to be made in 1925; but, yet, the Encyclical is quite prophetic. It states that, “as long as individuals and states refuse to submit to the rule of our Savior…there would be no lasting peace among nations”.
Pius XI was right. Within 13 days, Benito Mussolini became the dictator of Italy. In 1926, anticlerical laws were enforced in Mexico sparking the Cristeros revolt. In 1929, the Stock Market crashed; in 1931, Japan invaded China; in 1933, Hitler and the Nazis Party had seized power in Germany; and by 1936 the Spanish Civil War had begun. Many of these events were forerunners of World War II. To claim that ultimate authority rests in Man and that we can build a civilization apart from God is an obvious error.
But enough about what nations did in the past; how are you living in the present? Is Jesus Christ the Lord of your life? I don’t just mean Mass attendance on Sundays, or even daily prayer; those, of course, are important things. I mean does Jesus Christ live in you, work in you, think through you, love through you? Is He truly the King of all you say and do? Is Jesus the Lord of your money, the Lord of your workplace; the Lord of your computer; the Lord of your social media; sexuality; health; marriage; family; heart and soul? We cannot claim that Jesus is the Lord of our lives if a part of our lives are not under His dominion or His Lordship.
It is time for all of us to reclaim the key insights of Quas Primas, that if Jesus Christ is not Lord of me individually, He cannot be the Lord of the nations.
This is the Truth upon which a Christian nation, society, and world ultimately rests.
Rev. Andrew, FPC