The Solemnity of Christ the King, while inviting us to turn our attention and our hearts to this grandiose panorama, requires us to be conscious of special responsibilities in our life.
Since we participate in divine nature and have become children of God through Baptism, even His royalty is rightfully ours, among other privileges, for, besides being courtiers of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of kings, we belong to His family as His true brothers, elevated to the category of princes. He wants to make us partakers of the felicity which He possesses from all eternity as the Only-begotten Son, enjoying conviviality and familiarity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. In addition, He will associate us in the manifestation of His magnificence when He comes at the end of time. This is our nobility.
Therefore, if we are overjoyed at belonging to the same lineage and to the royal family of Our Lord Jesus Christ, we are obliged, as temples of the Most Holy Trinity, to take this filiation to its ultimate consequences in our daily existence.
What do we implore in the Collect, in the Mass of the Solemnity of Christ the King? “Almighty ever-living God, whose will is to restore all things in Your beloved Son, the King of the universe, grant, we pray, that the whole creation, set free from slavery, may render Your majesty service and ceaselessly proclaim Your praise.” 1 May creatures glorify Thee in Thy regal grandeur! A subject, in order to glorify his sovereign, must, before all else, be faithful to his laws and counsels.
The Laws of my King are found in the Ten Commandments and in the Gospel, as well as in my interior, through the moral sense which I received from my infancy. I need to be entirely upright concerning these laws, and to persevere in the grace of God, seeking to practice virtue to the utmost, with an ever heightened striving after perfection and sanctity, for nothing offends this King more than sin. If, on the contrary, I choose the ways of vice and deform my own conscience to live in indifferentism, I renounce my participation in His royalty and will follow other kings: the devil, the world, and the flesh.
On this magnificent Solemnity of the royalty of Our Lord Jesus Christ, my soul pervaded with all of these marvels, blessings, and graces, I wish to turn to Him and say: “Lord, I am Thine! I am Thine! In spite of my debilities and weaknesses, reign in my heart, in my thoughts, and in my sentiments. Reign in my soul through Mary Most Holy, the throne which Thou didst choose for Thy birth—Queen because she is Thy Mother, and my Mother also.”
Source: New Insights on the Gospels. Città del Vaticano – Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2014, v.IV, p.540-541.
1 SOLEMNITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE. Collect. In: THE ROMAN MISSAL, English translation according to the Third Typical Edition approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and confirmed by the Apostolic See. Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 2011, p.505.