Christ the King 2025
When Pope Pius XI instituted a special feast honoring Christ “the King” in 1925, he lamented a world that had been ravaged by the First World War and which had begun to bow down before “kings” of exploitative consumerism, nationalism, secularism, and new forms of injustice.
The old power structures in Europe and the Middle East were fading into memory, including the colonial system that allowed European nations to claim dominion over lands and peoples across Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America.
A new and uncertain world was rising in their place.
Pope Pius recognized that, for the Christian, those passing empires and colonies did not define who or whose they were. Instead, he reflected that the kingdom to which Christians belong is “spiritual and concerned with spiritual things… it demands of its subjects a spirit of detachment from riches and earthly things, and a spirit of gentleness. They must hunger and thirst after justice and more than this, they must deny themselves and carry the cross” (from the encyclical Quas primas, 15).
Pope Pius envisioned “a dominion by a King of Peace who came to reconcile all things, who came not to be served but to serve.” (20) The reign of Christ embraces all people (cf. Colossians 1:18-20). This is certainly a timely reminder as we confront violence, uncertainty, and questions about what we owe to those who are the victims of terror and oppression.
This becomes especially important in light of the Gospel proclaimed this Sunday. Here, we find Jesus Christ “King of the Universe” not seated on a throne or presented in terrifying apocalyptic glory but nailed to a tree. In his wounds and suffering, there is a striking critique of imperial power and political maneuvering. As Pope Francis reflected in his 2022 homily for this solemnity: “Appareled only with nails and thorns, stripped of everything yet rich in love, from his throne on the cross he no longer teaches the crowds by his words; he no longer lifts his hands as a teacher. He does more: pointing a finger at no one, he opens his arms to all. That is how he shows himself to be our king: with open arms, a brasa aduerte.”
It is only when we allow ourselves to be enfolded in that embrace that we discover that in his own gift of himself that Christ also embraces our pain, our poverty, our weaknesses, and even death itself. And in that embrace, he draws us into the very heart of that mystery of love that is who God is.
This Sunday’s celebration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe reminds us that the Kingdom of Christ isn’t some far off reality. We are living in that Kingdom now. After all, Jesus tells the dying thief “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” He offers those same words to each of us when we are able to allow ourselves to be loved and forgiven because it is his love and mercy that we find the paradise for which we all long.
Although many of us will sing grand hymns about glory, kingdoms, and crows this Sunday, at the heart of this celebration is the mystery of love—that love that created the universe and of that love that sustains and continues to save us. Our crucified king loves us as we are in just the same way that he loved the repentant thief. And it is in that gift of love and forgiveness that we realize our dignity and worth.
Returning to Pope Francis, we also discover in his embrace that, “nothing about you is foreign to him, that he wants to embrace you, to lift you up and to save you just as you are, with your past history, your failings and your sins… Right now, let us think about our own personal poverty: ‘Lord, do you love me with this spiritual poverty and all these limitations?’ And the Lord smiles and makes us understand that he loves us and gave his life for us.”
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.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
