Accept the Most Perfect Reign

Fr. Robert Barron, a priest of Chicago, rector of Mundelein Seminary, and founder of Word on Fire ministries (which you may know from the Catholicism series that aired on PBS and EWTN and is available on DVD), writes in the November issue of Magnificat:

Some years ago, a priest friend of mine suggested that in order to make this feast more understandable for people today, we ought to change the title to “Christ the President or “Christ the Prime Minister.” After all, he reasoned, most people, at least in the West, don’t particularly care for kings, and our modern democracies were formed in reaction to the tyranny of monarchs.

But to make such a change would be spiritually disastrous. Presidents and prime ministers depend upon the approval of those who elect them, and this is altogether right from a political point of view. If we don’t like what our democratically chosen leaders tell us to do, we can legitimately vote them out of office. But Christ Jesus is not someone whose reign depends upon our approval. We should not be able to vote him out of office if we don’t agree with his commands. Rather, he demands to be the Lord of every aspect of our lives.

And if you still harbor suspicions of what submitting to this King would entail, take a good look at him. He reigns not from a pompous throne, but from an instrument of torture; he wears not a gaudy crowd of gold, but a bloody crown of thorns; he issues not preemptory commands, but words of promise: “This day you will be with me in paradise.” Don’t be afraid utterly to submit every aspect of your life to this King, for his power empowers you and his command liberates you.