This Sunday, we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, which is more popularly known as the Feast of Christ the King. While the feast has biblical roots, its observance was instituted one hundred years ago by Pope Pius XI. He did so in response to the increasing secularization of Western Civilization, whereby Christ was being pushed more and more out of the public sphere. The pope sought to remind the faithful and the world at large that Christ is King of all the world, now and always.
Before the coming of Christ, the Israelites expected the Messiah to be a great military conqueror, who would overthrow the Roman Empire, which was occupying the Holy Land at the time. In place of Roman rule, the Messiah would set up a new, glorious Israelite kingdom with Jerusalem as its capital. The new kingdom would be the strongest in the world and all the nations of the world would bow down to Jerusalem.
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Photo Credit: Roof fresco of Pantokrator, Nativity of the Theotokos Church, Bitola, North Macedonia from Wikimedia Commons.
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