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 more recently, in 1925 by Pope Pius XI. He did so in response to the growth of secular thinking in the West, 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.
The Feast of Christ the King has various dimensions and applications to our lives. As discussed before, the Israelites expected the Messiah to be a great military conqueror, who would overthrown 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.
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