The feast of Christ the King holds a special place in the hearts of all Legionaries and Regnum Christi members. I always love reflecting on a few elements that come together in such a feast as this.
This feast first of all reminds me of Christ’s humanity. He has left heaven for earth. God, who didn’t need to, has taken his place among men to make the human experience of joy and suffering his own.
Christ has come to this earth to claim his kingdom. But ‘his kingdom is not of this world’ (John 18:36). A normal king’s subjects belong to him because of where they live or their social status but Christ’s kingdom has no such boundaries. Rather, Christ has come so that through his humanity we can encounter him in his divinity, whoever or wherever we are. The fruit of this encounter is that we freely choose him, we proclaim Christ our king. Maybe we are born Christian, baptized Christian and raised Christian, but we do not become Christian in the full sense of the word until he reigns in our hearts, words and actions.
Every king has subjects and every king has an army. Our motto in the Legion and Regnum Christi is “Thy Kingdom Come”. I have always seen this as a battle cry. This is where I see myself and my Legionary vocation. I belong to Christ’s army as a modern-day missionary striving to give others an encounter with Christ so that others may freely accept him to reign in their hearts.
After the feast of Christ the King we begin Advent, we will hear the words the angel Gabriel announced to Mary: “and his kingdom will have no end” (LK 1:33) This is what I call heaven.