Christ is the real, ultimate and universal king

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WITH the celebration of the Solemnity of Christ the King, we are reminded to really develop and enliven our belief that Christ is the real and ultimate king for all of us. He is king not only to Catholics but to all of us and the entire universe. As such, we too share in Christ’s kingly office.

And his kingship is not only something social, political, economic, cultural, etc. His kingship extends to the spiritual, moral and supernatural dimensions of our life. He rules all aspects of our life—from our most internal thoughts and desires, to our most global and cosmic concerns. There is nothing in our life where Christ is not expected to reign. We are actually nothing without him.

It is only when we acknowledge and live this truth of our faith that we too can consider ourselves as king too in him. Thus, we share in his mission of human redemption, by uprooting sin and sanctifying all aspects of our life. We are supposed to actively participate, in accordance to one’s state in life, in the mission of Christ which is now the mission of the Church, and the mission of each one of us.

We need to do our part to make Christ our King. We can do this by making little conquests in our spiritual life everyday.         We need to understand that our life will always involve some struggle. In fact, it is and should be a daily affair. Failing in that struggle does not only mean getting stuck at a certain point. It certainly means we have retrogressed. In this business of struggle, if we don’t advance, we actually retreat.

We should therefore be reminded of our duty to hone up our skills in spiritual warfare. Christ already hinted this much when he said: “from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away.” (Mt 11,12)

We have to understand though that to be violent in this sense does not mean to be destructive but rather to be constructive, driven by love and the desire to be united with God and with the others in a way proper to us as children of God and brothers and sisters among ourselves.

Our life here on earth cannot but be in some form of struggle. Aside from our innate urge to grow and develop that requires some effort, we also have to contend with enemies whose sole intent is precisely to bring us down, to divert us from our proper path toward holiness. This is not to mention that our ultimate goal is to reach heaven, which definitely will require effort and struggle, and of course God’s grace.

We need to make little conquests everyday in every front of this spiritual warfare. It can be in the battle for faith, hope and charity. It can be in the way we pray and in the offering of sacrifices.

Any progress or victory in any battle or skirmish, no matter how small, counts. As long as we struggle constantly, our spiritual life will always advance. If we persevere in our spiritual warfare, our fidelity to any commitment is assured, for God on his part will always give us what we need. Things would just depend on us.

Any progress in the virtues will always go a long way in our spiritual life. We need to remind ourselves strongly that everything that we do should always be for God’s glory and not for our own glorification.

This is how we make Christ our real King!

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com