Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King
Missa “Dignus est Agnus” – Last Sunday of October (Tridentine Rite)
The Feast of Christ the King, instituted by Pope Pius XI in the encyclical Quas Primas (1925), stands as one of the crowning glories of the Tridentine liturgical year. Celebrated on the last Sunday of October—immediately before All Saints’ Day—it serves as a bridge between time and eternity: the Kingship of Christ reigning now in grace, and the Kingdom of glory that awaits the faithful in heaven. It proclaims, not the hope of a kingdom to come, but the present, objective, and universal sovereignty of Christ over every creature, every nation, and every heart.
A Feast Born of Crisis
The 20th century opened with the dethronement of Christ from public life. Monarchies were toppled, nations secularised, and ideologies arose that promised liberation through material progress, class struggle, or racial supremacy. The world, drunk with self-sufficiency, declared its independence from God. In this climate, Pius XI, who had witnessed the ravages of World War I and the rise of militant atheism, discerned the root of modern despair: “The rebellion of individuals and states against the authority of Christ,” he wrote, *“has produced deplorable consequences… We lament these evils not only because of their intrinsic gravity, but because they spring from the rejection of Our Lord’s empire.”*¹
Thus, the feast was born not as a quaint devotion, but as a solemn act of resistance. It was a declaration that Christ alone is the measure of all authority, the centre of all history, and the source of all true liberty. In instituting it, Pius XI intended to recall nations and rulers alike to their first duty: to acknowledge Christ as King and to order their laws according to His divine law.
The Liturgical Majesty
In the Tridentine Rite, the feast opens with the thunderous majesty of heaven’s worship from the Apocalypse: “Dignus est Agnus qui occisus est accipere virtutem, et divinitatem, et sapientiam, et fortitudinem, et honorem: ipsi gloria et imperium in saecula saeculorum.”—“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour: to Him be glory and empire for ever and ever.” The imagery of the Lamb slain yet reigning unites the Cross and the Crown: the same Christ who hung powerless before Pilate now reigns with absolute power over heaven and earth.
The Collect prays: “Almighty and everlasting God, Who in Thy beloved Son, the King of the whole world, hast willed to restore all things: mercifully grant that all the families of nations, now kept apart by the wound of sin, may be brought under the sweet yoke of His rule.” The petition encapsulates the whole theology of the feast—restoration through submission. The “sweetness” of His yoke recalls Christ’s own words, “My yoke is sweet and My burden light,” signifying that His dominion, unlike that of tyrants, is one of truth and charity.
The Epistle from Colossians declares Christ to be “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature… in Him were all things created.” The Gospel (John 18:33–37) sets the eternal King before the tribunal of a transient empire: Pilate’s question, “Art Thou a king then?” evokes both scepticism and fear. Christ’s reply—“Thou sayest that I am a King. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth”—reveals the foundation of His reign: Truth itself, not human force, sustains His kingdom.
The True Nature of Christ’s Reign
The Kingship of Christ, as understood in the traditional Catholic sense, is not merely spiritual or metaphorical. It is metaphysical and social. He is King by right of creation, by right of redemption, and by right of conquest. As Creator, all things were made through Him; as Redeemer, He has purchased humanity with His Blood; and as Victor, He has triumphed over sin and death. His dominion thus extends not only over the Church but over the whole world, including civil society.
This social kingship of Christ, a doctrine much neglected in our age, means that human laws must be subject to the divine law. Governments, schools, and families all owe allegiance to the same moral order revealed by God. Pius XI insisted that *“the empire of Christ includes not only Catholic nations, not only baptized persons who, though of right belonging to the Church, have been led astray by error, but also all those who are outside the Christian faith.”*² Christ’s Kingship is universal and objective, irrespective of human acceptance.
Christ the King and the Rebellion of Modern Man
The feast thus strikes directly at the heart of modern rebellion—the attempt to separate faith from public life, truth from law, and morality from governance. The post-Enlightenment world has enthroned man in place of God. The “autonomous conscience” has become the supreme legislator, and politics seeks to create peace without reference to the Prince of Peace. Yet the result, as history shows, has been endless conflict, moral chaos, and the disintegration of families and nations.
In contrast, the reign of Christ is the reign of order. He does not abolish freedom but sanctifies it; He does not suppress diversity but harmonises it; He does not dominate through fear but through love. To proclaim Christ as King is to assert that truth, not opinion, must govern; that charity, not coercion, is the highest law; and that every temporal authority is accountable before the eternal Judge.
The Inner Kingdom
While the feast exalts Christ’s public dominion, it also calls each soul to enthrone Him within. The true Christian revolution begins in the heart. As St. Paul says, “Let the peace of Christ reign in your hearts.” To submit our minds to His truth and our wills to His law is to become subjects of the Kingdom that will have no end. From this interior obedience flows the renewal of families, societies, and nations. The external social reign of Christ cannot be restored until He first reigns interiorly in the souls of His faithful.
The Liturgical Crown of the Year
By placing this feast at the close of October—immediately before the Church commemorates the saints and prays for the dead—the traditional calendar teaches that the Kingship of Christ unites the three states of the Church. He reigns over the Church Triumphant in heaven, the Church Suffering in purgatory, and the Church Militant on earth. The sequence is providential: the saints are those who lived under His law; the faithful departed await their full participation in His reign; and the living are called to fight for His Kingdom in the world.
The later postconciliar reform, which moved the feast to the last Sunday of the liturgical year and spiritualised its meaning, subtly altered this theology—shifting the focus from Christ’s social dominion now to a purely eschatological reign to come. The Tridentine placement preserves the original intent: Christ already reigns; the world’s conversion is not a distant hope but a present command.
The Call to Allegiance
On this feast, the faithful are summoned to renew their allegiance to the Sovereign King who rules from the Cross. The world sees defeat; faith perceives enthronement. The thorns become the diadem of glory; the pierced hands wield the sceptre of mercy; the crimson robe of mockery becomes the vestment of majesty. Every knee must bow, not to ideology, but to Incarnate Truth.
To celebrate the Feast of Christ the King in the Tridentine Rite, therefore, is to stand against the tide of secularism and to profess that no realm—political, cultural, or personal—lies beyond the authority of Jesus Christ. It is to proclaim, with the saints and martyrs, that *“He must reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet.”*³
Footnotes
¹ Pius XI, Quas Primas, §§24–25, 11 December 1925.
² Ibid., §18.
³ 1 Corinthians 15:25.
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