Readings:
Dn 7:13-14
Ps 93:1, 1-2, 5
Mk 11:9, 10
Jn 18:33b-37

“¡Viva Cristo Rey!” is a cry I grew up with. I would hear yelled out in Church often as I was growing up. We would all respond with a resounding, “¡Que Viva!” joyfully acclaiming Christ, our King!!!

Even now, the words “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” which can best be translated as “Long live Christ the King!” stir up my heart, and it flies directly to the Sagrado Corazón (the Sacred Heart of Jesus), pierced and bleeding, aflame with the Holy Spirit and love for us and the Father.

Cristo Rey and el Sagrado Corazón were two of the three images of Jesus I grew up with as a Mexican-American Catholic. The third one was el Niño Dios (the baby Jesus) asleep on satin sheets with the arma Christi floating ominously in the background. The arma Christi are the weapons used by Cristo Rey to defeat his enemy (sin and injustice) to establish his Reign of peace and justice. These weapons are the instruments of his passion, death and resurrection: the cross, the nails, the whips, the crown of thorns.

Yes, the baby Jesus slept on the hay in Bethlehem, but in the Mexican Catholic imagination, the eternal Word, Son of God and Prince of Peace, deserved to sleep on satin sheets as he began his earthly journey to the Passion. This heartfelt journey revealed God’s passion for his creation, a passion that reached out lovingly to the least, to publicans and the outcast. Papa Francisco calls this a “social miracle” in his latest encyclical, Dilexit nos (Dn 28), and he invites us to join our hearts to the heart of Jesus in his work of reconciliation and peace, “born of the heart.”

The image of Christ the King has been with us since Pilate’s interrogation of Jesus in the Passion events. Jesus doesn’t claim kingship; rather, he stresses he came to “testify to the truth.” He claims that those who belong to the truth listen to his voice. This is because the truth is relational. It calls for engagement and commitment. In truth, we who listen to Jesus are betrothed to him. We assist in building the Reign of the heart of Jesus (Dn 182), where we are engaged with and committed to God and neighbor in love.

This commitment has been lived by Christians for two millennia, mostly without having an official feast or teaching on the heart of Jesus until Pope Pius XI’s Quas Primas (1925), where he gave us the feast we are celebrating today, the last Sunday of the liturgical calendar. The pope was responding to growing tensions between the Church and national secularization movements that caused national persecutions of Christians in Europe and América. In Mexico, in fact, these secularization movements led to the Cristero wars when the rallying cry “¡Viva Cristo Rey! was popularized, especially among those who were being shot by firing squads for their commitment to the truth of Jesus the King.

Ultimately, the Feast of Christ the King was created to answer the question, “Who is in charge here?” It is Cristo Rey who oversees all creation and everything and everyone in it.  We claim it and celebrate it today as we end the liturgical year and prepare to begin a new one. But “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” cannot simply be a rallying cry reserved for pius and impressive liturgical celebrations (Dn 205). It should be an invitation to join our hearts to the Sagrado Corazón, the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the building of his Reign of peace and justice.

In the encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Papa Francisco ponders: “What kind of worship would we give to Christ if we were to rest content with an individual relationship with him and show no interest in relieving the sufferings of others or helping them to live a better life? Would it please the heart that so loved us, if we were to bask in a private religious experience while ignoring its implications for the society in which we live? Let us be honest and accept the word of God in its fullness.” (Dn 205)

The Most Sacred Heart of Christ the King calls us not just to the social miracle of building up a Reign of peace and justice, rather it challenges us to make the arma Christi our own as we testify to the Reign of peace, justice and fellowship. In this way, our hearts are opened to love God and those whom God loves (everyone).

The Franciscan poet Dante Alighieri is quoted by the Pope to remind us that love is sweet and has the capacity to inflame the hearts of the other in love. Loving is our witness to Christ the King who in his incarnation, ministry, passion, death and resurrection revealed to us the passionate Heart of his Father and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Today we celebrate Jesus Christ as the one who oversees our lives and actions. In this, we are invited to become engaged and committed to the mission of radiating in our love, the love of the heart of Jesus, in such a way that our love will inflame love in others. In this way, we extend and build up the Reign of our Lord.

“¡Que viva Cristo Rey!”

Prof. Gilberto Cavazos-Gonzalez, OFM
John Duns Scotus Chair of Franciscan Spirituality
Professor of Christian Spirituality (Studies)