Christ the King

On the last Sunday of the Church’s year, the Sunday before Advent, we celebrate Jesus as the King of the whole universe. Pope Pius XI began this feast in 1925. But Jesus is a different kind of king. When Pilate asked him if he was a king, Jesus answered that his kingdom is not of this world. He has no army, and his throne was a cross. The Church teaches that Jesus is Lord of all history, that his reign has already begun, and that it will be complete when he returns. We share in his kingship when we serve, especially the poor and the suffering.

The Blessed who teaches today lived this kind of kingship. Miguel Pro was born in 1891 in Mexico, in a mining family, and became a Jesuit. Because of the troubles in his country he studied for the priesthood abroad, and he was ordained in Belgium in 1925. He was a cheerful man, always quick with a joke. He came home to Mexico in 1926, just when the government was enforcing harsh laws against the Church: many churches were closed, and priests could not celebrate Mass in public.

So Father Miguel served in secret. Wearing disguises, he went around the city to celebrate Mass in private homes, to hear confessions, to baptize and to bring Communion to families, and he also brought food to the poor. In November 1927 he was accused, without any proof, of taking part in a plot against the government, and he was executed on the 23rd of that month, without a trial. The accounts say that he forgave those who killed him and that he called out the cry many Mexican Catholics of those years had on their lips, ¡Viva Cristo Rey!, which means Long live Christ the King!

The Church honors Miguel as a martyr, someone who gives his life out of love for Christ. In 1988 Pope John Paul II declared him Blessed, a step on the way to being named a saint. His feast, on 23 November, falls close to Christ the King, and in Mexico pilgrims still go to the great statue of Christ the King on the hill of El Cubilete. Miguel’s kingdom is the one Jesus taught us to ask for every day in the Our Father, a kingdom of love, truth and service. These words were on his lips at the end: