Living in the Kingdom
Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come. —Psalm 23:5-6 When Pope Pius XI instituted a special feast honoring Christ “the King” in 1925, he lamented a world that had been ravaged by the First World War and which had begun to bow down before the lords of exploitative consumerism, nationalism, secularism, and new forms of injustice. The old power structures in Europe and the Middle East were fading into memory (including the colonial system that allowed European nations to claim holdings in Africa, South East Asia, and South America) and a new and uncertain world was rising in their place. Pope Pius XI opening the "Holy Door" for the 1925 Jubilee Year, during which he instituted the Feast of Christ the King It would seem that Pope Pius began to understand that, for the Christian, the passing empires and colonies did not define who or whose they were. Instead, he reflec...