Love for Christ and Catholic tradition was on full display in Sydney’s West as thousands gathered to celebrate the feast of Christ the King on 23 November.
The feast of Christ the King was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925, to recognise Christ’s kingship and to counter the rise of secularism following World War I.
St Anthony of Padua parish priest Fr Ronnie Maree highlighted the significance of the feast and marked its centenary with a solemn Mass and public procession through the streets of Austral.
“When Pius XI proclaimed this feast day, he said that he hoped that it would bring three blessings, three things would result from the celebration of this feast day,” said Fr Ronnie during his homily to a packed Austral parish.
“He hoped that in paying honour to Christ above all, firstly, that it would be remembered that the church…cannot be subject to external powers as she seeks to fulfill her mission to teach, to sanctify, and to govern, and that no authority and no power on earth can stop the church from teaching, sanctifying, and governing.
“The second thing was that rulers and princes, governments and states would give public honour to Christ the King … [and] that it would call to their mind the last judgment of Christ.
“And thirdly, he hoped that the faithful would gain strength and courage to realise that nothing in our lives is exempt from Jesus’s kingly rule, that nothing in our lives falls outside of his loving dominion over us.”
Delving more into the traditions of the Solemnity, Fr Ronnie spoke on the power of public processions on the feast of Christ’s kingship.
It is a very public act of worship that is a deeply spiritual and interior reality, he said, for the place Christ is interested in conquering and making eternal, does not lie in the world but in the heart.
“We do something supremely public today, but we do it hoping for a supremely interior fruit,” said Fr Ronnie.
“That we grow in our interior lives, particularly our families as they continue to grow, that our children don’t just have Christ on their lips, but they have Christ in their hearts.
“That they have met him in prayer, that they know how to speak to him and how to listen to him, that they grow in their interior life and come to know the Christ who reigned upon the cross is reigning in their hearts also.
“We hope all of our hearts will be shaped and molded by Christ the King so that on that day when we take our last breath we may hear those words of Jesus for ourselves: “Truly today you will be with me in paradise.”