Solemnity of Christ the King and Today's World

Here is a homily a monk frond of mine delivered on November 19th and 20th, 2021 on the Solemnity of Christ the King. As he travelled to Eastern Europe in the early 1980's, he saw the suffering communism imposed on people. He is concerned the same is happing right now in the United States of America. His warning is worth considering.

In contrast, the only color I remember seeing was gray,

Solemnity of Christ the King

November 19/20, 2021 - St. Michael – Poplar Springs

 On August 23, 1976, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla visited central Wisconsin, including a stop and lunch at the farm of my cousin Maynard Zdroik. 

The Cardinal was accompanied on this day by another cousin, Leonard Groshek, who was a member of the State Assembly, and his wife Regina, who 26 years later, attended my first Mass at the age of 89. 

Little did anyone know that just over two years later, this visitor would be standing on the balcony of St. Peter’s as Pope John Paul II. 

 A few years later, Wednesday, March 26, 1980, a candidate for President visited my hometown. 

The kids were released from school to listen to him…he spoke from the bandstand which still stands on the old courthouse square (the courthouse has since been replaced by a library). 

Less than ten months later, standing in front of the United States Capitol, as Ronald Reagan was giving his inaugural address as the new President, fifty-two Americans who had been held hostage in Tehran for 444 days were released.

Just a few months ago, men and women of my age from my hometown were posting on Facebook their photos of Ronald Reagan’s visit to Waupaca… all taken while he was in our beloved bandstand.

 Both, were men of hope…seeing the best in others and expressing a vision of hope which shaped my generation. 

Their words were about freedom and the inherent dignity of the human person.

They were able, through word, sincerity and enthusiasm, express a vision for the future which was so bright and vivid, that one could imagine it in the minds eye. During my first walk in 1990 down the Krakowskie Przedmieście (the Royal Way), which was previously and is again today, the most luxurious street in Warsaw.

It was, to be blunt, depressing.

The businesses along that famous street had little to sell.

One store would sell buckles for shoes, the place next door, buttons, another store had things on display, but not for sale, as there was a long waiting list.

Restaurants had limited, but tasty, food available.

 Only the churches seemed to have color…once one stepped through the doors.

They were full of people much of the day. Everyone stopped for Mass, a publicly prayed or private rosary, just a few moments of quiet prayer.

A place of hope in the midst of a country which had just thrown off the yoke of Communism and whose people were working hard to bring about a renewal of every aspect of life.

 Despite being a shock, it was really no surprise, as only a few years prior, Teresa, one of my family’s long time employees would gather used clothing and even spices like black pepper to send to her family in Poland. 

As the financial situation of the Communist regime worsened, the country was no longer able to pay to import items, like spices, which could not be produced there…and they often exported the highest quality items of what they did produce to obtain cash to prop up the collapsing system.

 On that same trip to Eastern Europe,

I arrived in Bucharest, Romania on January 6, 1991…Christmas Eve for the Orthodox, who make up the majority of t he country’s population.

There were huge thoroughfares in the city…eight lanes wide…with a handful of cars.  Few people owned them.

The resources of the country had been poured into huge building projects,       but many massive buildings and wide roads were close to empty.

The military still came out in large numbers to try to maintain order, as their dictator and his wife had been executed only a year prior, and the people were suffering severe hardship.

 I will never forget seeing the vigil candle stands which had been brought out of the churches and placed in the locations around the city where bloodshed had taken place in the struggle to overthrow tyranny. 

The candles burned around the clock. 

So many lives lost in the struggle for freedom.

 I wanted to make my way to Suceava, a city in the north of the country,

          located in an area known for its painted monasteries.

Leaving in a very simple rental car, as I drove through the countryside on a very foggy evening, there were hundreds of people walking along the roads, or riding in simple horse drawn buckboards, going from village to village to be with family on Orthodox Christmas Eve.

There were no flashlights or electric lights.

Only kerosene lanterns in the hand or affixed to the horse drawn vehicle. I had stepped back in time almost a hundred years.

 After a somewhat nerve wracking drive, I arrived at the hotel where I had a reservation.

After checking in and going up to the room, I went down to the front desk to ask about making a telephone call to the USA to let my family know that I arrived safely.

I asked, “Is it possible to make a telephone call to the United States?”

The very polite woman at the front desk answered, “Someday it will be possible, but not today.”

 Over the next week, I saw once again the poverty imposed by Marxist ideology.

In the rare shop that had anything, the shopkeepers would try to detain me until they could get a family member of friend who might have something I might want to buy for US dollars. 

Thus, in a shop selling postcards, I was suddenly being shown handmade sweaters, amazing lace table cloths and embroidery of the highest quality, all made by folks trying to survive.

A year prior to my visit, in a last ditch effort to avoid an overthrow, the dictator had increased the monthly pension for retirees by the equivalent of fifty cents.

Just as the streets of Poland were gray, the interior of public buildings in Romania were dark.

There were elaborate light fixtures everywhere…often so many that it was garish, but there would be one bulb in a fixture designed for 20 bulbs.

The stairways in the hotels were so dark that it was hazardous.

Dining rooms were dimly lit, not to give ambiance, but because of a lack of lightbulbs.

It seemed that lightbulbs had to be imported, and there was no money to do so.

Amazingly, the only place that had lightbulbs was the Catholic churches – probably because the Church in the West donated them-and the Catholics installed them on every nook and cranny inside their churches as a symbol of defiance against the darkness…both figurative and literal...of Communism.

 Of course, all of what I described seems like ancient history, having taken place between 45 and 30 years ago.

Memories fade.  New generations have their own experiences.

Stories are written.  Some important stories go unwritten.

And, as a people, we often think that when doing things that have failed before, it will somehow be different this time!

 We live in a world filled with information in which false narratives often supersede facts, sloppy ideologies displace truth, and waves of people hop on the latest bandwagon as if it were their vehicle to salvation. 

 If you doubt that political ideology has widely replaced theology in the hearts of

many people, I invite you to ask:

Have religious pilgrimages been replaced by political rallies?

Have religious processions been set aside in favor of protests and riots?

Have theologians been replaced by ideologues as the source of our shared values?

 We have become fixated on the here and now, and the eternal has been lost to many.

Treasure on earth, rather than treasure in heaven.

 Why is there not a wedding taking place every few weeks in this church?

Why is the number of baptisms in serious decline across the nation?

Why have funerals, if there is a funeral at all, become a “check the box” affair,

which occurs at a time and place that is convenient  to everyone’s schedule?  Why is the body of the deceased treated with so little reverence…

there are folks who are liquefying their loved ones or having them made into jewelry.

 A decade or so ago, it could be said that secularism and atheism were creeping into our society. 

No longer. 

Now, they are holding rallies in our town squares and even “victory parades” on the main thoroughfares of almost every city, town and village in America. 

 Seventy four years ago this past week, the Catholic Bishops of the US released a statement on secularism which is well worth sharing with you.

 “Secularism which exiles God from human life clears the way for the acceptance of godless subversive ideologies — just as religion, which keeps God in human life, has been the one outstanding opponent of totalitarian tyranny.

Religion has been its first victim; for tyrants persecute what they fear.

 Thus secularism, as the solvent of practical religious influence in the everyday life of men and nations, is not indeed the most patent, but in a very true sense the most insidious hindrance to world reconstruction within the strong framework of God's natural law.

There would be more hope for a just and lasting peace if the leaders of the nations were really convinced that secularism which disregards God, as well as militant atheism which utterly denies Him, offer no sound basis for stable international agreements for enduring respect for human rights or for freedom under law.”

Catholic Bishops of the USA 11/14/1947

Just this week, it was reported that the Department of Health and Human Services is preparing regulations which would place Catholic health-care providers in an untenable position,” forcing them to choose between staying in business “or provide services and products that are in direct conflict with our basic Catholic teachings.”

This is not by accident.  It is an agenda.  Ask yourselves, just who is advancing it?

 In a statement, a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops spokesperson said,

“The reports of multiple actions by the Department of Health and Human Services this week appear to demonstrate a troubling attack on the religious freedom and rights of conscience of health care and child welfare providers, which will only serve to harm their beneficiaries.

We continue to assert our right to serve others regardless of background and in accord with our faith.”

 “Today’s Solemnity, that of Christ the King, was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as an antidote to secularism, a way of life which leaves God out of our thinking and living and organizes our lives as if God did not exist.

The feast is intended to proclaim in a striking and effective manner Christ's sovereignty over individuals, families, society, governments, and nations.”                                                                   (Catholic Culture Online)

We are reminded that “Christ is God, the Creator of the universe and hence wields a supreme power over all things; "All things were created by Him.”

Christ is our Redeemer, He purchased us by His precious Blood, and made us His property and possession; Christ is Head of the Church, "holding in all things the primacy";God bestowed upon Christ the nations of the world as His special possession and dominion.

We are also reminded of the qualities of Christ's kingdom. This kingdom is:

1) Supreme, extending not only to all people but also to their princes and kings;

2) Universal, extending to all nations and to all places;

3) Eternal, for "The Lord shall sit a King forever";

4) Spiritual, Christ's "kingdom is not of this world".”  (Msgr. Rudolph G. Bandas)

My brothers and sisters,

          I shared many recollections from my youth with you today, not to give a decades old travelogue, but to stand as a witness to the fact that the failed ideologies of the past, even if covered over and given a new look, much like retread tires, are really not roadworthy, and are doomed to fail when we rely on them most.

 It is true that as people of faith, we are often the target of those who seek to get us out of the picture, so they can implement an agenda rooted in ideologies contrary to the Faith, unhindered by our commitment to upholding the inherent the dignity of the human person.

 But, as Saint Pope John Paul II said often, “Be not Afraid.”

 They can take everything from us.

They can reduce us, to what were called in the Soviet Union, “former people.”

These were people, who after the so-called October Revolution in Russia, lost their social status; namely the aristocracy, imperial military, bureaucracy, clergy, etc.

The "former people" were a target of severe persecution of various kinds by the Communist regime.

 

We, as devout Catholics, may suffer in similar or in different ways, but the story does not end there.

We know that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is eternal.

Other kingdoms, regimes, or whatever one calls them, and their rulers will slip away, but Christ is King for all eternity.