Hundred Years of the Feast of Christ the King: This Kingdom Is Different. Christ rules not through strength but through devotion. Pope Leo XIV urges us to make the Kingdom of God real by standing in solidarity with the poor.
Exactly one hundred years ago, the Feast of Christ the King was celebrated for the first time in the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XI introduced it at the end of the Holy Year of 1925. In his encyclical “Quas Primas,” the Pope clarified that he did not want Christ’s kingship to be seen as purely spiritual or individual. Instead, his message to a secularizing world was: Christ reigns where peace and justice are spread – not only in the hearts of each individual person, but also in families, communities, states, and among nations.
The Second Vatican Council made it clear that the claim of Christ’s “social kingship” must not lead to an “integralist” position, meaning a close entanglement of state and church and a privileging of the Catholic Church as a state church. Instead, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church “Lumen Gentium” assigns the task to the Catholic laity of permeating the world with the spirit of Christ, thereby spreading the “kingdom of truth and life, the kingdom of holiness and grace, the kingdom of justice, love and peace.” The vocation of Christians consists in “sharing in the messianic mission” of Christ, Pope John Paul II once said – and thus in his threefold office: “the priestly, the prophetic, and the kingly.”
Nevertheless, a hundred years after the introduction of the Feast of Christ the King and sixty years after the Second Vatican Council ended, the world appears farther than ever from the “kingship of Christ.”
Wars and crises of all kinds are shaking the world. Millions of people are fleeing violence, hunger, and environmental destruction. Climate change is threatening our natural foundations for life. Economic inequalities are widening, political systems are struggling, while wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of a few. New “strongmen” like the American tech oligarchs promise efficiency, control, and technological progress, gaining unprecedented power over data, capital, and public opinion.
Christ’s power is different. Christ is not a “strongman” – he is the child in the manger, he is the Crucified One; in him, God himself takes on poverty, exclusion, and woundedness. Here lies a radical dynamic of closeness and solidarity.
In his encyclical “Dilexit nos” on “the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ,” Pope Francis clearly stated that a new “civilization of love” can emerge when Christians unite their hearts with his divine heart. Then, Francis proposed, they become capable of “relating to one another in a healthy and joyful way and building the kingdom of love and justice in this world.”
After the Pope’s death, his successor, Leo XIV, published the Apostolic Exhortation “Dilexi te” on “the love for the poor.” The title alone shows it is a complement to the Sacred Heart encyclical—a project that Pope Francis could not complete and that has now been finished by Pope Leo XIV.
“Dilexi te” calls for a radical connection between the love of God and love for the poor. The Pope makes it clear: anyone who loves Christ cannot ignore their marginalized brothers and sisters.
God, according to Pope Leo XIV, aims to establish a “kingdom of justice, fraternity, and solidarity.” In doing so, he “carries particularly in his heart those who are discriminated against and oppressed,” and he also calls on us, his Church, “to take a decisive and radical stand for the weakest.”
Faith and love for the poor are inseparable—this could be the main idea in summary. The Pope writes: “I am convinced that the preference for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal for Church and society, if we free ourselves from our self-centeredness and open our ears to their cry.”
“Dilexi te” makes the vision of the Council concrete: the kingdom of Christ, his kingship, becomes real where Christians transform social structures in the spirit of truth, love, and justice.
The Pope quotes a passage from the Gospel of Matthew: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Ultimately, according to Pope Leo, caring for the poor is “not about charity, but about revelation.” The poor on the margins are not objects of mercy; rather, Christ reveals himself through them – and in engaging with them, the Church is renewed.
In our country, charity is institutionalized. One could say: the welfare state takes care of the poor. The many institutions of Caritas and Diakonie work blessedly within this system. However, we should not neglect the personal encounter with our fellow human beings. Pope Leo XIV recalls the practice of almsgiving: “For those who truly love, it is clear that giving alms does not relieve the responsible authorities of their duty, nor does it make the organizational efforts of institutions superfluous, and likewise it does not replace the legitimate struggle for justice. However, it does at least encourage us to pause, to look the poor in the face, to touch them, and to share something of our own possessions with them.” For Pope Leo, “personal, repeated, and heartfelt gestures” are what matter.
Therefore, I would also like to encourage parish communities not to leave charity only to the “professionals” at Caritas, but to actively participate themselves.
