Christ the King and Merriment -- Part I

"I have said that St. Francis deliberately did not see the wood for the trees. It is even more true that he deliberately did not see the mob for the men. What distinguishes this very genuine democrat from any mere demagogue is that he neither either deceived or was deceived by the illusion of mass-suggestion. Whatever his taste in monsters, he never saw before him a many-headed beast. He only saw the image of God multiplied but never monotonous. He honoured all men; that is, he not only loved but respected them all." ------ G.K. Chesterton in St. Francis of Assisi


The greatest social reform you probably never heard of, perhaps the greatest social reform ever, was directly due to the beneficent reign of Christ the King, whose feast is the grand finale to the Catholic liturgical calendar, celebrated this year on November 26. This great social reform, all-but-miraculous, was the abolition of slavery in the land of Christendom; the tale is told by Chesterton: how the slave found love and respect, dignity and freedom, in Europe, as he progressed from servant to serf to farmer. The slave emerged as a man, and a man not only possessing the hope of heaven, but also owning a parcel of land in the here-and-now...his own piece of the land of Christendom, blessed by the reign of God, blessed by the Son of God.

"At the beginning of the Dark Ages the great pagan cosmopolitan society now grown Christian was as much a slave state as old South Carolina," wrote Chesterton, in A Short History of England (1917). "By the fourteenth century it was almost as much a state of peasant proprietors as modern France. No laws had been passed against slavery; no dogmas even had condemned it by definition; no war had been waged against it, no new race or ruling caste had repudiated it; but it was gone."

A little further on in this chapter, which is appropriately entitled, "The Meaning of Merry England," Chesterton writes a line of great wonder, which not only explains the inspiration for the emancipation, but also is essential to the understanding of merriment, that great characteristic of Christendom, which in our day has mostly been dissipated, if not perverted: "The Catholic type of Christianity was not merely an element, it was a climate; and in that climate the slave would not grow."

This line was the inspiration for a short essay I wrote as part of my application to the graduate theology school of Christendom College (Notre Dame Graduate School), an essay titled, Theology and the Catholic Climate, which begins: "With a nod to Chesterton, I believe that Catholicism is a climate, and the best of climates for holiness and happiness, conducive to liberty and community, dignity and humility, productivity and festivity."

This is the climate inspired by Christ the King, and the first fruit of this climate, a fruit personified by people like St. Francis of Assisi, a hero of the land of Christendom, is that all men are created equal, each of us unrepeatable and irreplaceable, worthy of genuine love and respect. In the heart of Christ Jesus, there is no distinction in worth between Jew and Gentile, man and woman, free and slave (cf.Gal 3:23-29) -- nor between white and black, management and labor, born or unborn. There are no mistakes or accidents, no throwaways or disposables, no rejects or recalls. Each and every one of us is a special somebody, a priceless treasure, loved by Jesus immeasurably and intimately. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.... I have loved you with an everlasting love...." (Jer1:5,31:3)

This King does not call us servants, but friends, and he lays down his life for his friends. He never gives up on us, either, no matter how sinful we might be or how useless we might feel. Indeed, his mercies never come to an end. As St. Therese wrote, in Story of a Soul, "I repeat, full of confidence, the publican's humble prayer. Most of all I imitate the conduct of Magdalene; her astonishing or rather her loving audacity which charms the heart of Jesus also attracts my own. Yes, I feel it; even though I had on my conscience all the sins that can be committed, I would go, my heart broken with sorrow, and throw myself into Jesus' arms, for I know how much he loves the prodigal child who returns to Him." (cf.Lk15:11-32)

Again to borrow from Chesterton: Christ the King, the Everlasting Man, is also the Everyman, the New Man, the Second Adam. There is a "great paradox," wrote Chesterton, "by which he spoke of his whole humanity as in some way collectively and representatively human; calling himself simply the Son of Man; that is, in effect, calling himself simply Man." Pope Benedict XVI writes, in his encyclical letter, God is Love, of the description given by Christ the King of the Last Judgement -- "in which love becomes the criterion for the definitive decision about a human life's worth or lack thereof. Jesus identifies himself with those in need, with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and those in prison. 'As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me' (Mt 25:40). Love of God and love of neighbor have become one: in the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God."(#15)

Christ the King is also the Good Samaritan (Lk10:25-37), and he calls each of us to go and do the same. According to the pope, in this parable Jesus is teaching that the meaning of "neighbor" is no longer restricted to the people of one's country or one's community. "The limit is now abolished," writes Benedict. "Anyone who needs me, and whom I can help, is my neighbor. The concept of 'neighbor' is now universalized, yet it remains concrete. Despite being extended to all mankind it is not reduced to a generic, abstract, and undemanding expression of love, but calls for my own practical commitment here and now."

Before the days of Christ the King, the individual counted for very little, if anything, in the eyes of the pagan king, according to Chesterton, and for that matter, counted for very little in the eyes of the pagan democrat. In The Everlasting Man, he writes of the significance of "the dark giant called Slavery" that cast such a long, bleak shadow in the ancient world: "It stands for one fundamental fact about all antiquity before Christ; something to be assumed from first to last. It is the insignificance of the individual before the State. It was as true of the most democratic City State in Hellas as of any despotism in Babylon. It is one of the signs of this spirit that a whole class of individuals could be insignificant or even invisible."

Christ the King inaugurates a much different reign: "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them.... But I am among you as one who serves."(Lk:22:25-27) Not one of us is invisible, or even insignificant: "Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered."(Lk12:7) Our King, Our God, is also our most affectionate friend. "Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."(Rev3:20)

(In Part II: Christ the King and the Declaration of Independence. Christ the King is not only compatible with the liberties we cherish as Americans, he is necessary for those liberties to be given their fullest meaning and to endure in their purity and goodness. Our allegiance to America is not compromised by our allegiance to Christ the King, rather it is enhanced. God bless America!)

An uncompromising vote for the Abolition of the unfettered "Right to Choose"

Letter to the Editor
Dixie Times
Election eve, November 1860

I don't have a good word for Uncle Tom's Cabin. That book is all sentimental and sensational, befuddling the emotions of impressionable sorts, stirring up a lot of fool people to stick their noses where they don't belong. It's a slap against the good people of the South, God-fearing and law-abiding folks who know enough to tend to their own business and not bother other folks tending to theirs.

Slavery is an American institution. Washington and Jefferson owned slaves. I know my Constitution, and it counts the slave as only three-fifths of a man when it comes to figuring state taxes or representation in the House of Representatives. The slave ain't a person same as whites. The Supreme Court said so in 1857 about the slave Dred Scott. Slaves aren't included in the Constitution, they don't have rights -- that's what the Supreme Court said. And that's the law of the land.

The problem is with those crazy abolitionists, fanatics like that John Brown, who got what he deserved at Harper's Ferry. Them abolitionists don't got nothing better to do than to poke their noses into other folks' lives. Why they even steal our slaves and run them up north on what they call the underground railroad. Those slaves are our property -- hard-earned -- and nobody has the right to steal my property! And what's the government doing but talking?

Then those abolitionists get all hot and bothered about how we southerners treat our slaves. What do they know about it? Why, we southerners are the best thing that ever happened to the darkie. We civilized them and taught them Christian ways. We feed 'em and clothe 'em and put 'em up at night, caring for them like the children that they are. What would the darkie do if he were free? They aren't fit for living outside the plantation. They'd be lost on their own, and miserable. Do those ranting and raving abolitionists ever think of that?

Another thing: No Yankee has the right to interfere in a man's private life. That's in the Constitution, and so, too, is a man's right to his own religion, to interpret the Holy Bible as he sees fit. Didn't Paul tell slaves to obey their masters, and didn't he send the runaway slave Onesimus back to his master Philemon? This is a private matter between a man and God, a sacred thing, and that's American!

Well, that's about all I have to say, except that my ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War for the freedom to live as they choose. The South was built on slavery, and it'll die without it. I've got a good Christian wife and children to support. No northerner is going to put me to ruin, or tell me how to run my life.

If Abraham Lincoln is elected president, that's the last straw. The South would never have joined the Union without slavery, and we'll leave the Union to keep slavery. If we have to, we'll fight!

Sincerely,
A Southern Gentleman


footnote: This is a fictional letter, which is meant to have a ring of truth, and a measure of relevance, for today. To me, the abortion mills are akin to the plantations, while the pregnancy-help centers are akin to the underground railroad. To me, slavery -- denying the right to liberty -- or abortion -- denying the right to life -- aren't just any issue; they are fundamental rights necessary for the right to the pursuit of happiness.
Societies are defined -- indeed, they rise and fall -- by their commitment to honoring each and every human, especially the weak and the poor, who are so easily marginalized, so often hidden. When we fail in our sacred and civic duties to love the lost and the lonely, we ourselves become lost and lonely. As soon as we neglect to care for just one human, we begin to lose our humanity.
Abraham Lincoln, in his Second Inaugural Address of 1865, explicitly identified slavery as the cause of the Civil War, and also said: "Fondly do we hope -- fervently do we pray -- that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.'"
May God have mercy on us!