By Scott Herr
In 1557, Spaniards besieged the small French town of St. Quentin, in Picardie. Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, the Huguenot leader (whose statue you can see in front of the Église réformée de l’Oratoire du Louvre in Paris) was able to defend the town from the Spanish invaders for a while, but the city walls were in ruins; fever and famine plagued the people. The Spaniards shot over the walls a shower of arrows to which they had attached little slips of parchment promising that if the townspeople surrendered, their lives and property would be spared. The mayor of the town was a devout French Protestant. He responded by tying a piece of parchment to a javelin and hurled it back to the Spaniards. On the parchment was a message: Regem habemus — “We have a King!”
That true story comes to mind every year around this time. Sunday, Nov. 23, marks the end of the Christian liturgical year and is called “Christ the King Sunday.” This year is the 100th anniversary of the most recent “feast day” of the Christian calendar and its history and meaning is more relevant than just another religious anecdote or holiday.
“Christ the King Sunday” was established in 1925 by Pope Pius XI to give witness against growing fascism and nationalism in Europe. Benito Mussolini founded the National Fascist Party (PNF) and served as Prime Minister of Italy as of the “March on Rome” in 1922. Mussolini established a totalitarian regime and inspired the rise of other fascist movements across Europe. Pope Pius XI also noted Adolph Hitler’s release from prison and return to Munich to revive the Nazi Party in December of 1924. The Nazis had been banned following the Beer Hall Putsch in November of 1923, a failed coup d’état by Hitler and other nationalist leaders in Munich. After his release, Hitler and the Nazis established new organizations, including the infamous Schutzstaffel (SS) in 1925, which initially served as his personal bodyguards until he took power in January of 1933.
The feast day was moved by Pope Paul VI to the last Sunday before Advent in 1970, and the Anglican Church, Lutherans, Presbyterians and Methodists all joined in adding this Feast Day to our calendars. “Christ the King” serves as a reminder to all Christians that Regem habemus — “We have a King!”
The papal encyclical “Quas Primas,” in which the “Christ the King” holiday was introduced, merely echoes the bold claims of the New Testament. For example, in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he writes about Jesus, “…though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:6-10).
And we read in the Revelation of John that at the conclusion of history, Christ will be “King of kings, and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:16). It should be noted, especially with respect to people of other faiths or no faith at all, throughout the New Testament, we learn that Christ is a spectacularly different kind of “King.” Christ the King empties himself of worldly power. Christ the King gives up his life so that others might live.
Sadly, we still live in a world besieged with hardship, suffering, and evil attacks. Polish poet and Nobel Prize winner Czeslaw Milosz used the word “cruel” to describe the 20th century. Cruel indeed! The 20th century saw more deaths by human cause than in all the rest of history, thanks to the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mao, to name a few of the more infamous recent despots. Sadly, we still live with the threat of leaders who want to assert absolute power. And we know, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Although many people see faith as a personal issue, who rules in a society is a matter that affects us all. I believe Christians need to take our faith more seriously, and commit our allegiance and actions to align with the character and priorities of Christ the King revealed in the Scriptures, the one who declared, “I came not to be served, but to serve.”
Our future depends on it. Just ask an atheist! Christopher Caldwell, in his book Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, published in 2009, quotes the prominent German philosopher Jürgen Habermas (an atheist), as acknowledging, “Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democracy, the benchmarks of Western civilization. To this we have no other options. We continue to nourish ourselves from this source. Everything else is postmodern chatter.”
As awkward as it may be to talk about kings in our current political climate, for Christians anyway, it’s a moot point: Regem habemus!
The Rev. Dr. Scott Herr is one of the pastors at the First Presbyterian Church of New Canaan.
