The Feast of Christ the King was established by the Holy Father in the years following the First World War. The evil of that war, which cannot be underestimated, was the forerunner of the genocide, murder and the destruction of innocent life that was to follow in the 20th Century. We are 100 years away from America’s entry into that conflict. The establishment of this feast day was to remind the world of the final judgment of Christ when, as St. Paul writes, “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” I Cor. 15. Since the First World War, we have endured, among countless other evils, the Holocaust, Islamic Terrorism and Charlie Manson. The death of Charlie Manson last Sunday was a visceral reminder of the existence of evil in our world. The gruesomeness of his crimes is the face of evil.
Christ the King and the Four Last Things
The four last things are death, judgment, heaven and hell. Saint Matthew’s Gospel describes the final judgment of the dead. (25: 31– 46). The Son of Man, the judge, identifies himself with those who hunger and thirst, with the strangers, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned— with all those who suffer in this world. How we treat them is described as behavior toward Christ. When we afflict the needy and the innocent, we attack God. This is no fiction about the judge of the world. We are preparing to enter Advent. That litugical season prepares us for Christmas when we remember that God identifies with humanity, his image and likeness. This is literally true because God became a human being. Christ is the man without property or home; He is the prisoner, the accused, who dies naked on the Cross, or as a child in a bombed out village near a World War 1 battlefield or a murder victim. The Son of Man judges because he is present in the suffering innocent.
Are Heaven and Hell Certain?
Heaven and hell are certainties in scripture, but not in our nation. In recent polling, over 80% of the people in our country believe in heaven. Only 50% accept that hell exists. According to scripture, hell not only exists, but is populated. Several statements about Judas can hardly be interpreted otherwise than that he is in hell. (John 17:12, 6:70, Mt. 26:24; Mk. 14:21) Until the last century, the overwhelming opinion of the Early Church Fathers, the most prominent saints and theologians supported the proposition that most of humanity was damned. That belief spurred European Catholics to spread the gospel to the new world and Asia. Fr. Kino who brought the gospel to Tucson and the martyrs of Asia were driven by the belief that souls were being lost through Christian neglect of the gospel.
The Certainty of Heaven and Hell
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church “In hope, the Church prays for “all men to be saved.” (1 Timothy 2:4)” ( CCC §1821). At another point the Catechism declares, “The Church prays that no one should be lost” ( CCC §1058). The search for statistics on the population of heaven and hell is futile. When asked this question, all Jesus said was, “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and not be able.” (Luke 13:23-24). The gospels of the last two Sundays describe five virgins who were not prepared and were shut out of the wedding feast. A man who refused to invest his talents was cast into the outer darkness, where there was “wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Jesus believed that both heaven and hell exist.
Heaven, Hell and a Statistical Analysis
I have met more former Catholics than I can count that were turned off to religion by “fire and brimstone” preaching. In my religious upbringing, fear of hell was not a prominent feature of my young faith. I was taught and have always loved the gospel of hope. St. Paul, who clearly accepted the reality of hell, taught that the grace of Christ is more powerful than sin: “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). Still, St. Paul believed that some were in hell. In his Divine Wisdom, Jesus does not provide statistics. It would probably result in a rivalry over who is saved and who is damned. On the other hand, if like some Fathers of the Church, we believed that virtually everybody would be damned, we would be tempted to despair. Perhaps, if we believed that all are saved, we might become presumptuous.
Salvation
We are forbidden to seek our own salvation in a selfish and egotistical way. We are keepers of our brothers and sisters. The more we work for their salvation, the more of God’s favor we can expect for ourselves. James 5:20. Those of us who believe and make use of the means that God has provided for the forgiveness of sins and the reform of life have no reason to fear. We can be sure that Christ, who died on the Cross for us, will not fail to give us the grace we need as long as we heed his words and care for the least of his people. We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, and that if we persevere in that love, nothing whatever can separate us from Christ. (cf. Romans 8:28-39). That is all the assurance we can have, and it should be enough. That is the promise of Christ the King.