Submission
The first ever sin was committed, not by Adam, but by the Angel Lucifer. It was an act of rebellion, an act of refusal to submit to God. Many believe that this refusal happened when God told him that his Divine Word would be made flesh, the mortal Son of a mortal Mother, and that he, the great and mighty Lucifer, Bearer of Light, would be humbled and have to kneel and worship a mere human being. The revolution of Lucifer and his followers was, in other words, an act of pure, unadulterated pride, the refusal to submit to Christ the King.
We know what happened to Lucifer as a result of his revolution. Since the moment he was driven into the pits of hell he has been leading his fellow-demons to exact revenge on that Son of God and Son of Man. If Christ came to redeem mankind, then he, Lucifer, would do all he could to make sure as many as possible of those men and women would not save their souls, but would instead join him in his rebellion against God by refusing to obey their Creator and Saviour. The Devil would do everything in his power to lead as many souls to hell as he possibly could. And he has been fairly successful so far, wouldn’t you agree?
His main assault, of course, was on God’s Son himself. He thought he was doing pretty well, squirming with vicious glee at the sight of our Blessed Lord in agony on the Cross. The death that had been Adam’s punishment for his rebellion was now the lot of this Christ, this Son of Adam who dared to demand submission from all his creatures, even the high and mighty angels… Three days later the Devil realized his mistake.
His greatest triumph now in tatters, Satan turned his attention to Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church he founded on Peter, our first Pope and Prince of the Apostles. Note that we call Peter the “Prince” of the Apostles, not the “King” of the Apostles. For there is only one King to whom the Apostles proclaimed their allegiance. That King is of course their Lord and Master who conquered Death and the Devil that first Easter and now sits enthroned on high, Christ the King.
We celebrate his most splendid feastday today, proclaiming our own allegiance to him who is the Redeemer of the human race. He has led us into battle and he has won the greatest of victories. No longer is death our master. Death is now a mere portal through which we pass to a glorious eternity. The beatific vision of God our Creator and Redeemer lies just beyond that door, and as we pass through it from the mortal coil of this vale of tears, we trample on the face of the Devil whom we have spent our lives fighting the good fight, loyal soldiers in the army of our King.
At least, that’s the plan. However, the best-laid plans of mice and men, as the poet Robert Burns pointed out, go oft awry. Despite all our good intentions, our resolutions so firmly made in the confessional, we have such a hard time submitting to the laws of our King. Multiple are the acts of disloyalty and sometimes even open rebellion we commit against him who sitteth on the right hand of God and who will come again in glory to judge the quick and the dead. Pathetic creatures we may be, and yet the loving hand of this beneficent Lord is always there, reaching out to his prodigal children, ready to welcome them home.
There are only two possible outcomes to this, our constant struggle against the snares of the Devil. The path is constantly forking in two before us; to the left is a beautiful, wide and carefree path where we can enjoy (happy happy) complete freedom from the laws of our demanding King; or we can choose the other path, and that’s not quite so enticing, is it? A strait and narrow path filled with obstacles, hardships, suffering, tests, and laws we must obey, sometimes with great personal sacrifice. Not much of a choice, and yet these are the forks in the road that lie always before us.
It must be said that democracy takes us down the wrong path on this journey of ours. It tells us that right and wrong depend on the will of the people, the vote of the majority. Here in Ohio, we have a choice in the coming election on Tuesday that will determine whether abortion will be banned or whether it will be permitted right up to and even after birth. Ohio law will follow the will of the majority, because that’s what democracy demands. We can see, from this one single example, how perverse democracy actually is. Heaven is not ruled by a democracy. The angels and saints don’t vote every November to see if Christ should continue for another term as King, or whether perhaps St. Peter or St. Michael might do a better job. No. Heaven is not a democracy but a kingdom, and indeed our Lord himself called it by this name many times, the Kingdom of Heaven. And all in heaven bend the knee before Christ the King.
We here on earth proclaim this same Christ as our King. In doing so, we accept and submit to his laws. His laws above the laws of the land. State law pales before the law of God, and if ever a state law conflicts with the law of God there must be no doubt in our minds as to which we must obey. We can tolerate our democracy, but only insofar as we use it as a tool to extend the kingdom of Christ our God. We must always vote for candidates that will obey Christ the King and fight for his divine rights. This is only one way in which we can show our own submission to our Lord. Ironically, it’s by using democracy to fight against democracy, to fight for the true authority of a king, not just any king, but the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who alone has power and dominion over our souls.
By order of our King’s Vicar on earth, Pope Pius XI, we renew today our annual consecration of the human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. By doing so, we may not only gain a plenary indulgence, but we renew our resolve to be true soldiers of Christ, fighting our daily battles against the Devil, the world, and our own frail and fallen human nature. As we make our consecration, let’s determine to be always supremely aware of the powers that attack us, identifying each enemy in turn as they launch their assaults against the Church, our Society, our families, our own souls, and most perniciously, against God himself. Only by keeping this level of vigilance can we hope to successfully defend the rights of Christ the King day by day—not with violence and anger, but with the power of prayer and the help of our Blessed Mother and all the angels and saints. The power to win a great victory does not come from “we the people Like all good things, it comes from above, from our divine King. We must recognize our own unworthy place in the great scheme of things. Our role is one of submission to our King, it’s that simple. So let us now kneel and make our humble consecration to him, “We are thine, and thine we wish to be.”