A New Feast

We are coming to the end of the year. While January 1st is generally thought of as the first day of the year, the church calendar starts next Sunday, with Advent. That makes today New Year’s Eve. Our church calendar is ever so slightly out of step with the secular year. It reminds us that time is ultimately God’s gift, oriented toward Christ’s story who is the goal of history. “New Year’s Day” is next Sunday with the start of Advent. We measure time just a little bit differently and our seasons don’t neatly correspond to spring, summer, fall (Autumn), and winter.

We can think of the church “seasons” as Christ becoming man, Christ becoming lamb, and Christ becoming king. Advent, Christmas, Epiphany (the visit of the magi), are all about the incarnation of the Son of God. Then, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost present Christ as the sacrificial lamb who takes away the sins of the world, is raised to new life, and empowers his church by the Holy Spirit. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. The rest of the year is called “ordinary” and is peppered with festivals like Trinity Sunday and All Saints Day.

These festivals highlight throughout the year key turning points in the mission of God and their profound impact on how we ought to think, govern, and act in the world. Christmas, for example, records that God became man in Jesus of Nazareth. This teaches that God is not far from us, but he knows us, loves us and is the one we were created to be with. Christmas bridges the gap between Creator and creation. And so, Christmas means living as Christ lived: bringing healing to the world’s brokenness, embodying God’s image in restored humanity, and resisting the forces of corruption with hope.

This cycle of seasons puts us on an annual pilgrimage through sacred history. The festivals are like spiritual waypoints on a map that tell us 1) where we have been (Christ’s historical actions) and where we are going (Christ’s ultimate reign), ensuring that the journey of faith remains aligned with the destination of God’s renewed creation.

So the question is, if you could create a new festival today to respond to the current needs of the world by highlighting one element of the Christian faith, what would you pick? What aspect of the Christian faith best responds to what the world is feeling today? What do citizens of the 21^st century need to be reminded of in order to live lives more conducive to human flourishing? If the Church were to institute a new major festival today, designed to counteract the most destructive societal ill of our time, what specific contemporary force do you believe most urgently requires a theological remedy?

Background to Christ the King

While most of the festivals the Church celebrates can be traced back to the early centuries of the Church, today we celebrate the newest festival: Christ the King. The year 2025 marks its 100^th anniversary.

First instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925, the festival of Christ the King was established in the wake of World War I to provide a Christian corrective to the disorder of the modern world. Pope Pius noted that lasting peace could only be found “in the Kingdom of Christ.” The intention was to openly and directly oppose emerging destructive ideologies like secularism, nationalism, and fascism in Italy and Spain. In fact, it served as a liturgical rebuke to Benito Mussolini, who had adopted the title “Il Duce” (the leader) in 1922. The festival was originally celebrated on the last Sunday of October, but later moved to the last Sunday of the liturgical year to emphasize its future focus—Christ’s final triumph.

Bundle of Sticks

In today’s reading from the book of Jeremiah 23, the prophet proclaims,

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land (Jer 23:5 NRSVue).

God will raise up a what? A branch? A shoot? A sapling? A sprout?

Branch, sapling, sprout are hardly kingly titles by earthly standards. Hardly an image of power, might, or strength by most imaginations, but it’s certainly one that resonates with some villages in the UK. Following the coronation of King Charles two years ago, a branch, a shoot, a sapling appeared on the green in one small village, a gift to the people of Essex. What was it like when first planted? Did it tower over the village, an imposing stature and size to drastically alter use of the green? No, it came with a protective cage given the childlike nature of this budding branch. You knew something was there, but even today you still have to draw near to see what it is. So small and fragile it has to have a cage around it to protect it from admirers! The sapling was only slightly bigger than the nearby plaque commemorating the coronation. Nonetheless, right here in the village a branch is being raised up, a fitting nod to the righteous branch of David—Christ the King—who reigns eternal.

We may feel like this budding Lime Tree is a gift to us, it’s ours, mine. But no, it’s a gift that means much more. It’s for everyone even if planted right here at home. Since the prophet Jeremiah compares the Messiah to a branch, our village branch may serve as a reminder for us of Christ’s cosmic kingship even as we remember to pray for earthly kings. Our love and service to our heavenly king should grow with this branch as it takes root in our hearts. This small-leaved lime may start small but it’s growing into something much bigger (apparently it can reach over 20 m). It’s been planted and is taking root, but it has not yet achieved its full size and extent. One reporter promised that it’s “sweet-smelling summer flowers” will attract a huge number of insects and pollinators. Even so, we don’t yet smell those sweet flowers, flowers that some even claim have medicinal value.

Compare how Jesus of Nazareth is a living branch, one who came as an unassuming sapling that sprouts gently, unimposing. Now consider Mussolini’s political party whose symbol was a “bundle of sticks” tied around an axe, an ancient Roman symbol of authority. This symbol suggests strength through unity: a single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is difficult to break. O how a single branch, a living sapling is stronger and mightier than all the sticks of the world bundled together! Christ the King is a living shoot, sprouting up taking root whereas these sticks are dead, huddled together trying to stay alive! How pitiful the stick cut off from the branch! What an incredible image of the Christ that he is a branch, a living shoot! At his center is a flourishing relationship with God the father; while lesser philosophies huddle together around a dead axe!

It is in this context that Pope Pius instituted the feast of Christ the King as a rebuke to earthly claims of authority.

The Dual Authority of Christ as King

Christ’s kingship is profound and distinguishes itself radically from worldly authority, being rooted in both creation and redemption. Christ you see has a double right to kingship:

1. Natural right: As the Son of God, his dominion is “by essence and by nature,” because of who he is.
2. Acquired right: He is King because he is our Redeemer, having purchased us “with a great price,” his own precious blood. Other kings may claim a natural right to reign, but what other king has purchased you by his own blood? Won you over by dying for you, rather than you dying to win something for himself? Christ is the king who lays down his life and picks it back up again so that you can do the same. Earthly kings will ask you to do this but to save their own life. O at what great price you have been redeemed! What kind of subjects therefore should we be?
3. Paradoxical throne: His kingship is not won by violence or fear. Early Christian theologians understood his authority as emerging through an unexpected path: suffering, the cross, death, and resurrection. He established his reign from the throne of the cross, where he was placarded with the sign, “King of the Jews.”
4. Universal scope: His empire is absolute and universal, extending over all creation. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

This directly contrasts with thinking today: “More than ever, the world believes authority to derive ultimately from the will of the people [while] the will of the people is less and less the will of God” (Schrader, 2014, p. 252). Jesus’s authority does not derive from the will of the people, but naturally and from the will of God that Jesus be king.

As Saint Augustine is thought to have said, “Jesus Christ will be Lord of all or he will not be Lord at all.”

Be that Festival

The Feast of Christ the King is the opposite of retreating into private spirituality. As Christians we are called to live as citizens of Christ’s kingdom, embodying justice and mercy, and giving the world a foretaste of God’s new creation. This means engaging critically and constructively without idolizing or abandoning the public square.

The kingdom of God is already here; it began with Jesus and now reigns in the hearts of believers and in the church’s mission to bring justice, peace, and restoration. Because Christ is the true King of all, every sphere of belongs under his authority.

Therefore, we cannot simply withdraw from politics as if the world were irrelevant. To vote, to speak for the vulnerable, to steward creation, and to live with integrity at work is to participate in the ongoing expansion of God’s reign. At the same time, we must guard against using the kingdom as a banner for power or for retreating into a “future‑only” hope. We are called to be salt and light, letting the reign of Christ be evident in every decision we make.

So, if you were to create a new festival today following the model of Christ the King, what central, often‑forgotten truth about the life or work of Christ would you celebrate as the Church’s powerful, counter‑cultural answer to a modern ill? What destructive social force do you believe most urgently requires a remedy? What central truth is the world ignoring, for which the Church still holds the remedy?

With Christ as your King, be that festival.

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