After WWI, the European order was changed forever. Four major empires—the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian—collapsed, and Montenegro was absorbed into Yugoslavia.
It was not only the loss of the old order of things but it was the modern novelty of social theory that gave great anxiety and stressed the common man. Secularism and Communism rose up with vigor and power.
While all theories have elements of truth to power, man from age to age, can get lost in tangents and the misappropriation or misallocation of primacy and definition of right relation between men, and men to nature and men to the divine.
Pope Francis asked us to recalibrate our relationship with nature. Pope Leo(s) asks us to recalibrate our relationship with each other. Pope Pius asked us to recalibrate our relationship with the divine.
QUAS PRIMAS 1925 ENCYCLICAL
POPE PIUS XI ON THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING.
7. It has long been a common custom to give to Christ the metaphorical title of “King,” because of the high degree of perfection whereby he excels all creatures. So he is said to reign “in the hearts of men,” both by reason of the keenness of his intellect and the extent of his knowledge, and also because he is very truth, and it is from him that truth must be obediently received by all mankind. He reigns, too, in the wills of men, for in him the human will was perfectly and entirely obedient to the Holy Will of God, and further by his grace and inspiration he so subjects our free-will as to incite us to the most noble endeavors. He is King of hearts, too, by reason of his “charity which exceedeth all knowledge.” And his mercy and kindness[1] which draw all men to him, for never has it been known, nor will it ever be, that man be loved so much and so universally as Jesus Christ. But if we ponder this matter more deeply, we cannot but see that the title and the power of King belongs to Christ as man in the strict and proper sense too. For it is only as man that he may be said to have received from the Father “power and glory and a kingdom,”[2] since the Word of God, as consubstantial with the Father, has all things in common with him, and therefore has necessarily supreme and absolute dominion over all things created.
Let us too recalibrate. May Jesus, King of Hearts, be our king. May his kingdom, change our love for nature, each other and all the social constructs we use give way to the primacy of love.
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry