The Right Christ Reigning

It is often said that Christ must reign in our hearts, in our families, and everywhere in the world. Such a desire is by all means praiseworthy for after all, the renewal of all things — hearts, families, world — cannot be done without Christ.

Although such an aspiration is wonderful, so few actually work to realize it and still fewer actually know how to make it happen.

When the young Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) was serving as a priest in his native land, people, recovering from the horrors of the Second World War, were going to church not as a fruit of religious zeal but as a therapeutic means that would perhaps make them bury their horrible memories of the war. The young Fr. Ratzinger, however, noted that though the church attendance was impressive, the seemingly “Christian” culture was empty. Not presuming to be his equal in talent, and caliber, does it not seem to be how the “Christian” culture of our country is?

Our Churches are packed, many of our priests are fat, our collections are mind-blowing to other countries where the church is present, our clerics are nearly infallible and have nearly as much influence as our government officials yet many of the faithful are living in the state of mortal sin (objectively, at least), do not know the catechism, do not study the faith, do not read sacred scriptures, do not pray every day, and more Filipino Catholics do not bother to take their religion seriously. I, for one, believe that this seemingly Christian culture of ours is empty.

One among many reasons perhaps, is that we do not know Christ — the Christ of the gospels, the Christ who is the spouse of the Church.

Most of us listen to the homily of priests who do not do their mental prayer, who do not pray the office, who do not study. After listening to these homilies, most of us do not care about studying the faith, reading the Bible, doing our daily prayers — especially mental prayer. As a consequence, we follow only a caricature of Christ and not the real, not the full Christ, the Eternal word, the Christ of the gospel. We do not know Christ because we do not encounter him, we do not seek him, we do not contemplate him.

A famous fable of bloodhounds chasing a deer illustrates this very well. Only the dog that has sight of the deer perseveres to the end, continues to run after it; all the other hounds who are running just because they saw another dog running run in futility and eventually stop. We do not really see the deer. We do not really know Christ. We put our faith in a caricature. Some believe in the Christ that is so naïve he does not abhor sin or vice. Some believe in a Christ that spits out rainbows and sprinkles fairy dust. Some believe in a Christ who is a liberal politician or a hippy. Some believe in a Christ that vomits lava and will burn everyone in hell.

Most of us are not at all bothered by these caricatures. Most of us are content with these and do not bother to meet Christ as he is — as he is presented in sacred scripture. The Christ we think is reigning in our hearts, in our families, and in our world is most likely a caricature. The Christ in our seemingly Christian Culture seems to be not the Christ of the Gospel… rendering our seemingly Christian culture empty, shallow.

“How then do we know this Christ you speak of?” Contemplation. We meet him in the scriptures — ignorance of which is ignorance of Him. We meet Him in our mental prayer, in our Lectio Divina. We meet Him in our rosary. We meet Him in the tabernacle, in our visits to the Blessed Sacrament. We meet Him in the breaking of the bread, in the Eucharist. If we cannot meet Him there, we cannot meet Him anywhere. If we cannot meet Him there, we cannot meet Him in the poor, in our neighbor, in our enemy, in our heart, family, and society. If we do not contemplate Him we cannot know Him.

Knowing Christ is not memorizing definitions, charts, concepts, and laws. Knowing Christ is encountering and contemplating Him — with each encounter becoming an occasion to deepen our love.

In this way, I’m sure we will come to know Christ as He is — we come to know the right Christ. By this, we hope to renew this empty Christianity of ours by filling it with Christ himself. Thus in our families, in our hearts, in our society, we have the right Christ reigning. (Lance Patrick Enad)

Lance Patrick Enad y Caballero is a seminarian in San Carlos Seminary College, Archdiocese of Cebu, Philippines. Instaurare omnia in Christo! lancivspatricivs@gmail.com