Thy Kingdom Come!
DG LC
Rome, November 13, 2018
On the occasion of the solemnity of Christ the King
To the members of Regnum Christi
Dearly beloved in Jesus Christ:
During these days, as we are about to begin the celebration of the General Chapter of the Legion of Christ, the General Assemblies of the Consecrated and Laity, and the General Assembly of Regnum Christi, I send you a very warm greeting. I sincerely thank you, on behalf of all the participants in these assemblies, for your prayers for the successful outcome of our work and for the future of Regnum Christi.
It is providential that, during these important circumstances, we will celebrate the solemnity of Christ the King. On this feast, the Church invites us to turn our gaze toward Jesus Christ the Lord, and also toward His Kingdom. This allows us to remember once again what is essential in our vocation and mission to illuminate our lives and decisions. Therefore, I invite everyone to take advantage of this liturgical recurrence to renew love for the Lord, who must reign in our personal lives. And also to increase that operational and fervent desire for His Kingdom to come among us.
The expression: «Thy Kingdom Come!», comes from the lips of Jesus Christ, our Teacher, as part of the prayer He teaches His disciples. Undoubtedly, it is the most beloved, most repeated, and most commented prayer throughout the centuries of Christianity. This desire is something innate and intimate in every Christian heart: to long for Christ to reign, for His Kingdom to come among us.
We must be aware and meditate together on what we are asking for with this prayer, and what we are committed to. This petition, which Christ Himself taught us, is a program for personal life and for all of Regnum Christi. This prayer
said by each and every one of us unites us in a spiritual family and in an apostolic body that has a particular entrusted mission.
«My Kingdom is not of this world»
This year, the Gospel of the liturgy for this solemnity presents Jesus Christ before Pilate, at a particularly dramatic moment of His earthly life (cf. Jn 18, 33-37). His death on the cross inexorably approaches. He is about to complete the work of Redemption. It is in this context that Jesus Christ, before whom represents temporal power, affirms with authority that He is King, that His Kingdom is not of this world.
In this way, He clearly teaches us that His Kingdom is something hidden, interior. It is the Kingdom that begins deep within the soul. It is the very presence of God that needs to be received and guarded in one’s intimacy, so that, like leaven, it can then transform all other realities (cf. Mt 13, 33). Therefore, meditating on the Kingdom is to feel again the call and invitation to virtuous interiority, to holiness of life, the starting point and guarantee of all Christian testimony and apostolate.
Today, in the face of the work of the Assemblies and the General Chapter, we become aware once again that this must always be our first priority, above any other activity or merely human convenience.
«My Kingdom is not of this world». The preaching of Christ’s Kingdom is, at the same time, an announcement of eternity and a reminder of the fleeting nature of earthly things. We find this affirmation in the first reading taken from the Book of Daniel: «His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed».
This is also reminded to us by the pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican Council:
For the goods of human dignity, fraternal union, and freedom; in a word, all the excellent fruits of nature and our effort, after having propagated them on earth in the Spirit of the Lord and according to His mandate, we will find them again pure from all stain, illuminated and transfigured, when Christ delivers the eternal and universal kingdom to the Father: «a kingdom of truth and life; a kingdom of holiness and grace; a kingdom of justice, love, and peace». The kingdom is already mysteriously present on our earth; when the Lord comes, His perfection will be consummated (n. 39).
As members of Regnum Christi, I invite you to always keep this essential priority of following and imitating the Lord in mind, with a sense of eternity: to let Him reign sovereignly, rejecting everything that is contrary to Him and His Kingdom, always choosing what involves more love and virtue, so as to be credible and convincing witnesses of Jesus Christ and His teachings.
«Thy Kingdom Come!» is to sanctify our lives through prayer, the sacraments, and fulfilling His will. «Thy Kingdom Come!» is to sanctify our family, our work, and our environment through the testimony of an attractive evangelical life. «Thy Kingdom Come!» is to sanctify culture and society by not falling into the consumerist ideology that makes us focus our eyes and hearts on earthly things.
His Kingdom must be preached, made present, built.
But Christ’s Kingdom is not only interior or future. The Kingdom is already present among us (cf. Lk 17, 21). This is how the preaching of John the Baptist and also Jesus Himself began: «The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel» (Mk 1, 15).
Jesus Christ has come among us to preach His Kingdom, to make it present.
This testimony that the Lord gives of Himself and that Saint Luke has recorded in his Gospel «It is necessary that I preach the kingdom of God in other cities» (Lk 4, 43), undoubtedly has great scope, as it defines in a single phrase the entire mission of Jesus: «because for this I have been sent» (ibid.) (Pope Paul VI, apostolic exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi 6).
We also find this message in the Gospel already cited: «I was born for this, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth».
«Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you» (Mt 6,33). Jesus’ project is to establish the Kingdom of His Father; He asks His disciples: «Proclaim that the kingdom of heaven has come near!» (Mt 10,7) even knowing well that this proclamation does not come without work and great sacrifices (Mt 11,12) but assuring that He will give the rest as well.
And from there arises what we call apostolic zeal. That is, joining that effort of the entire Church to make known the Lord who reveals Himself through His message, His invitations, His mandates. It is the desire to fulfill the command to go into all the world and preach the Gospel (Mt 28, 19-20) which is Christ Himself. When one has encountered Christ, the permanent desire to make Him known is born.
This is affirmed by Pope Francis in the exhortation Evangelii gaudium:
Good always tends to communicate itself. Every authentic experience of truth and beauty seeks its own expansion, and anyone who lives a profound liberation acquires greater sensitivity to the needs of others. By communicating it, good takes root and develops. Therefore, anyone who wishes to live with dignity and fullness has no other way than to recognize the other and seek their good. We should not be surprised by some bold expressions of Saint Paul: «The love of Christ compels us» (2 Cor 5,14); «Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!» (1 Cor 9,16).
The task of preaching the Gospel, of making Christ and His Kingdom known, is beautiful and full of joy for those who transmit the treasure they have found. That is why Pope Francis urges the entire Church:
Let us recover and increase the fervor, «the sweet and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when we have to sow amid tears […] And may the present world — which sometimes seeks with anguish, sometimes with hope — thus receive the Good News, not through sad and discouraged evangelizers, impatient or anxious, but through ministers of the Gospel, whose lives radiate the fervor of those who have received, above all in themselves, the joy of Christ» (quoting Evangelii nuntiandi 80) (Evangelii gaudium 10).
On this upcoming Solemnity of Christ, I invite you to renew this fervent desire to evangelize that characterizes us as Legion and Regnum Christi.
I am convinced that this is the main reason why Jesus Christ has inspired this work, which is His, and has entrusted us, as a priestly people, with a task, a mission. As we read in the second reading of this day: «Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of kings on earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father» (Rev 1, 5-8).
It is this certainty that He Himself has called us that will guide us in these days of Assemblies and the General Chapter, aware that all our effort must be directed toward becoming better apostles of Jesus Christ, better evangelizers, better witnesses of His Kingdom, that is, better witnesses of good, truth, and grace.
I ask you to always be apostles of Jesus Christ and to continue praying intensely for those of us who will be at the Chapter and Assemblies, completing the expression of the gift received, with the certainty that the Lord accompanies us. I thank you for the prayer initiatives at the local, territorial, and international levels. I invite everyone to a day of intercession to be held on November 16, which is the Friday before the start of the Chapter and General Assemblies, so that the Lord grants us the grace to take the step He has planned for Regnum Christi at this moment. Some support materials can be found at this link.
I bid farewell, assuring you of my prayers and asking for yours.
Most affectionately in Jesus Christ,
Eduardo Robles-Gil, L.C.
