WHO HAS THE POWER?

 A SERMON FOR CHRIST THE KING

We have an election coming up soon.  One of those treasured opportunities when “We the People” actually get to exercise the authority given us by the Constitution.  For according to this venerable document we revere so much, all power comes from the people.  It assures us that we have inalienable rights given us by God, and that it is up to us, people with “rights” and “powers”, to choose our elected officials who will do our bidding in the hallowed halls of Washington.  It’s a nice idea to be sure, and makes us feel all warm and fuzzy that we have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

But like all the devices of man, the Constitution is ultimately flawed.  I’m not saying it hasn’t worked reasonably well since the American rebellion back in the 1700s.  Nevertheless, its basic premise that power, the authority to govern, comes from below, from the people, is simply not true.  Setting aside any historical and political bias I might have, I still need to remind you that our belief, as Catholics, is that authority, quite simply, comes from God.  The Constitution has it coming from “We the People.”

Like I said, it has worked reasonably well, as long as the majority have believed that the power of the people is bestowed upon them by Almighty God.  But when the majority vote to remove God from this equation, the idea of power then logically disintegrates into our own individual power to do whatever we want.  Moral truth ceases to be an objective fact and begins to depend on the current views of the majority.  Yesterday’s truths and values are not necessarily today’s.  What, for example, was once correctly seen as murder of the innocent is now transformed into a woman’s choice; what was once seen as a perverse moral lifestyle is now almost universally recognized as perfectly normal.  If you don’t agree with the majority position, you are made to feel like a modern-day heretic.

All authority depends ultimately on God and it is his divine moral authority that tells us what is right and wrong.  Any law that goes against this authority of God is an illegimate law that must not be obeyed, no matter what the majority of Americans think, or how the men and women of the Supreme Court interpret our Constitution. 

Our blessed Lord is not recognized by this nation as its King.  Next week’s election is simply one more ripple in the Washington swamp, which is too deep to drain without first acknowledging its Creator as having supreme authority over it.  The power we exercise when we vote should not delude us into thinking that it’s we who are running the show.  It will take more than an election to rid our nation of the swamp creatures of the Deep State who will cling on to the reins of power and continue to crush anyone who dares to try and stop them.  Why, do you think, do they go after President Trump so hard?—he’s standing up to them, and that they cannot abide.  Let’s pray he gets the chance to spend another four years getting rid of a few more of them.  It might not make much of a difference in the long run, but there again, it may save a few souls that would otherwise be lost.

Authority comes from God.  It comes from God whether we the people believe it or not, whether we the people like it or not. The American system of Government can work.  But it will work only so long as a majority of the population continue to believe that we truly are “one nation under God” and elect only men and women who continue to believe that inalienable truth.  So yes, we must vote, but behind that exercise in democracy must follow the faith and trust that this nation still has a king!  Not an earthly king, but the King of kings and Lord of lords, our Lord Jesus Christ.  That is why today’s feast is so important, and why Providence has so perfectly placed it on the last Sunday of October, so close to this nation’s election.

If we seek comfort from all this wretched election turmoil, let’s not make the mistake of turning to the Church of Rome for help.  This past week has seen two direct assaults from the Eternal City against the Kingship of Christ in this world.  The man in charge there hopes to extend the chaos of the progressive liberals to the world at large.  He has actively used his position as pope of the Conciliar Church to seduce the Catholic faithful away from the kingship of Christ and replace it with the values of the French Revolution.  What not even Washington can do, Rome is now attempting.  The final overthrow—they hope—of Christ the King.

The first assault of the week came in the form of the latest encyclical from the Conciliar boss.  It’s called Fratelli Tutti—“We’re all brothers”, —and it’s an open promotion, supposedly from the Vicar of Christ for the overthrow of Christ the King in the form of a One World Government and the mythical brotherhood of man.  Not since Judas himself has a creature in such a high position stooped to such a treacherous act against his Lord and Master.  It’s impossible to read it without revulsion for its unabashed socialist and humanist views.  I don’t need to explain them to you here—just listen to any Democrat politician and you’ll not find a single word, not a single viewpoint that isn’t contained and vigorously applauded in Fratelli Tutti.

Conservative prelate Archbishop Carlo Viganò finds the writings of his pope so abhorrent that he has felt the need to publicly denounce them as representing “the emptiness of a withered heart, of a blind man deprived of supernatural sight.” He says that the encyclical’s attempt to bring hope to all men of the earth is misguided since, “in order to truly desire the good of modern man it is necessary to wake him out of his hypnotic spell of do-goodery, ecologism, pacifism, ecumenism, and globalism. In order to want the good of sinful and rebellious man, it is necessary to make him understand that by distancing himself from his Creator and Lord he will end up being a slave of Satan and of himself.”  Archbishop Viganò spells out “the only hope to foster peace and harmony among men” is “by conforming to the will of God.”

As we join ourselves with these sentiments of Archbishop  Viganò, let’s not forget that second assault on Christ the King that came from the mouth of Bergoglio this week, an open demand for laws allowing and encouraging “same-sex civil unions”.  He declares that the folks with unnatural vices, sins that call upon heaven for vengeance, have the absolute right to live as a family, and he vigorously prohibits us from denying them that right.  As we crown our blessed Lord King today, let’s do so in the spirit of reparation, sorrow and grief that he who is supposed to be Christ’s representative on earth is busy crowning the King of kings with a crown of thorns.

As goes the Church, so goes the world.  When we see such blasphemies coming from the supposed leader of the Church, how can we expect our own nation to escape unscathed from the assaults of the Devil?  What can we do about it?  Answer: we do what we can and leave the rest to God.  Vote next week.  And then pray.  Pray that our Lord’s divine authority might be recognized and obeyed by “We the People”, and by our leaders, spiritual and temporal, so that finally we may truly live as one nation under God, and under his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, our King.