St. Anthony of the Desert: “Everyday I say to myself, today I will begin.”
We make choices every day and we are surrounded by many people who would stop us in our tracks. We look longingly at doors that close, yet we do not watch for what might or could or will happen if we are open to God’s promise. Sometimes, there are challenges on the road and obstacles everywhere. None of this stops God. There are many distractions along the way. We can only begin to be faithful through grace and it is a daily challenge.
____________________________________________________________________
Today is the Feast of Christ the King. When Pope Pius XI instituted this feast in 1925, he appointed it to be celebrated on the last Sunday of October, immediately before the Feast of All Saints. The placement was significant. The Church proclaims Christ as King not merely of individual Christians, nor even simply of earthly nations, but of the whole created order—the living and the departed, the visible and the invisible. The saints themselves constitute the heavenly court of the King whose sovereignty we celebrate.
But what does it mean to speak of Christ as King in an increasingly anti-monarchical age?
Pope Pius XI faced much the same difficulty in 1925. Europe had witnessed the collapse of ancient monarchies, the rise of aggressively secular political movements, and increasing efforts to remove Christianity from public life. In instituting the feast, the Pope called the Church back to something much older than any particular political system: the witness of Holy Scripture itself.
The Psalms repeatedly proclaim the Kingship of God: The LORD is King, be the people never so impatient. The Prophets likewise look forward to the universal reign of God over the nations. And in the Gospel, Our Lord stands before Pontius Pilate and declares: My kingdom is not of this world.
Those words do not mean that Christ’s Kingdom has nothing to do with this world. Rather, His Kingdom does not derive its authority from this world. It is not another earthly regime competing with Rome or any other political power. Its authority comes from above. Indeed, when Pilate boasts of his authority over Jesus, Our Lord answers him: Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. This is precisely what makes the Kingship of Christ so radical.
Caesar may exercise authority for a time. Nations rise and fall. Governments and political systems come and go. But Christ’s Kingdom does not depend upon elections, armies, constitutions, or the consent of the governed. His Kingship rests upon the reality of who He is.
The Epistle appointed for the feast makes this unmistakably clear: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.
Christ is King because all things were created through Him and for Him. Every earthly authority exists beneath His authority. Every nation exists within His creation. Every ruler, government, principality, and power ultimately stands beneath the judgment of the One through whom all things were made.
When Pope Pius XI called the Church to proclaim this biblical truth anew, he wanted Christians to be the “salt” and “light” of a culture increasingly determined to exclude God from public life. The more the nations sought to organize human society as though God did not exist, the more necessary it became for Christians to proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.
That challenge has certainly not disappeared. The feast therefore asks us a rather uncomfortable question: Where does our ultimate allegiance lie? Do we think of ourselves first as citizens of an earthly nation who also happen to be Christians, or as members of Christ’s Kingdom who, for a time, live as citizens of an earthly nation?
Christians may rightly love their country, honor lawful authority, and work for the good of the society in which God has placed them. S. Paul himself commands Christians to respect legitimate civil authority. But no earthly authority is absolute. Whenever the demands of the state conflict with the commandments of God, the Apostles give us the governing principle: We ought to obey God rather than men. To acknowledge Christ as King, therefore, cannot remain merely an intellectual assent to a theological proposition. It demands allegiance.
In the language of our Baptism, it means fighting manfully under Christ’s banner against sin, the world, and the devil. It means submitting our thoughts, desires, possessions, relationships, ambitions, and ultimately our very lives to His rule. We cannot proclaim Christ King over the universe while reserving some small territory within ourselves over which we refuse to allow Him to reign.
And here we encounter the great paradox of Christ’s Kingship. Our King conquers by being crucified. The throne from which He first manifests His glory is the Cross. His crown is made of thorns. His royal robe is placed upon Him in mockery. His hands hold no sword, but are pierced with nails. And above His head Pilate unwittingly proclaims the truth: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
The kingdoms of this world maintain themselves through power. Christ establishes His Kingdom through self-emptying love, obedience, sacrifice, and victory over death. Yet the Cross is not the end of His Kingship. The crucified King is risen. He has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, from hence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
The Feast of Christ the King therefore looks both backward and forward. We look back to the Cross, where the nature of His Kingship was revealed, and forward to the Day when that Kingship will be manifest to all creation. For now, we proclaim by faith what will one day be visible to all: Jesus Christ is Lord.
The Feast of Christ the King is therefore not merely a proclamation of Christ’s universal sovereignty. It is also an acknowledgment of His rule over our own lives. To celebrate this feast is to renew our allegiance to Him and to witness before a broken and suffering world to the greater Kingdom to which mankind is called.
May we pray and labor for the day when every human authority acknowledges its true Lord, when every people and nation recognizes its rightful King, and when, in the words of S. Paul, at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
____________________________________________________________________
LOVE IS ABOUT TREATING EVERYONE WELL
BY: Fr. Francis Maple
Mt. 22:34-40
If someone should tell you to flap your arms and fly like a bird, what would you do? Odds are that you would ignore that directive on the grounds that it is impossible. The idea is absurd. People cannot fly no matter how fast they flap their arms. You wouldn’t even try. Why make a fool of yourself?
That is the attitude some people take toward today’s Gospel reading. Jesus said, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” We know that in His language “neighbour” means everyone without exception. We may be inclined to dismiss that as mere church talk. Yes, good material for a Sunday sermon, but not for the rest of the week. In the real world, it does not make any sense at all. There are some people whom we simply cannot love. How can you love that one-time friend who stabs you in the back? How can you love the rude person in the office who takes advantage of every opportunity to get on your nerves? How can you love that smooth-talking liar who cheated you so shamelessly? All of us have known a few of these people. How can we feel anything towards them but resentment, distrust and I don’t like saying this word, even hatred? We must never say to anyone, “I hate you”, for if we do and we mean it we shall not be forgiven by the Lord. At best, we can tolerate them and leave them alone, but some would say it is asking too much to expect us to love them.
When Jesus said we are to love our neighbour as ourselves He did not expect us to have warm feelings for all people. I am not even sure He cared about that, but He cared greatly about what we do to one another. Therein lies the true meaning of Christian love.
It begins with a conscious commitment. We often use the expression “falling in love”. That is a beautiful term. It is what happens to a boy and a girl on a moon-lit night. They look into one another’s eyes and fall in love. It is what happens to parents when they see their baby for the first time. They are overwhelmed by feelings of devotion. That little one steals their hearts. They fall in love with the little one they helped to create. That too is a wonderful experience, but it has nothing to do with loving your neighbour as yourself. No one falls into this kind of love. We may grow into it, but it does not just happen to us. We choose it with both eyes open. We knowingly and willingly give ourselves to it. This is what true love really means.
When two people marry, they promise to love each other as long as they both shall live. Are these people saying that they will feel warm and tender towards each other every hour of every day for the rest of their lives? If that is what they mean, then neither one is telling the truth. They will soon find that out that it is impossible to have warm and tender feelings every moment of their married life. It is impossible for two people to know how they will feel about each other in five years’ time. Human feelings are as unpredictable as the weather.
A couple were celebrating their golden wedding anniversary. A priest asked the wife how they had got through those years and did she ever think about getting a divorce? She said, “The thought of divorcing my husband never entered my mind.” Then with a twinkle in her eye, she added, “But I have thought about murder a few times!”
Even in marriage, love is a conscious commitment. Two people promise to act toward each other in a way they will act toward no one else. That can be done. Jesus applies that same logic to us and our neighbour. He commands us to act towards them in a loving way, regardless of how we feel. Love makes that commitment.
All of us are fond of certain people. I am glad we are, but there is no virtue in that. What about all those other people we are not fond of. How do we treat them? Jesus knows it is easy to love those who are fond of us, but He does expect us to love those we are not fond of and who ill treat us.
The last story that He ever told was His parable of the final judgment. It all had to do with deeds. Feelings are completely omitted. He will not say, “I was hungry, and you felt sorry for Me. I was naked, and you were embarrassed for Me. I was sick, and you had sympathy for Me.” All that might be very nice, but Jesus did not even mention it. The only thing that counted with Him was that the hungry were fed, the naked were clothed, and the sick were visited.
Jesus said, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” We may try to evade that responsibility by pointing out that some people are utterly unlovable. Jesus knows that, but He says, “I am not interested in how you feel about people. My concern is how you are treating them.” Love is not something we feel about another, but how we treat them.
Lord Jesus, loving everyone can be very hard, especially our enemies, but You showed us how to love them when they crucified You. You prayed, “Father forgive them.” Help us to follow Your example and love everyone. Then we know You will give us a place in Your Kingdom.
____________________________________________________________________
Jesus never preached socialism
Christian compassion calls individuals to give freely rather than politicians to redistribute by force
BY: Everett Piper, The Washington Times (October 18, 2026).
Last week in this column, I wrote that Europe and the United States need a Christian revival, not a socialist revolution.
My argument was simple: Socialism is the problem, not the solution. The destruction we are seeing in the streets of France and here in America is caused by the socialist creed, not solved by it. Christianity is the solution.
You do not even need the Bible to make this point. History has shown that, in every case they have been applied, Karl Marx’s assumptions about class conflict, identity-based conflict and forced redistribution end badly. Just look at the 100 million dead at the hands of the socialist regimes of Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Josef Stalin, and Fidel Castro.
If you want life and liberty rather than death and servitude, socialism simply does not work. It has a much worse track record than a constitutional republic built on the Judeo-Christian ethics of Christ and his church.
To this argument, several readers immediately responded that I was guilty of presenting a false dichotomy in pitting socialism against Christianity. “Jesus, after all, was a socialist,” they argued.
Is this true? In a word, no, and those who argue that he was are either ignorant of the Bible or intentionally misrepresenting it.
The fact is that Jesus never taught or advocated collectivism, government largesse or state-enforced redistribution of wealth and private property.
Yes, Christ condemned worshipping money, “for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Yes, Jesus warned that it was “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.” Yes, he praised the widow for offering just a single “penny” because she was willing to give all she had to God.
And yes, some first-century Christians sold their possessions to support their fellow believers. Still, none of this smacks of the worldview of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani any more than the Salvation Army’s Christmas bells and red buckets resemble the IRS.
Jesus never taught or advocated for government compulsion. Instead, he always focused on personal responsibility. Charity was the obligation of the individual, not the state. Christ never told his followers to vote for the government to give more money to the poor. He told his followers to do it themselves.
Lawrence W. Reed, president emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education, says it well: “Christians are commanded in Scripture to love, to pray, to be kind, [to give], to serve, to forgive, to be truthful, to worship the one God, to learn and grow in both spirit and character. All of those things are very personal. They require no politicians, police, bureaucrats, political parties, or programs.”
He continues: “Christianity is not about passing the buck to the government when it comes to relieving the plight of the poor. Caring for them, which means helping them overcome it, not paying them to stay poor or making them dependent upon the state, has been an essential fact in the life of a true Christian for 2,000 years. Christian charity, being voluntary and heartfelt, is utterly distinct from the compulsory, impersonal mandates of the state.”
Is Mr. Reed correct? Is this, indeed, what Scripture teaches? Well, here is just a smattering of what the Bible says on the matter.
The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:7: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
In his Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus calls the traveler “good” because he personally helped the stricken man at the roadside with his own time and money. Nothing in this story suggests that government was the solution to the other man’s needs.
Jesus adds in Matthew 26:11, “The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want.” The key words here are “you can help [when you want].” He did not say, “We’re going to make you help whether you like it or not.”
In Luke 12:13-15, Jesus is approached with a request for redistribution. “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me,” a man asks. Jesus replies, “Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?” Then he rebukes the petitioner for his envy. Does not sound very socialist, does it?
Mr. Reed concludes: “Jesus clearly held that compassion is a wholesome value to possess, but I know of no passage in the New Testament that suggests it’s a value he’d impose by force or gunpoint — in other words, by socialist politics.”
No, Jesus was not a socialist. He taught us, not the government, to do the giving. Nothing in church history or teaching says we are to shirk our responsibility to help our neighbor by passing it on to the state.
____________________________________________________________________
James Talarico’s latest claim about the Bible gets fact-checked in real time
BY: Billy Hallowell, The Washington Times (October 16, 2026).
Texas Senate candidate James Talarico is known for his bizarre, inaccurate and downright nutty theological proclamations.
Mr. Talarico uttered his latest nonsense during a CNN and Jubilee town hall, telling Jody Hunt, a Catholic woman, that the Bible is silent on abortion — a proclamation that caused many, including Ms. Hunt, to fervently hit back.
“We’re both Christians and the Bible is silent on the issue of abortion,” he said. “It means you and I both have to look at different Scriptures to try to come to a conclusion, but what I think we can do is actually come together on reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies and the number of abortions.”
But Ms. Hunt wasn’t willing to let this claim go — and with good reason. It’s absolutely unhinged from reality and truth, so she fact-checked Mr. Talarico right to his face.
“I just want to add that the Bible is not silent on abortion,” she shot back. “There is the Ten Commandments — ’Thou shalt not kill.’
“And as Catholics, we take great insult, I guess sometimes when it’s [spouted] that way,” she continued.
She made a great point about the nature of killing innocents. The Bible is absolutely clear that terminating the life of another human is inexcusable and violates God’s laws.
As for abortion: It’s certainly true that the word isn’t present in the Bible, but neither are a plethora of other specific issues and sins. Take, for instance, heroin abuse or pornography.
Scripture doesn’t mention specific deadly drugs, but it precludes humans from being drunk. And it doesn’t discuss computer and cell phone smut, but Jesus is clear about lust and sexual sin.
Any semblance of discernment would tell someone to avoid drugs or pornography because of the broader verses that warn against sinning against one’s body and being inebriated.
This is just common sense — and the same reality exists for abortion.
Though the word “abortion” doesn’t exist in Scripture, the concept is most certainly decried throughout the Old and New Testaments. The Bible isn’t silent on the issue. People like Mr. Talarico simply want to ignore these realities and indulge their own sinful understanding of what’s permitted.
But let’s go a bit deeper. As it turns out, there are numerous Bible verses that reveal God’s love, kindness and care for the unborn. One of the most compelling verses is Psalm 139:13 (NIV), which reads, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
This is an incredibly powerful verse that presents God as caring deeply about the form and future of the unborn, sparking imagery of an artist assembling his or her masterpiece. Beyond that, this particular Scripture shows the innate value God puts into His human creation.
Another verse is Jeremiah 1:5, which offers an even deeper look at the purposes God imbues in human souls well before conception.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” the Scripture reads. “Before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
This notion that the Lord foreknows each person aligns with the love and care we see God expressing throughout Scripture — and it certainly flies in the face of Mr. Talarico’s arguments that the Bible is silent on abortion.
The unborn have inherent value even before they are conceived, which is evident from these verses. Ultimately, such Scriptures contradict the “clump of cells” argument that many liberals seek to peddle while selling abortion as a viable solution to unplanned pregnancy.
There’s another story, though, that has always stuck out in my mind and is seen in Luke 1. Mary, Jesus’ mother, goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth after Mary finds out that she’s pregnant with the Messiah.
Luke 1:41 tells us the following: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” John the Baptist, an unborn baby, was the first to react to the unborn Christ child — and that says something.
So, is Mr. Talarico right that abortion isn’t explicitly mentioned in Scripture? Sure, the term itself isn’t there, but the concept most certainly is decried based on God’s overwhelming love and plans for His creation.
There’s absolutely nothing in Scripture that glorifies or permits killing innocents. In fact, humans are compelled to protect the “least of these” and the most vulnerable.
Liberals such as Mr. Talarico are, at best, confused about such eternal truths. At worst, they’re intentionally distorting the Bible for political means. Either way, their proclivities result in evil claims and policies that damage innocents.
GFK
