Part 6 The Enthronement of the King

The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to John. He came again therefore into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine, and there was a certain ruler whose son was sick at Capernaum. He having heard that Jesus was come from Judea into Galilee, went to him and prayed to him, Come down and heal his son. For he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him, Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not. The ruler saith to him, Lord, come down before that my son die. Jesus said to him, Go thy way, thy son liveth. The man believed the word which Jesus said to him and went his way. And as he was going down, his servants met him, and they brought word saying that his son lived. He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he grew better, and they said to him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. The father therefore knew that it was at that same hour that Jesus said to him, Thy son liveth, and himself believed and his whole house. So far the Holy Gospel according to St. John. The name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen. At the beginning of this mission, we reflected on two figures, the Titan Atlas and the infant of Prague. Tonight, instead of two figures, Let us consider two images or as it were icons. First the portrait of a young man and then that of the sacred heart of Jesus. The image of the young man I have in mind comes from the controversial late 19th century playwright Oscar Wilde. He wrote one book only entitled the picture of Dorian Gray. Now by the way, it is comforting to know that Oscar died in the arms of the church. The priest attending his deathbed reports, Indeed I was fully satisfied that he understood me when I told him he was about, I was about to reconcile him to the Catholic Church and gave him the last sacraments. And when I repeated close to his ear the holy names, the acts of contrition, faith, hope and charity with acts of humble resignation to the will of God, he tried all through to say the words after me. Now Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray was a rich young man of high London society. A devoted friend and painter carefully put Dorian's rather handsome countenance on canvas. As he was putting the finishing touches upon his magnificent portrait, Dorian was tempted by an evil man, Lord Henry, to remain young and frivolous so that he could always live for this world, always live for the fleshly pleasures that youth enjoys so much without responsibilities or without regrets. Now at this moment, Dorian made a wish that his portrait would change as he grew older while he remained ever young, handsome and energetic. His wish was mysteriously granted before long then the portrait began to change, not just with age but with moral behavior. The picture became the visible manifestation of Dorian's conscience. He quickly realized a mysterious painting could not remain on public display and so he placed it in an upper room under lock and key. Now just imagine for a moment being able to see your conscience on display so clearly. God has just such a portrait of each one of us right now. He can see us all the way through with perfect clarity. Now after a few years of sinning, the man displayed in the portrait grew old and became disgusting to behold. Turning into a sort of collage of the seven deadly sins, a picture of a living rotting carcass, yuck, probably not unlike what the goats shall look like on that tremendous last day, the day of judgment. As the last verse in the prophet Isaiah says, a loathsome sight to all flesh. What a way to end the book. It is interesting to note that although it sickened him to look upon his own portrait, nevertheless he could not stop sinning. That requires a grace. He kept his secret hidden and locked up, unwilling to make a confession and a clean break with evil. He lost all his friends except Lord Henry, the evil man that helped him take this path at the beginning. One day when the painter insisted on seeing his work of art before leaving the country for a new start in France, Dorian decided to show him. The stunned artist could only recognize the work by his own signature in the corner, so deformed had it become. Suddenly filled with rage at his portrait s maker, Dorian rose up and killed him on the spot, taking out a knife and letting him have it, surprising even himself at how easily he committed such a violent and evil act. Finally, after some feeble efforts of trying to be good and looking for improvements in the portrait, he despaired and rose up to put an end to the painting once and for all by stabbing it in the heart. The story ends with the picture returning to normal with Dorian dying by his own hand at the foot of the portrait. When they found him lying dead before his painting, they could only identify his once handsome rich young man who never seemed to age by the rings he had on his fingers. That was before they had dental records and DNA testing. This picture captures many things about our modern world, it seems to me. Since Dorian lived a liberal, carefree life, a hedonistic life, he embodied the new world way of thinking. So popular in our time, he gave way to the lower people of his soul and they ruled his life, they enslaved him. But he was free, free from God. He gave way to those lower people and he became enslaved. All else was for show, a facade that seemed to say everything is okay. And yet, truth be told, as this picture displayed, he was rotting away on the inside. Also it's interesting to note how he could not hide the painting from its maker and then he killed him instead of seeking reform. Modern man says God is dead, meaning that even if God may not be dead, and he certainly is not, he is nevertheless dead to us and to our culture. That's what that means. Dorian also ruined the lives of many souls, some of them committing suicide when they discovered his true nature is cruel self-love. What an image of our day, of our society where all is said to be okay, when in reality it is crumbling, perishing, facade, rotting and loathsome on the inside leading to many breakdowns. But everybody keeps saying it's okay, everything's all right, calm down. Now compare this, on the other hand, to the picture of the sacred heart of Jesus. Here we see our King with his tender heart on display for all to know, to love and to adore. A heart crowned with thorns and topped by a cross and inflamed by a fire of love. A royal heart of infinite majesty, and yet loaded down with the reproaches and the sins of man, and saturated with revilings. Bruised for our offenses, yet most willing to dismiss them all. Only if man repents from his heart, if only he would repent from his heart, he will erase them all and take ownership of them. This image is not hidden in some secret room under lock and key, but rather is meant to be seen by all, to be honored by all, to be loved by all. It needs to be enthroned in our homes if we are to avoid enthroning ourselves as Dorian Gray did with similar results. So take your pick. We can have the sacred heart or the picture of Dorian Gray. To St. Margaret Mary, the sacred heart promised, I will bless every place in which a picture of my heart shall be set up and honored. And I will establish peace in their homes. And I will grant graces to fulfill their duties of their state and life. Dorian was anything but at peace, always fearful of others discovering his true nature, and yet at the same time unable to stop ruining himself and ruining the lives of many others. This is what happens when the king is not allowed to rule in our lives and in our homes. This is what happens when we enthrone ourselves instead of the king. We live in fear, we live in unrest, we live in dishonesty. Now to the mystic, Sister Josefa Menendez, you can find this in The Way of Divine Love. I highly recommend this book. The sacred heart came to her many times to renew the message of St. Margaret Mary in the 20th century, just before the issuing of the encyclical Quas Primas by Pope Pius XI. This is in 1923. And he would say things such as this, I want to forgive. I want to reign over souls and pardon all nations. I want to rule souls, nations, the whole world. My peace must be extended over the entire universe. All that I might be is peace, it's life, it's king. I am wisdom in beatitude, I am love in mercy. I am peace. I am peace. I shall reign. I shall rule the world. I shall reign. I will shower my mercies on the world to wipe out its ingratitude. I must be sovereign king. In another place he says, all my longing is to set souls on fire, those of the entire world. Alas, they turn from the flame, but I shall triumph. They will be mine, and I shall be their king. After reading this marvelous book, I've asked myself a couple of times, why is this not more common, more popular? I'm beginning to wonder, and maybe it's because of the king is mentioned so boldly. Can't have that today in the liberal republics. Well, he wants to rule in souls and families and nations and even the whole world. And he will. He said he will, and he will. It's been prophesied to happen in the scriptures, and he's repeated it to his saints. That is the order of things, isn't it? Healing comes from the inside to the outside. He will. He starts in souls. He then moves to families, then to nations, and then the whole world. That's the order. Just as illness begins internally and manifests itself externally, so the healing of the king starts in the soul, in the interior castle, and moves outward to the family, first and foremost, then to conquer nations, and finally the whole world. So last evening we spoke of how his majesty must reign in his castle, the kingdom of our souls. Tonight we need to reflect on how he must reign in our homes, in our families. From the renewal of the family will follow as a matter of course the renewal of human society and of the state and of the whole world, because the family is the building block of the society. We will not renew society without the family. It's a well-established principle that the misery of the world begins in the family. Listen to Pope Benedict XV writing to Father Mateo, who popularized the devotion of the enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He writes, Pope Benedict, the malicious efforts of the wicked are specially directed against the home, the family circle. Since the family contains the root, the elements of civil society, the enemies realize well that the hope for transformation, or rather the hope for destruction of all human society cannot take place before the ruin of the family is accomplished. Again, the enemies realize that the hope for transformation or rather the hope for destruction of all human society cannot take place before the ruin of the family is accomplished. In other words, disorder in society is the result of disorder in the home. Sad to say the family, our first bulk work has fallen. The family has been de-Christianized, it's been secularized, it's been liberalized. Most home governments are liberal with every member doing basically whatever he pleases. Even in good Catholic families, this is unfortunately very often the case. They frequently have the weakest of home governments. They're like a microcosm of the world around us. Unfortunately in our times, even when there is a strong and well ordered home government, various members of the family quickly revolt, turning over the efforts of many years of hard labor. When they're provided the opportunity, they turn 18, 19, 20 or something like that, and they're free from mom and dad. In the family, therefore, we must have an enthronement to fight this. We must have an enthronement of His Majesty, our King. The modern family has lost its King. Its law, He and His place in it has been replaced with what? Sporting heroes, Hollywood heroes, even fantasy heroes. Often being enshrined in the bedrooms of our children with large portraits, big pictures of these people, little tiny crucifix in the corner. What is more, the modern living room preaches greed, pride, vanity, lewdness and laziness. Exalting the seven deadly sins, at least some are honest enough to see that the cross and other sacred images no longer fit into this milieu, into this environment and have disposed of them altogether or put them in some corner or side room. We have to hunt for it. People have hidden them because in the long run the sacred can only remain where the Spirit of the Crucified One dwells and where the Spirit of the Crucified is no longer found and they remove the image. The family, therefore, must again become a supernatural institution, a spiritual institution. Now, one of the surest means for this is the enthronement of the most sacred heart of Jesus in the home. Now is this something new? No. Father Mateo points out it's scriptural. The enthronement of the most sacred heart of Jesus is the literal fulfillment of the sentence we heard in the Gospel tonight. He believed and His whole house with Him. That's the enthronement. We believe in our whole house with us. The enthronement is purely religious family feast. The whole family comes together and if possible the priest comes to the home, gathering in the living room or main room of the house in the most prominent and beautiful space. A picture or statue of the sacred heart of Jesus blessed by the priest is set in place by the head of the family and surrounded by flowers and candles. The whole family kneels and prays the creed and consecrates itself to His royal and sovereign majesty. Jesus Christ, their life blood, the bond of union, their Savior who has been enthroned. The family swears fealty to their King and profess openly their desire that He reign visibly in their homes and in their whole life. So the place of enthronement is from the day of enthronement. Jesus enthroned in the family, He said it Himself, I am King, for this I came into the world. The purpose of the enthronement is the reign of Jesus. He reigns and He must reign alone. He cannot bear that Satan sit next to Him as co-regent, as though legally His spiritual equal. There is no dualism, there is no yin and yang with our Lord. Only one can sit upon the throne, Christ the King. He desires to reign, He must reign, He said He will because He is King. But He wills to reign not by destroying or through servile fear, but by converting and pardoning. The result is a gradual complete transformation of family life. One pagan idol after the other will be carried out of the house because it no longer fits. The walls become clearer and cleaner. No more questionable or dangerous books, DVDs or CDs in the library. No more periodicals by enemies of the church lie on the family table. No more easy access to internet or frivolous games and electronic toys or gadgets. If you don't have a block on your internet, forget it. You are never going to win the battle. You have got to at least start there. Don't think, well it's not going to happen to my children. Is that so? You are going to find out a couple years from now that it's been going on for a couple years? Put a block on your computer no matter what. It can happen to the best people. Superfluous luxury and addiction to pleasures are abandoned. Blasphemies and curse words fade away. Work becomes a divine service. Modesty and love for chastity replace all lewdness and impurity. The whole house becomes an island of peace, a fortress of virtue. The picture of the heart of Jesus will have become the reformer of the family and its life. Now what is more, the little society of the family so given to the sacred heart, to the sacred royalty, prepares the public enthronement of the Savior. By enthroning in the family you are actually preparing for the public enthronement of the Savior because you are the founding block of society. The divine heart of Jesus has a policy of conquest. He as king wants to get out on the street. He wants to renew all public life. As soon as his majesty becomes the reformer of the family, he wants to become the reformer of our places of work and of all human society around us. A person who has become acquainted with the divine heart of Christ in the family cannot remain silent. He will be compelled to tell about his happiness. He will communicate it to others. He will become an apostle. The petition in the Our Father echoes in the minds and the hearts of his loyal subjects, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Hallow it, be Thy name. Whoever promotes the enthronement of the sacred heart of Jesus in the family becomes the active for the cause of human society itself. He becomes a true benefactor of mankind. Virtue is beautiful. Virtue is contagious. When we live our consecration, we will spread it even despite ourselves. The more we live it, the more the king can use us for good around us. Now, the history of enthronement, according to Fr. Matteo especially, proves that this promotes the apostolic spirit. The greatest enemies of the church, even leaders of Freemasonry, have converted in great numbers. It has been documented. Very often, the solemn enthronement in a family among whose members one is spiritually dead or had left an empty place and become a prodigal, has resulted in the return of the prodigal to the family whose consecration worked his great miracle. There you have it. The fire spreads. Virtue is contagious. It becomes an apostle. Now, there's a warning here. I've seen this happen many times. Many try to do good around them without the consecration, without paying heed to the consecration. And they end up neglecting their families. The king always works from the inside out. He works with us in our interior castles. And then our families. And then finally the world around us. We must never forget the main task lies first and foremost after ourselves, of course, in the reconstruction of family life. The coming age, the one we're actually living in now, must be the age of the family. There is no end to this. But the ark and the deluge we're undergoing is the family filled with a Catholic supernatural spirit. The family whose king and government is Christ. Here the sovereignty of God over state and society must first be proclaimed and prepared on the domestic level. Now, returning to the notion, to the idea, to the nature of enthronement, let us be a little more precise by defining our terms with the help of Father Mateo. Once again, he popularized his devotion in the 20th century. This is what he said. The enthronement is the homage of adoration, of social reparation. By doing this, he will be making social reparation. The enthronement is the homage of adoration, of social reparation and of fervent love, which the family as the social cell offers to the heart of Jesus, considered as king of society. In this sense, which is strictly doctrinal, the enthronement is not merely a beautiful but simple consecration. It is the homage of latria, which is the adoration and worship owed to God. It is his right to receive that from us. It's made in a spirit of love and reparation for the modern social apostasy. In other words, Father Mateo says, it is the Ave Rex, Hail King. We want this man to rule over us, of the miniature nation, that is the family of the entire nation. The miniature nation inside the entire nation, the cell inside the body. Father Mateo, thank you. His majesty asked us through St. Margaret Mary to place his image in our homes so that our homes will become his Bethany, where he says, you are my friends. Such that our homes become places of divine intimacy, places of intimate sharing of the daily life of the family with Jesus and consequently of Jesus with the family. Such a family of the sacred heart strives never to take pleasures or sorrows alone. Our Lord, Jesus the Friend, always has his part and the very first part at that in the sorrowful and joyful happenings of parents and children, for his heart is the very center of this happy family. Naturally, this means that on certain outstanding family celebrations and cherished anniversaries, first Fridays and solemn feast days, the family should gather at the feet of the royal friend and renew its offering of total love to the royal heart of Jesus. In this way, his majesty, our king, once again becomes Emmanuel, God with us in the Christian home. I've placed some solemn enthronement cards, maybe many of you have already done this in this wonderful parish, but I placed them by the sacred heart over there. Take one only if you need one. These are for people who have not enthroned the sacred heart or do not have one of these in their homes, proving that they've enthroned and to remind them that they've enthroned. Now let us embrace and obey his majesty's request then for an image of his most sacred heart to be enthroned in every home lest we enthrone ourselves and become another picture of Dorian Gray. God forbid. Viva Cristo Rey in the name of the father and the son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.