Tea at Trianon: Christ, King of the Apocalypse

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Christ, King of the Apocalypse

A fabulous homily by Fr. Angelo. To quote:

History teaches us that mankind is caught in a perennial crisis. The conflict between the light and darkness defines our experience of human history at the center of which is Christ the King, who reigns from the Cross. The Apocalypse is not so much the end of the world as it is the status quo across the ages—our age no more or less than any other. If the potential for evil in our age has multiplied exponentially because the works of human pride have come to full fruition, our time can claim for itself the graces given to the Christians of the early Church to whom the Apocalypse was addressed:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne (Rev. 3:20-21).

The other thing to remember about both the Kingship of Christ and the Apocalypse is that they are ecclesial realities. Both our personal and social apocalypses will be solved in and through the Church which is in crisis. The crisis within society and the Church is never an excuse to find solutions elsewhere. There have been many apocalyptic communities throughout history, who used crisis within the body of Christ an excuse to compromise their ecclesiality.

The social reign of Christ the King will come in and through the Church—always, even if we must pay for entrance with the price of our blood. (Read more.)

julygirl said...: The potential for human evil in our age comes not so much because of human pride but because of human greed and lust. If the reign of Christ the King comes through the Church it must be through the Church as the Bride of Christ not as an establishment of human hierarchy.; November 26, 2013 at 9:27:00 AM EST