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Newsletter of the District of Asia January - February 2000 Editorial “Christus vincit, regnat, imperat; ab omni malo plebem suam defendat. Christ conquers, reigns, commands, may He deliver His people from all evil.” Pope Sixtus-V had these words engraved on the obelisque erected in the center of the arms of St Peter’s Basilica, in the Vatican. Wonderful words, written in the present, not in the past tense, to indicate that the triumph of Our Lord Jesus Christ is an eternal one, constantly an actual one, and that it is through and in the Blessed Sacrament that it is accomplished. Christus vincit – Christ conquers. Our Lord has fought, He remains the Master of the battlefield where He has planted his banner, His dwelling: the Sacred Host and the Eucharistic Tabernacle. He has conquered the Old Law and its Temple: there is a tabernacle on Calvary, where all nations come to adore Him in the Sacred Species. He has conquered paganism and has chosen for His capital, Rome, the city of the Cesars. His tabernacle is in the temple of Jupiter, in the Pantheon. He has conquered the false wisdom of the wise, and before the Divine Eucharist lifted on the world and radiating its rays to the four corners of the world, darkness has recessed like the night at the rising of the sun. Idols have been removed, pagan sacrifices abolished. The Eucharistic Lord is a conqueror who never stops: He seeks to submit the whole universe to His sweet scepter, “and thus enter into the glory of His Father”. Each time He takes possession of a country, of a territory, He plants His tent, His Tabernacle, as a sign of ownership. Where the Holy Eucharist is brought, there soon or late the Nations convert to Catholicism. Christus regnat – Christ reigns. He reigns, not on territories, but on souls. This is done by the Holy Eucharist. Since kings and rulers exercise their power by their laws, this Eucharistic King imposes His eucharistic laws to His subjects: “Love one another as I have loved you. Keep my Commandments”. It is a never changing law, it is the sign of His disciples, it is the sacrifice of real love, a sacrificial love. How many rulers of today preside the destiny of their countrymen out of love? There is but One whose yoke is not imposed by force, His kingship is the kingship of meekness itself; His real disciples are devoted to Him to their last drop of blood. Christus imperat – Christ commands. Many times in history have rulers tried to submit the whole universe to their empire. None ever succeeded. But God the Father has clearly said to Our Lord Jesus Christ: “I will give Thee all nations as an inheritance”. And Our Blessed Lord sends His lieutenants worldwide instructing them that “all powers is given to Me, in heaven and on earth! Go and teach all nations!” The Cenacle was His first HQ and still is: all the angelic armies come at the foot of the Altar to receive their daily assignments. At the foot of the Altar, everyone is a subject, everyone must obey, from the Pope, Vicar of Christ, to the simple child. Christ commands. Christus ab omni malo plebem suam defendat – May Christ defend His people from all evil. Just as the Angel of Death could not enter the dwellings marked with the blood of the Pascal Lamb, just as, of old, there were “cities of refuge”, and, as in the days when Christendom was accepted, criminals, pursued by the law would seek protection in a church, near the tabernacle, similarly, by this Precious Blood, we are protected from the snares and pomps of the evil one. We are even protected from the Father’s wrath which we have so often deserved by our “innumerable sins, offenses and negligences”, as “He is always making intercession for us”. How pitiable the nations who no longer have or who have not yet had the Blessed Sacrament! No doubt also that when the Blessed Sacrament is removed from a church or a territory, the royal throne is not left unoccupied very long… Nowadays, how often, as St Peter Julien Eymard rightly observes, it seems that the devil triumphs and insults Our Blessed Lord: “I, for one”, says Satan, “give nothing to man, nothing true, nothing beautiful, nothing good. I have not suffered for him. And yet, I am loved more, obeyed more and better served than Him.” Alas, it is only too true! Our coldness and our ingratitude may be the cause of such triumph of Satan against Our Blessed Lord Let us make of Lent this year a true eucharistic season, uniting ourselves to the Sacrifice of Our Lord, by generous mortifications.
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