Constituted Lord by his Resurrection. Christ, to whom all power in heaven and
on earth has been given, already works in the hearts of men by virtue of his
Holy Spirit, not only stirring up a desire for the age to come but by that very
fact also animating, purifying, and strengthening the noble intentions by which
the human family strives to make its life more human and to subject all the
earth to that goal. [16]
The Eucharist and the Rule of Christ | Fr. James T O'Connor | From The Hidden Manna: A Theology of
the Eucharist (2nd edition) | Ignatius Insight
God the Father has put everything under Christ's dominion, and he shall rule
until all powers opposed to him have been subdued, the last of them being death
itself (cf. 1 Cor. 15:25-26). This present stage of Christ's rule is something
we often profess in the liturgy (especially in the Feast of Christ the King)
and in private devotion.
The meaning of the Lord's
subjection of all reality in its present stage is, however, something upon
which most of us do not often reflect. It means that, in some mysterious but
real way, the risen Jesus influences, shapes, and directs all things so that
out of all persons and things he is shaping the future visage of creation as
that creation moves toward his glorious return. Even the sinner—whose
very sin is at least implicitly an attempt to thwart the sovereignty and
dominion of Christ—operates now within the overall plan of the Lord for
the establishment of his Kingdom.
The ways in which Jesus
exercises this dominion vary. Over creatures to whom he has given intelligence
and free will, his action is such that it respects his natural gifts.
Nonetheless, his power to move us by attraction, the arranging of
circumstances, the example of others, the holy inspiration that comes from the
reading of Scripture, interior grace that conveys the delectatio spoken of by Augustine— these and many other
ways are some of the means by which he reigns efficaciously over intelligent
creatures. As Vatican Council II said:
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