The Feast of Our Lord, Jesus Christ the King was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 with his encyclical Qua Primas. At that time, communist and fascist ideologies were running rampant and regimes built on such ideologies were steadily gaining power even in Catholic countries like Spain, Mexico and Italy. The pontiff explained his reasons for establishing the feast, writing
When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony…That these blessings may be abundant and lasting in Christian society, it is necessary that the kingship of our Savior should be as widely as possible recognized and understood, and to the end nothing would serve better than the institution of a special feast in honor of the Kingship of Christ. (19, 21)
The Feast of Christ the King was originally celebrated on the last Sunday of October. This was meant to emphasize that Christ is Lord over both Heaven and Earth. Honoring Christ as King before the celebration of the Church Triumphant on All Saints’ Day and beginning the period of praying for the souls of all the faithful departed, starting on All Souls’ Day, in November, demonstrates that even before the end when Christ returns in glory, He reigns as King, not just over hearts and minds but over the nations of the earth.
The liturgical reform that followed the Second Vatican Council moved the feast (now a Solemnity) of Christ the King to the last Sunday of the liturgical year, meaning it falls on one of the last two Sundays of November, with the next Sunday being the first of Advent. In this way, the Second Coming of Christ is linked to His first. The liturgical readings from All Saints Day onward are eschatological in nature, focusing on being prepared for the return of Christ in glory and the judgment He will mete out. This year, the Gospel reading for Christ the King was Our Lord’s prophecy of the General Judgment where He will “separate the sheep from the goats.” The readings of the first two Sundays of Advent continue this eschatological theme, although the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday begins the shift to preparation for our celebration of the first coming of Christ at Christmas.
However, for those Catholics who still attend the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, also known as the Tridentine or simply Traditional Latin Mass (the Ordinary Form a.k.a. as the Novus Ordo is what the vast majority of Catholics attend), the Pre-Vatican II Calendar of 1962 is still in effect. These Traditional Catholics celebrated the feast of Christ the King on October 25. Interestingly, this is also the date of the Council of Elrond in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring.
Although the Solemnity of Christ the King is a movable feast (it occurs on a different date every year, unlike Christmas which is always on the same date), at the time when Tolkien was writing Fellowship, it would have always fallen around the date of October 25. Therefore, it is quite interesting that it is at the Council that Strider’s true identity as Aragorn, son of Arathorn, right king of Gondor is revealed. It is even more interesting that although it is decided at the Council that the Ring will be taken into Mordor to be cast into the fires of Mount Doom, the Fellowship waits two months before undertaking their quest.
The Fellowship departs from Rivendell on December 25 which is, of course, Christmas. Their mission is accomplished precisely three months later on March 25, which is the date of the Annunciation and therefore the Incarnation of Our Lord. However, March 25 was also the traditional date of Our Lord’s Passion and Death (although Good Friday feel on a different date every year because Easter, like Christ the King, is a movable feast). Thus the mission of the salvation of Middle Earth, carried out by three Christ-figures who each represent one of the threefold aspects of Our Lord’s ministry as priest, prophet and king, begins on Christmas and ends on the traditional of Our Lord’s Passion.
This makes the time spent in Rivendell preparing to embark on the journey to Mordor a sort of Advent. Most interestingly, Tolkien’s linkage of the feast of Christ the King with the beginning of Advent by his dating of the Council of Elrond, shows that his thinking was more in line with the new liturgical calendar than the old, despite his documented preference for the Traditional Latin Mass. (Tolkien’s grandson reported that if Tolkien was attending a Mass in English he would give the responses in Latin…loudly.)
Thomas J. McIntyre
Thomas J. McIntyre is a teacher and amateur historian. He holds an MA in History from Georgia Southern University. In addition to the Voyage blog, he writes for Catholic 365 and on his personal blog "Pope Damasus and the Saints." He resides in Louisiana with his wife Nancy-Leigh and daughters Kateri and Alice.