Point 49. May the Kingdom of Christ spread

1. The Phalangist finds in his mystical faith and in his aesthetic contemplation the reason for his hope. Sustained by this hope, he adheres to and participates in the immense divine drama which, in its epic of a redeemed world, unfolds the action of an intense tragedy carried out by the incarnate Wisdom, Jesus Christ crucified, and endlessly pursued until the full gestation of this work of grace and until the full accomplishment of the redemptive plan in His mystical Body, the Church. Through his confirmation, through the sacraments of Order or marriage, through vows and various Christian commitments, which constitute so many sacramentals, each Phalangist is aware of having received, in this continued creation of Christ’s kingdom, a mission, a function, a gift. Final Heaven is promised to Christ’s disciple, glory to God’s Church, and a future for Christendom, but still the heritage is to be taken possession of through perseverance. In order that His Kingdom may come, the monk becomes a missionary, the baptised Christian becomes a confirmed militant, and sometimes the priest, the leader, or the humblest Phalangist finds himself an isolated soldier in God’s cause amid the general fray.

2. The Phalangist hopes for – that is, he confidently proclaims, discerns and prepares for – the Lord’s triumph, the coming of the Kingdom of Christ the King in the world. The wonders of God are so superior to anything that man can accomplish without God that mankind’s universal, axial progress is to be found nowhere else but in the coming of Christ’s Kingdom, which will render all our Towers of Babel obsolete and powerless. Nothing good, true or beautiful can be done elsewhere to ruin our hope in Christ’s kingdom; on the other hand, every success leads to it. Whatever rises against this hope will perish – empires, religions, gnoses, aestheticisms. This hope alone remains and spreads, announcing the eternal kingdom.

3. Moreover, seeing that Christ the Pantocrator is directing history, the Phalangist feels protected, oriented and supported. Having been thrown into the heat of the battle, into the strongest part of the current, he feels called upon to witness magnificently to Christ the Conqueror.

The Phalange to which he belongs, animated by such a hope, will not waste time lamenting the present period and regretting that the past is no longer, but it will keep its eye on the future, its plans for civilisation to hand. It must implore the Holy Spirit for an ever more certain knowledge of what He inspires in the Church for her glorious advancement. And then it must set to work with joy.