"We have a significant path ahead of us that we must walk with great trust, boldness, and patience."

December 2, 2010. Fr Alvaro Corcuera, LC recently sent a letter to all Regnum Christi members for the solemnity of Christ the King. In his letter, he invites Regnum Christi members to reflect on the crucified Jesus who, while suffering and humiliated, is still capable of forgiving and bestowing mercy on those who need it.

His letter also focuses on Jesus’ words in the Gospel: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Mt 11:28-30).

An English translation of the letter is presented below, and the printable pdf version can be downloaded here.

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Thy Kingdom Come!

REGNUM CHRISTI
MOVEMENT
_________

GENERAL DIRECTOR

Rome, November 21, 2010

To the members and friends of Regnum Christi
On the solemnity of Christ the King
 
 
Dear friends in Christ,
 
Traditionally in Regnum Christi, the celebration of Christ the King provides us an opportunity to live this spiritual moment together as a family. With this letter I send you my greetings and the assurance of my prayers for each one of you.
 
This year, we have the grace of the Holy Father being close to us in the person of his appointed delegate, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis. Undoubtedly, it has been a true blessing from God to have him with us. In his first letter to Legionaries and consecrated members, he told us that our work of revision and renewal has to be based on a solid prayer-life and on our quest for holiness by following Jesus more faithfully. He also invited us to seek our support in “Jesus’ fidelity, who is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords: the Everything of our lives” (July 10, 2010).
 
God calls us each day to discover his loving hand behind our vocation, which “comes from the Heart of Jesus, from his love. The one who started his work in the heart of each one of you, and preserved you from the dangers that threatened you, wants to bring it to completion” (idem). We have a significant path ahead of us that we must walk with great trust, boldness, and patience, as Cardinal De Paolis

	"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart."

has been insisting, but above all, we must sincerely seek holiness of life.
 
Today’s Gospel puts before our eyes the crucified Jesus, despised by the passers-by, insulted by the soldiers and one of the thieves who was undergoing the same fate. Nevertheless, at this point of total humiliation, Jesus is still King, and in his infinite majesty and kindness, he is capable of forgiving and admitting into his Kingdom the “good thief”, who recognized him as his savior and implored his mercy. This scene vividly brings to mind the other words that this same Jesus spoke to us in the Gospel: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Mt 11, 28-30).
 
Jesus asks us to do three things—come, take, learn—and I would like to pause briefly on each of these and reflect on them with you. During his visit to the United Kingdom, the Holy Father had some beautiful words for the young people who were gathered in the atrium of Westminster Cathedral. They can help us to illustrate these three things Jesus invites us to do.
 
 
1. Come
 
Jesus invites us to be with him, to know him better: “Jesus is always there, quietly waiting for us to be still with him and to hear his voice. Deep within your heart, he is calling you to spend time with him in prayer. […] Often it means waiting for the Lord to speak. Even amid the “busy-ness” and the stress of our daily lives, we need to make space for silence, because it is in silence that we find God, and in silence that we discover our true self” (Benedict XVI, greeting to young people in the atrium of the cathedral of Westminster, September 18, 2010). It is Christ who knocks at our door in every moment, desiring to enter and remain with us. He already dwells in our souls by our baptism, but he hopes that each day we will open wide the doors of our hearts. He respects our freedom, as the verses of [the Spanish poet] Lope de Vega describe so beautifully: “What do I have,

	"Jesus is always there, quietly waiting for us to be still with him and to hear his voice."

for you to seek my friendship? What does it profit you, my Jesus, spending the dark nights of winter standing at my door, soaked with dew?”
 
Celebrating Christ the King reminds us of what ought to be the core and single motivation of our mission as Christians: to be centered on the One who gives meaning to our daily surrender. In every moment we ask him to be the King and Lord of our lives, our families, our Church, and Regnum Christi. Letting him reign is the swiftest and surest path to inner peace, and a recognition of what we already know in our hearts: that we need to think more about him and less about ourselves, speak more of Him and less of ourselves, both as individuals and as an institution. In the final analysis, we know that his love is our only source of joy. Everything else passes, but his love is always there, and it spreads, transforming and renewing everything with the gentleness of its presence. And to be very concrete, I pray God that this “come” will translate for many of us into greater love for the Eucharistic Christ: spending more time at his side.
 
 
2. Take
 
From our encounter with the Lord Jesus springs the need to share his life, to take upon ourselves his yoke, which frees us from the bonds of egoism and of our resulting sin. There we discover who we are, “and in discovering our true self, we discover the particular vocation which God has given us for the building up of his Church and the redemption of our world” (cf. Benedict XVI, greeting to young people). This was the experience of the first disciples. The Gospel says that Jesus called those whom he wanted, to be with him, and to send them to preach (cf. Mk 3, 13-14). In their daily contact with Jesus, seeing him preach the Gospel, heal the sick, and give himself without measure to his sheep, the apostles learned the meaning of taking on the yoke of Christ. In the Eucharist, we are united to Christ and to our brothers. There, it becomes clear that we form a single body, a single heart, and a single soul. There, we place our difficulties, differences, weariness, doubts, fears, joys and sorrows.

Christ is the center of our lives, the passion of our hearts; it

	"In the Eucharist, we are united to Christ and to our brothers."

is he that gives meaning to our missionary boldness. The purpose of our mission is to preach Christ by word and example. Even charity, the center of our spirituality, is a result of our contemplating Christ, and encountering him through the sacraments and prayer; it is not something we do on our own but rather by accepting the same type of love shows us and gives to us—the love he has had for us by becoming man. Everything comes together there, as we are reminded by the words of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus about her search for the vocation to which God was calling her. “Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I saw that if the Church was a body made up of different members, the most essential and important one of all would not be lacking; I saw that this Church must have a heart, that this heart must be on fire with love. I saw that it was love alone which moved her other members, and that were this love to fail, apostles would no longer spread the Gospel, and martyrs would refuse to shed their blood. I saw that all vocations are summed up in love and that love is all in all, embracing every time and place because it is eternal. In a transport of ecstatic joy I cried: “Jesus, my Love, I have at last found my vocation; it is love!”  (St Thérèse of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, Tan Books, 1997, p. 199).
 
From this vocation to love proceed the fruits that St. Paul mentions in his letter to the Colossians: “Put on then, as God´s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do” (Col 3, 12-13). This is the secret to true freedom and interior peace. By this people will be able to tell that we are disciples of Christ.
 
 
3. Learn
 
Starting from this being with Christ in prayer and sharing his life, we begin to learn from him; the way we live, our standards, even our relationships are progressively transformed along the lines of Christ’s wishes. In this way, we discover that, as the Pope said to the young people in

	"Recognizing that he is our truth, our message, our response and solution, creates in our interior a great sense of solidness, security and authenticity."

that same message, “We were also made to give love, to make it the inspiration for all we do and the most enduring thing in our lives” (Benedict XVI, greeting to young people). When they ask Christ in the Gospel if he is King, he teaches us that his kingdom is not one of temporal power, stardom, human achievements and triumphs. Answer enough is Christ on the cross.
 
The Christian reigns by being a servant of all. Christ is generous and forgives everyone. In this vein, given the times which God has permitted the Legion of Christ and the Movement to live through, I also wish to ask you from the bottom of my heart for your pardon if my personality, errors and defects have made your cross any heavier. How I want to walk with you carrying the crosses that God has allowed in your lives! I beg God’s mercy and I ask him to bring from this a greater good, despite our human shortcomings, and to teach us to be “Simon of Cyrene” for one other. Imagine the world if we loved one another as Christ loved us? He, who is King, taught us all the virtues by word and example. Imagine the world if we treated others as he treats us, if we forgave and had mercy on all, as he has for all his children? How our hearts would change if we were as patient with others, as he is with us—his kindness, closeness, and love until death on the cross. This is truly reigning with Christ.
  
Our vocation is an initiative of Christ’s love for us. For this reason, our actions have to become the heralds of this love, the example he gives us, his friendship for us. We have no other message, nor any other reason to exist. But the love we announce is one we have contemplated in prayer and experienced in our own lives. That is where we learn to love. The Church and humanity are suffering. Let us be mindful of our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters, of our society which pushes God aside and obscures the power of love. Our lives are very short. Let us join together to do good, never tiring of doing good. Let us renew our enthusiasm for holiness and our mission.
 
In this sense, renewing our identity each day from the Heart of Christ becomes liberating. Our mission is not to preach ourselves, be concerned for ourselves, or get disturbed at what people say about us. Such an attitude is tiresome. God is calling us to pour out all our attention on him.  Recognizing that he is our truth, our message, our response and solution, creates in our interior a great sense of solidness, security and authenticity that does not come from our own efforts, but from the sheer goodness of God.
 
God willing, these reflections will help us to give Christ the primacy in our lives and to aid all Christians to do the same. If all we do is talk about charity, we’re really just theorizing instead of putting into practice what Christ already lived and calls us to live today. And if we seek the wellspring at which to nourish living charity, we will find it in his Heart.
 
May the Blessed Virgin Mary always accompany and hearten us in this beautiful time in history, given to us by God as an opportunity to correct and improve, for the sake of becoming more like him and better serving our family, our communities, and all people.

Affectionately yours and your faithful servant in Christ Jesus,
 
Fr Álvaro Corcuera, LC