Today in the Novus ordo it is the Solemnity of Christ the King.
With that in mind I was struck by a verse in the psalmody at Lauds yesterday in the Divine Office. It is from Ps.131 (132) and in it the Lord says of His anointed:
"But on him my crown shall shine"
Now clearly Christian interpretation of this points unequivocally to Christ as the Anointed One, and his crown in the Crown of Thorns. That is the nature of Divine Kingship.
However to the psalmist the anointed one may have been conceived as a Messianic but still human ruler. That tradition has survived into Christanity and its understanding of temporal, but nonetheless sacral, Kingship. The crown of an earthly King or Queen, Emperor or Empress is God's crown, and they hold delegated power on His behalf. They are consequently bound by that and responsible as Christians for the discharge of the office conferred upon them - it is not a grant of unlimited power but of a responsible office of service to God's people.
Hence the rituals surrounding the reception of the regalia - only the clergy and the monarch and their family, who participate in the royal dignity, are allowed to touch it in the ceremonial, as in Russia, and the physical crown is itself seen as a holy relic. Hence the especial status accorded to the coronation crowns of England, France, the Empire, Hungary and Bohemia.
Hence the rituals surrounding the reception of the regalia - only the clergy and the monarch and their family, who participate in the royal dignity, are allowed to touch it in the ceremonial, as in Russia, and the physical crown is itself seen as a holy relic. Hence the especial status accorded to the coronation crowns of England, France, the Empire, Hungary and Bohemia.
Christ crowns King Roger II of Sicily
Image: Web Gallery of Art
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