Vive Le Revolution

During the Holy Father's homily on the Feast Day of Corpus Christi, after quoting from St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians, he stated the following:

"In these words we feel the truth and the power of the Christian revolution, the most profound revolution in human history, which we may experience in the Eucharist where people of different ages, sexes, social conditions and political ideas come together in the presence of the Lord.”

These words struck me because once I called and hoped for "revolution". The likes of mass murderers like Che Guevara, Black Panthers like Huey Newton and Fred Hampton, and African Nationalists like Kwame Nkrumah, and various others who promised social utopias were my heroes. During college I devoured the books of Left-wing nationalist intellectuals like Franz Fanon and collected the poetry an prose of Black Arts Movement founder Amiri Baraka. I just knew that I would be in the "vanguard" when, as The Last Poets put it, "When the Revolution Comes" (warning graphic lyrics and images).

But somewhere along the way I began to wonder why all of these utopias failed and fell into internecine warfare and bloodshed that, in most instances, left those that were to be freed worse off. At first, I fell for the excuses told by the likes of Walter Rodney and others that it was white imperialist interference. But that too began to ring hollow. Yes, the West supported the likes of Mobuto but so had millions of Africans.

It wasn't' until I a few years after I came into the Church, and really began to understand the message and mission of Christ, that I truly understood that all of these utopias were poor imitations of Him. All were substitutes designed by men who cried non servium and began to impose their wills instead of God's. Their revolutions failed because, like us all, they were fallen.

So now instead of Viva La Revolution, I cry Viva Christus Rex!