This Sunday marks the last Sunday in the liturgical year. Advent begins a new year for the Church. This is the feast of Christ the King on the Novus Ordo calendar. We celebrate this feast as the culmination of the Church Year and as the culmination of our faith. It is an affirmation that Christ is indeed King of our lives, of our very being. It is a time to ponder whether His kingship is a reality in our own faith and, just as importantly, in how we live our lives. Is His kingship seen in my marriage? In my family? In how I relate to my friends, to my co- workers, to people I meet and talk to? Have I opened my heart to Christ and allowed Him to dwell within me and give me that Grace that cost Him His life for me, that Grace that alone can allow me to show my faith in my works? All these questions should be reverently pondered as we end the Church Year.
For the Traditional Calendar, this Sunday is the Last Sunday after Pentecost. The readings for the Sunday already sound the great Advent themes. The Gospel for this Sunday is one of the longest of the year. In this passage from the Gospel of St Matthew, Jesus talks at length and with details about the Last Things: “And then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then will all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with great power and majesty.” This is the monumental prelude to what is my favorite season of the Church Year: the Season of the End and of the Beginning, the season of Advent.
The best way spiritually to prepare for Advent is to make a good Confession. My prayer is that we all take seriously not only the end of the Church year and the beginning in Advent, but that we also prepare ourselves for the Ultimate End so that that End may be the beginning of glory for each of us.
Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla
