Today, whether at evening, morning, or midday, in many communities of different churches around the world, the first candle lighted in each Advent wreath silently but beautifully announces the beginning of a new liturgical year. This new beginning presents a grace-filled opportunity for us to resolve to live not simply according to the secular calendar of our commercialized society, but according to the spirit of the liturgy. There’s nothing wrong—indeed there can be something quite holy—about planning to celebrate God’s surprising gift of the Son by surprising our loved ones with thoughtful gifts at Christmas.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King. It is likely that when we think of a king, the image that comes to mind is of pomp, ceremony, and civic authority. Jesus is a king like no other. He is hot bound by the constraints of time or place. His authority is everlasting. He is the one “who is and who was and who is to come.” Jesus does not rule as earthly kings govern. Jesus reigns in humble obedience to the will of God the Father and calls us to do the same. It is by following the truth of Christ's command and listening to his voice of love that we are made into a kingdom, serving the One whose dominion is everlasting.

The end is near! Many of us recall such predictions from religious sources, mostly small evangelical sects but even the larger Jehovah's Witnesses. Catholics, too. For instance, Pope Saint Clement of Rome declared the end is near for the year 90; his successor Pope Sylvester Il for 1000; and Innocent Ill predicted 1284 as the world’s end by adding 666 years to the date of Islam’s beginning. The end is near!

This year, it seems the Lectionary’s scriptures not only reinforce the Catholic tradition of November prayer for our beloved departed, but also join with nature’s storms and the pandemic as well as humanity's violent disasters to remind us that we are moving inexorably toward the end of history, both the world’s and our own. Today’s Old Testament reading prepares us for a fruitful hearing of the Gospel.