Happy New liturgical year and welcome to the holy Season of Advent, the Season during which we prepare ourselves spiritually to commemorate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and to await His promised second coming. “When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for His second coming.” (CCC524). The Readings on this First Sunday of Advent highlight this two-pronged waiting.

As it is customary with the liturgical calendar of the Church, we bring to a successful close the Liturgical Year “C” with the celebration of the solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. This Solemnity, also simply referred to as Christ the King, was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 with his encyclical Quas Primas in order to off er the Church’s response to growing secularism and atheism. Pope Pius desired that the world and particularly all Christians remember that while governments come and go, Christ reigns as King forever. During the twentieth century, secularistic regimes threatened not just the Catholic Church and its faithful in countries like Mexico, Russia, and some parts of Europe. Quas Primas assured the despairing Christians that while governments around them crumbled the universal kingship of Christ is destined to endure permanent duration.

We have arrived at the penultimate Sunday to the end of the Liturgical year in the Catholic Church. Next Sunday, we shall end the Liturgical year with the Solemnity of Jesus Christ the King of the Universe. It is worth noting that the First Reading at the liturgy this weekend is taken from the last oracles of the prophet Malachi who interestingly is the last of the Old Testament prophets. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Readings invite us to reflect on the end of the world. While this is a fitting reminder that life on earth will certainly come to an end so that we may face judgement in order to account for the many blessings we received, these Readings do not in any way represent an invitation to become obsessed about “end times” and so become physically and spiritually inactive.

The 9th of November is set aside by the Church to celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. This church, considered the mother of all churches in the world, is the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome also known as the Pope, it is the oldest and highest ranking of the four major Basilicas in Rome and is the only church in the world that holds the title of “archbasilica.” St John Lateran, the oldest public Church in the west, was built by Emperor Constantine and dedicated to Christ the Savior in 32AD, but was later rededicated to include St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist. This year, the feast of this mother of all churches falls on a Sunday and so the Readings of the feast shall take the place of the Readings of the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time.

The membership of the universal assembly of the people of God transcends the Church militant which is the collective of all living believers who battle against sin as we journey towards heaven, our ultimate goal. Included in the Body of Christ are our brothers and sisters who passed this road of earthly pilgrimage, genuinely seeking to know God, to love Him, to serve Him and to be happy with Him in this world and in the life to come.