This weekend the liturgical season we are in comes to an end with the beautiful feast of Christ the King. Endings always lead to new beginnings: a new liturgical year, beginning in Advent, remembering that Christ will “come again,” in His Second Coming, bringing an end to the world as we know it, leading to remembering His First Coming in Bethlehem, in obscurity and poverty. His birth thrust the world on a NEW path of restoration and transformation that we make happen in our times, in our world, in our lives… NOW!!
Christmas….Christ Mass…birth, life, teaching, healing, rejection, suffering, crucifixion, death, burial, tomb….EMPTY…. RESURRECTION!!!!
A NEW beginning!!
A Season of our dear SOULS
As we end the liturgical year, I am asking all parishioners who come to the 10am or 12pm Mass this Sunday, or who will be watching on live streaming, to remember loved ones who has passed through the gateway of death into a NEW life. The gospel for this Feast is the beautiful and powerful scene of Jesus promising the repentant thief hanging next to Him that he would be with Christ in paradise today, after the moment of death.
I would like our liturgies to celebrate the lives of those we are called to let go, releasing them into an eternal New Life. Yes, endings always lead to NEW beginnings. May we begin the NEW liturgical year by bringing with us on our journey through a New year, our memories of the people we love who have left us, are very much alive, but in a NEW way. Their last breath in this life was instantly followed by a NEW breath of endless Spirit joy.
My hope is that our liturgies celebrating Christ the King will be a time to celebrate and treasure the people we miss so dearly because they aren’t with us physically. We are human beings of flesh and blood. The very first two weeks of Advent we prepare for the Second Coming of Christ when He will return and unite us all, body, soul and spirit. We WILL see each other, feast with each other, hug and kiss each other, smile and laugh with each other. Love each other.