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On the Feast of Christ the King we celebrate the full and final triumph and return of the One through whom the entire universe was created and recreated

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - Our Catholic liturgical year follows a rhythmic cycle. It points us toward beginnings and ends and, in so doing, emphasizes an important truth that can only be grasped through faith. This is the Thirty Fourth or last Sunday in the Western Church year and we celebrate the Feast of the Solemnity of Jesus Christ the Sovereign King.

Then, no sooner than we have celebrated the last Sunday of the Year, the feast of Christ the King, we will celebrate the First Sunday of Advent, and begin the time of preparation for the great Nativity of Our Savior. Our Catholic Christian faith and its Liturgical practices proclaim to a world hungry for meaning that Jesus Christ is the “Alpha”, (the first letter of the Greek alphabet) and the “Omega” (the last letter), the beginning and the end. He is the Giver, the Governor and the fulfillment of all time. In Him the whole world is being made new.

Our Liturgical seasons offer us a way to receive time as a continual gift. Their celebration can help us to grow in the life of grace as we say “yes” to their invitations. They invite us to walk with the Lord in a way of life which becomes infused with supernatural meaning. The liturgical seasons help us mark time with those deeper truths that matter most. Human beings have always marked time by significant events. The real question is not whether we will mark time, but how we will do so. What events and what messages are we proclaiming in our calendaring? For the Christian, time is not meant to be a tyrant, somehow ruling over us. Rather, it is to be a teacher, instructing us, a series of invitations to allow the Lord to be our King, to reign in our real, daily lives. Rather than an enemy, time is to be a companion, a friend. It is a path along which the redemptive loving plan of a timeless God is revealed and received. In Christ, time is now given back to us as a gift, a field of choice and a path to holiness and human flourishing.

Through viewing time with this lens of faith, we come to discover that life is a pilgrimage. The Lord invites us to participate in His plan through His Son Jesus to recreate the entire cosmos. Time becomes the road along which this loving plan of redemption proceeds. We who have been baptized into Christ co-operate in this Divine Plan. We continue the redemptive mission of the Lord Jesus Christ until he returns to establish His Reign. The Christian view of time as having a redemptive purpose is why Catholic Christians mark time by the great events of the faith in our Liturgical calendar. Like so much else that is contained within the treasury of Catholic faith and life, the Church, who is an “expert in humanity” invites us to live the rhythm of the liturgical year in order to walk into the deeper encounter that is Catholic Christian faith. As we learn to “live liturgically”, moving through life in the flow of the liturgical calendar we can find the deeper mystery and meaning of life.

Christians believe in a linear timeline in history. There is a beginning and an end, a fulfillment, which is, in fact, a new beginning. Time is heading somewhere. That is as true of the history of the world as it is our own personal histories. Christians mark time by the great events of the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are always moving forward and toward His loving return. We mark our Christian culture with events of importance from the ongoing “family”, history of the Church. The members of that family were birthed from the wounded side of the Savior on the Cross-at Calvary’s hill. That family was sent on mission when He breathed His Spirit into them at Pentecost. We remember them, and we walk with them as we continue that mission in our own day. They are models and companions for the journey of life and great intercessors. They are that “great cloud of witnesses” the author of the letter to the Hebrews discusses. They will welcome us into eternity and from that eternal now help us who still walk along the daily path of time.

As we progress through liturgical time we are invited to experience the great events of faith. Through our readings and liturgical prayer, we are invited during this last week of the year to reflect on the “last things”- death, judgment, heaven and hell. We do so in order to change, to be converted, and thus to enter more fully into the Divine plan. The Western Church year ends. On the great Feast of Christ the King we celebrate the full and final triumph and return of the One through whom the entire universe was created; in whom it is being “recreated” and by whom it will be completely reconstituted and handed back to the Father at the “end” of all time.

That end will mark the beginning of a timeless new heaven and a new earth when “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death …” (Revelations 21:4). As we move from one Church year to the next, we ...