The hopeful feast of Christ the King

Friends, today is the lovely feast that concludes our church year, our liturgical year: the Feast of Christ the King, the King of the universe. And it is a very hopeful feast because it draws us forward to the Lord who comes to us. And he comes to us to give us a place within his kingdom, that we are his sons and daughters — heirs to the kingdom that he gave to us by his death on the cross and the resurrection that brings us life.

So, this feast of Christ the King, while it concludes the liturgical year, it looks towards Advent, a word which means “the coming” or “to come” — the coming of our Lord Jesus. And the first part of Advent continues something of the sense of this feast of Christ the King. On Christ the King, we look forward and in the beginning of Advent, we definitely also continue to look forward to the coming of the Lord again into our lives. And then as we make our way through the Advent season, we recall the first time that the Lord came among us in his Incarnation, and in remembering that — in preparing for once again for his nativity — we also continue to look forward in hope.

Hope is, I think, a very important gift — a charism — a grace that the Lord is offering to us at this moment in which we, I’m sure, are all in need of as we make our way back into a way that is more open, and continues to allow us to do more things. Nonetheless, there are so many who continue to struggle to find their way in this new reality. I'm very mindful at the moment of families where working situations have led to the loss of a job, the loss of employment, and therefore the struggles that come with all of that.

Nonetheless, hope is something that we look forward to — a good that the Lord is offering to us through our work that can be ours to live. So on this feast of Christ the King, looking towards the Season of Advent — a new beginning — might we take up that sense of a new beginning with the Lord and in hope.