Our liturgical year “crescendos” in this Feast of Christ the King. We celebrate a different kind of king—one Pilate and many others don’t understand then or now—a king who “testifies to the truth.” There are no “alternative facts” in our truth as believers: you either hear what God says and believe and act in love as you are called to do, or you are a hypocrite. We are called to walk the walk—not to just talk the talk.
The beauty of our Catholic Christian faith is how we celebrate this truth about God in our whole liturgical year. Our liturgical year helps us to seek the truth, to rediscover and deepen this truth every day. We start our year next weekend with Advent: we are encouraged to listen; to wait expectantly for that voice that summons us to a deeper awareness of God who entered our human history as a baby. In Christmas we celebrate the Gospel of Jesus born into the world to save us; the manifestation in flesh of God.
We follow a path of prayer, penance and self-giving during Lent to prepare ourselves for the great Paschal mystery of Easter. At Pentecost we renew our belief in the activity of the Holy Spirit in our world, and our empowerment as Christ’s Disciples. In the long stint of Ordinary Time after Pentecost, we try to delve more deeply into the truths of our beliefs and to find them present in our daily lives and choices.
Are you listening to God’s voice? To what do you testify? The truth about God must enter us and possess all aspects of our lives. We gather each week end of our liturgical year to celebrate and to remember that we belong to the truth, and we acknowledge Jesus as King. As we celebrate this Feast today, pray that we may live and witness the truth as does Christ, our King.
Keep singing! (Keep listening!)
Elizabeth Dyc