Sunday's feast offers a sweeping view of Jesus’ saving work and His shining Spirit in our lives
by Sister Elise Cholewinski
As we celebrate the final Sunday of the liturgical year, we focus our attention on the victorious Christ, the King. He has led us from darkness into the kingdom of light.
I remember a priest, many years ago, saying that this feast is like Jesus coming onto the stage in the theater called the Church, to respond to one more curtain call. It is as if, in applauding Him, we take one last, sweeping view of what His Presence in history has meant. We recall in this one celebratory moment His incarnation, Baptism and temptations, teaching and healing, and His death and Resurrection. We acknowledge that “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:17)
Through our baptism we have become a new creation. Jesus the Christ lives within each of us. What if we were to join Him on that stage for that final curtain call? Would people recognize how the events in Jesus’ life have been lived in our own? Would they acknowledge that through our lives of loving service the Kingdom of God has been growing and spreading? Would they sense the Spirit of the Risen Lord burning within us?
As we, with Jesus, take that last bow, the curtain call is ended, but not the story. There is a sequel. It begins with the new Liturgical year. Maybe we can use the remaining days of this year as a dress rehearsal.