It wasn’t at all what Mary and Joseph expected their life to be like. Almost from the beginning, there were indications that something extraordinary was at work: Mary’s angelic annunciation; Joseph’s strange dream; the puzzling words of Simeon and Anna in the Temple. And now this: during Mary and Joseph’s annual Passover journey to Jerusalem, the discovery that their son Jesus was lost—and even when he was found, they didn’t totally recognize their twelve-year-old boy.

For years, Catholic spiritual writers have drawn our attention to the Christmas liturgy’s subtle - and not-so-subtle - linking of Christ’s incarnation with his paschal mystery. In the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke, there are countless intimations of the Passion and cross. The saints of the Christmas octave, dubbed “comites Christi,” Christ's companions in suffering, form a royal honor guard of martyrs and others who bore witness at great personal sacrifice to the Child we hail as “Prince of Peace,” while the wood of the manger evokes the wood of the cross.

Today is known as Gaudete - Rejoice - Sunday, the day’s Latin nickname is taken from today’s ancient official Entrance Antiphon, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near.” The optional rose vestments — reminiscent of winter's early morning skies as the solstice draws near, the festal organ music, the floral arrangements, all these ancient traditions together with the antiphon are meant to anticipate, in sight and sound, the soon-to-break-upon-us Christmas joy.

Almost nine hundred years ago, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux suggested in one of his Advent homilies that we should think of three Advents of Christ: the First, when Christ came in humility as Mary’s Child, clothed in our human nature; the Second, when Christ will come in glory as Judge and Redeemer of the world.

Today, whether at evening, morning, or midday, in many communities of different churches around the world, the first candle lighted in each Advent wreath silently but beautifully announces the beginning of a new liturgical year. This new beginning presents a grace-filled opportunity for us to resolve to live not simply according to the secular calendar of our commercialized society, but according to the spirit of the liturgy. There’s nothing wrong—indeed there can be something quite holy—about planning to celebrate God’s surprising gift of the Son by surprising our loved ones with thoughtful gifts at Christmas.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King. It is likely that when we think of a king, the image that comes to mind is of pomp, ceremony, and civic authority. Jesus is a king like no other. He is hot bound by the constraints of time or place. His authority is everlasting. He is the one “who is and who was and who is to come.” Jesus does not rule as earthly kings govern. Jesus reigns in humble obedience to the will of God the Father and calls us to do the same. It is by following the truth of Christ's command and listening to his voice of love that we are made into a kingdom, serving the One whose dominion is everlasting.

This year, it seems the Lectionary’s scriptures not only reinforce the Catholic tradition of November prayer for our beloved departed, but also join with nature’s storms and the pandemic as well as humanity's violent disasters to remind us that we are moving inexorably toward the end of history, both the world’s and our own. Today’s Old Testament reading prepares us for a fruitful hearing of the Gospel.

In today’s First Reading, from Deuteronomy, we hear the great summary of the very core of God’s covenant with Israel, its title taken from its opening word, the Shema (“Hear!”). The Shema is at once a doctrinal summary of Israel’s faith and the personal/corporate prayer of Israel's sons and daughters. To this day, devout Jews inscribe the Shema on parchment and enclose it in the mezuzah that adorns the doorways of so many Jewish homes.

Today's reading from Jeremiah, Israel’s sorrowful and suffering prophet, whose readings usually signal and prepare us to hear Jesus’ Gospel suffering, is from Jeremiah’s “Book of Consolation.” Jeremiah sets aside traditional sorrow and instead bids God’s chosen people – and us, as God's baptized covenant people – to celebrate the Lord’s miraculous “harvest”: “Shout with joy; exult; proclaim your praise” (Jeremiah 31:7). In this “harvest,” God declares Israel already “delivered,” while promising to transform a “remnant” (31:7) into “an immense throng,” “gathered from the ends of the world” (31:8).

Today’s Old Testament selection, from Isaiah’s “Fourth Song of the Suffering Servant ofGod,” describes God’s Servant as one who “gives his life as an offering for sin” (Isaiah53:10) and celebrates the mighty power of that self-offering: “through his suffering,my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear” (53:11). As always duringOrdinary Time, this Old Testament reading prepares us for today’s longer form Gospel.Jesus incarnates the redemptive suffering that Isaiah foresaw in the offering of God’sServant, as well as the covenantal restoration that the Servant’s sacrificed achieved.The reading from Hebrews confirms our finding peace in continually learning from Jesus, whatever our deepest flaws and trials: for Jesus, our “great high priest” (Hebrews4:14) is not “unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,” for Jesus was “tested in every way” that we are (4:15).

Most of us sincerely desire to grow in wisdom and in faith. Today’s readings explore the challenges we face when we allow God to lead the way. We first hear the author of the book of Wisdom extolling the value of wisdom in our lives. Then in Hebrews we are told that sometimes God exposes difficult truths about ourselves. These readings set up Mark’s story of the wealthy man. In his encounter with Jesus, the man faced a very harsh truth, that his possessions actually possessed him and blocked his path to God. We may have similar “moments of truth” when we have an overwhelming desire to minimize or to run away from truth that God reveals to us. In these moments, may we remember that God always seeks to bless and heal us. In these moments, may God open our hearts to receive truth with faith and courage.

Our readings today point to God’s deep commitment to human relationships. Our passage from Genesis begins with the declaration that God created human persons to be social beings, who can only thrive when they live in deep connection with each other and with God. The author of Hebrews teaches that the coming of Jesus as one of us shows God’s radical commitment to human life. Jesus’ teaching about divorce, described in today’s Gospel, shows God’s deep investment in marriage and, implicitly, all human relationships. When our personal relationships with others are distant or broken, God seeks to heal them.