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.

The end is near! Many of us recall such predictions from religious sources, mostly small evangelical sects but even the larger Jehovah's Witnesses. Catholics, too. For instance, Pope Saint Clement of Rome declared the end is near for the year 90; his successor Pope Sylvester Il for 1000; and Innocent Ill predicted 1284 as the world’s end by adding 666 years to the date of Islam’s beginning. The end is near!

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.

Today's readings remind us that God is free: God acts as God wills regardless of what human beings might expect. In the reading from Numbers, God's spirit enters two men, Eldad and Medad, even though they had not been with the others who had received the spirit of God. And in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus endorses an unknown exorcist, who did God's work in the name of Jesus but was not officially sanctioned by the disciples. That God's spirit is shared widely does not threaten Moses or Jesus. They celebrate the notion that God’s spirit blows where it wills.

Today’s first two readings present a striking contrast between two pathways in life. InWisdom and the letter from James we are told of the path of the wicked, which leads tooppression and violence. We also hear of the path of the faithful, which leads to peaceand human flourishing. Then our Gospel reading from Mark takes our reflection farther.The choice is shown to be not so simple or obvious. The path of faithfulness means following Jesus’ lead, to expand our circle of care toward everyone, especially the most vulnerable. This path also includes opening ourselves to suffering and trials, as we face resistance from within and from outside us. The two paths essentially diverge over whetherwe refuse or accept God’s love. Each day we face such choices as God invites us into thedivine circle of care and enlists us to extend our own circle to those around us.

Our readings from Isaiah and from the Gospel of Mark confront us with the fact that the invitation to faith leads us into suffering. In Isaiah, the prophet accepts pain and shaming from others, as he trusts in God. In Mark, Jesus is blunt about this: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” When we embrace faith, we are confronted with our own fears about suffering and about losing comfort, status, and control over our lives.

Our readings this Sunday describe God’s work of liberation for those who are vulnerable. Isaiah portrays the coming of God in terms of the healing of the blind, the deaf, and the lame. James notes that God chooses the poor to be rich in faith. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus heals a deaf person who has a speech impediment. The readings remind us of the acute struggles of the disabled, the excluded, and the poor. In the last year and a half, the pandemic has reminded us that we are all vulnerable, that illness and death are near us always. Today we hear that God’s presence is revealed when God lifts us up, and when we join God to lift each other up. Our care for others, especially those in greatest need, can be our grateful response to God’s healing of us in our own vulnerability.