This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe to mark the culmination of our liturgical year. However, this is actually the second time I will celebrate Christ the King this year.
Two weeks ago, I visited relatives in Milan where a unique form of the Catholic Mass has been celebrated for centuries. The Ambrosian Rite follows a different calendar of readings and feasts. Advent is six weeks long in the Ambrosian Rite, so the Archdiocese of Milan celebrated the Solemnity of Christ the King two weeks before the rest of the Catholic Churches following the Roman Rite. There are around two dozen other forms of celebrating the liturgy among churches around the world that are in communion with the Pope. These diverse languages, calendars, and orders of worship remind us that Christ’s reign transcends the particulars of language and culture and unites us together as one body.
While on vacation I also had the opportunity to visit a priest in Switzerland who is a good family friend of my relatives in Colombia. Don Jean-Luc – his name is French despite being a native of the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland – worked as a missionary in Barranquilla in the early 90s and later spent ten years as a pastor in Chad. Though the Catholic faith is well established in both Colombia and Chad, the Swiss Diocese of Lugano recognized the need to help alleviate the tremendous material poverty of people in these countries. With the collaboration of Catholic Swiss professionals, Don Jean-Luc and other priests helped establish schools and workshops alongside the parishes in Colombia and Chad to help others both spiritually and
materially.
This weekend we have a special second collection to support the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). The CCHD strives to alleviate poverty by developing people’s capacities to find dignified employment to care for themselves and their families. In the Gospels, we see that Jesus not only feeds and heals but also empowers people to be protagonists in living out the Gospel. Our church continues this work of both feeding and empowering others through the work of priests like Don Jean-Luc from Switzerland and the CCHD.
On behalf of the Paulist Fathers and staff of St. Austin’s parish, we wish you and your family a very blessed Thanksgiving holiday. We will have Mass for Thanksgiving this Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. so that you can sleep in on Thursday before the demands of cooking take over.