This month of November brings us to the end of liturgical Ordinary Time; we begin the season of Advent, and a new liturgical year, on December 1st. The readings of the first Sunday of November, November 3, remind us that we are to love God and love our neighbor; these are the two greatest commandments. The following week, November 10, Jesus compares the monetary contribution of the poor woman, the widow’s mite, as it is sometimes called, to the monetary contributions made by the rich, saying that the poor woman gave all that she had while the rich have contributed from their surplus wealth. A challenging message for many of us! The next Sunday, the thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, with its apocalyptic readings from the Book of Daniel and the gospel of Mark, focuses our attention on the end times; only God knows when the end will come, we are told. Finally, we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King on November 24; this is the final Sunday of the current liturgical year. We remember that our King, Jesus, is the ruler of the entire universe, all of creation; he is thus not like other kings that the world has known. You can prepare for the Sunday readings at liturgy.slu.edu/.
We are reviewing the Vatican II document, Lumen Gentium (LG), the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, this month. LG was promulgated on November 21, 1964; this document is marking its sixtieth anniversary this month. LG has a total of eight chapters. It is significant that the chapter focused on the Church as the People of God (Chapter 2) precedes the chapter on the hierarchical nature of the church (Chapter 3); thus, we are to remember that all the baptized and confirmed, ordained or non-ordained, share in the priesthood of Christ and are thus called to “spread and defend the faith by word and deed” (paragraph 11). Among LG’s other significant points are A) the Church is both a “sign and instrument” of God’s relationship with the human race (par. 1) and it is the “seed and beginning” of God’s kingdom here on earth (par. 5) ; B) the laity have the job of ensuring that the goods of the world are developed for all people in an equitable fashion, thus making their own “contribution to universal progress in human and Christian liberty” (par. 36); and C) all in the Church are called to holiness, regardless of their role in life, each person working to “steadfastly advance along the way of a living faith which arouses hope and works through love” (par. 41). LG points out for us the important role that each of us in the Church plays in both expressing and bringing about God’s kingdom here on earth. You can read the document at bit.ly/LGNov1964.
In the Catholic tradition, November has been the month where we remember those who have died. Lumen Gentium, the Vatican II document on the Church, reminds us that we believe that, as a pilgrim Church, a Church that will “receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven” (48), we who are here on earth are in union with those who have died. We accept as true that together we make up the Mystical Body of Christ (50) and we acknowledge that from its very beginning, the Christian religion “has honored with great respect the memory of the dead” (50).
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