Happy New Year! If this strikes you as a bit premature, it isn’t really because this Sunday marks the start of the new Church year. In the Catholic Church, the first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of the cycle of readings, holy days, and holidays for roughly the next 365 days. It’s also the time of year not only when we are called to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus at Christmas, but also when we are asked to examine our lives and take stock, spiritually speaking.

The first-century Jews had very specific expectations concerning their coming messiah, the anointed king, about whom the prophets spoke. He would come in glory, vanquish the oppressors, and correct all the wrongs in the world. So we can imagine what they were thinking when a sign proclaiming “King of the Jews” is placed above the head of Jesus hanging on the cross. They laughed and sneered. This was not the king they expected. And yet, only a few years later, the Apostle Paul, who had rejected Jesus and his followers, would write that “every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord” (Phil 2:10-11).

CHRIST THE KING! The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, is the crown of the liturgical year. This celebration reminds us of what we pray for: “Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”

Wars, famines, persecution, plagues, earthquakes, and signs falling from the skies are the warnings Jesus gives his listeners. How and when these times will come, only God knows. It is enough for Jesus to exhort his disciples — and all believers — to remember: “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus proclaims that the Lord is “not God of the dead, but of the living” (Luke 20:38). This may seem obvious to us now, but Jesus’s words affirmed what we as Catholics believe about the Communion of the Saints. To be physically dead is not the same as being dead and annihilated. To be in God is to be alive forevermore.

Zacchaeus, the short, wealthy chief tax collector, was one of the most despised men in his community. Often corrupt and greedy, the tax collectors in Israel worked for the oppressive Roman regime, not only collecting taxes, but also adding their own fees to the total. Yet, Zacchaeus encountered Jesus and became a changed man. He was spiritually changed, and immediately righted the wrong he’d done to his fellow citizens. This is the power an encounter with Christ can have on all of us.

Fellow pilgrims, if Jesus said that salvation will happen to us today, please do remember this quotation from a spiritual writer, he said, “People go through three conversions: the conversion of their head, their heart, and their pocketbook. Unfortunately, not all at the same time.”