[00:00:02] Hello, my name is Sally Moriarty-Flask. Welcome to a special bonus episode of: From His Word to Our Hearts, my weekly Bible study podcast. This week, the Church will close out the Liturgical Year, as she does every year, by celebrating the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
I gave a short presentation about this Solemnity last year. This year, I decided to expand that presentation into this short bonus episode, explaining the different types of liturgical observances - of which a Solemnity is only one - and providing additional information about this particular Solemnity as well.
Let's begin, as we always do, in prayer.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Heavenly Father, we praise you and we thank you for the gift of your Son, our Savior, our Lord, and our King. Help us to surrender our hearts, our minds, and our wills to him so that we can live and love as your faithful people. We ask this through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:01:18] Now that we've opened our hearts in prayer, let's dive into this special bonus episode.
The way the Church measures Time, what I have always - in this Bible study - called the Liturgical Year is also called - within the Church - the Temporal Cycle or the Proper of Time. The Church breaks down each year into seven liturgical seasons: Advent, Christmas, a short portion of Ordinary Time (sometimes called Winter Ordinary Time or Ordinary Time I), followed by Lent, Triduum, Easter, and then the remainder of Ordinary Time (often simply called Ordinary Time II, or sometimes subdivided into Summer and Fall Ordinary Time). The Temporal Cycle carries us through the liturgical seasons, but it doesn't rely on particular calendar dates to mark its beginning or its end. In contrast, we know the calendar year begins on January 1st and ends on December 31st every year. There's no variation in that; we're comfortable with it, we understand it, it makes sense to us. The Temporal Year, however, is very different. It not only encompasses those seven seasons; it also observes major events which shed light on the mystery of salvation. And it begins not with a specific date, but with but with a specific event - the First Sunday of Advent - and ends with another specific event - the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. For most of us, the liturgical year is strange, it's unpredictable, it's uncomfortable, and we don't understand it very well.
And - as if all of that is not confusing enough - in addition to the Temporal Cycle, there is another cycle called the Sanctoral Cycle, which is both independent of the Temporal Cycle but also runs concurrently with it. The Sanctoral Cycle encompasses dates that honor the saints or commemorate specific events in the history of the Church.
If you've ever had the opportunity to explore a Roman Missal, you are already familiar with the Temporal and Sanctoral Cycles, because those are two divisions within the Roman Missal. The Proper of Time (the Temporal Cycle) is towards the beginning of the book, while the Proper of Saints (the Sanctoral Cycle) is toward the back of the book. The Roman Missal, by the way, if you are not familiar with it, is a book that contains all of the prayers used by priests to celebrate Masses throughout the year.
Hopefully all that background information hasn't actually been even more confusing, because that was certainly not my intent. My intent was to help you understand and navigate what appears to be the often-perplexing manner in which the Church organizes her various liturgical observances.
[00:04:46] It's fair to say that most Catholics use the word Feast to describe any type of special liturgical observance, which isn't totally wrong, but it isn't totally right either. Those who plan and prepare liturgies for the Church typically talk about each special liturgical observance using the rank assigned to it by the Church, whereas most Catholics (who are not involved in the inner workings of the Church) simply use the word Feast. But there are actually three terms that describe the ranks of different liturgical observances, and those rankings help us understand their relative importance to the Church. Feast is just one of those terms, the others are Solemnity and Memorial.
So, what types of events are chosen to become special liturgical observances, and how is a rank assigned to each of those events? Well, let's start with what is chosen. The Church chooses to observe, in some special way, events that are of particular importance for the Catholic faithful. Whether those events are part of the Temporal Cycle or the Sanctoral Cycle depends upon what they celebrate.
As I said, events that help us understand the mystery of salvation, specifically, events in the life of Jesus and Mary, his mother, are part of the Temporal Cycle.
Events that honor the apostles, angels, or saints and dates that commemorate sacred mysteries or special events in the history of the Church are part of the Sanctoral Cycle.
Now, once an event is selected to become a special liturgical observance, then it is assigned a specific rank… either Memorial, Feast, or Solemnity. The rank of any event reflects its overall importance to the Church… Memorials are the lowest rank, and Solemnities are the highest ranking. So, let's start with Memorials and work our way up.
Memorials are always assigned to specific calendar dates, and they can either be Optional or Obligatory. An Optional Memorial simply means that an individual parish may choose to observe that particular event, but it is not required to do so. Obligatory Memorials, however, mean that the event must be observed - if possible. Memorials are commonly assigned to honor the lives of saints, and the date that is assigned for that Memorial is typically the date the person died - as that represents the date of their birth into eternal life. Masses that observe memorials, be they Obligatory or Optional, are never celebrated on Sundays, which is why I said Obligatory Memorials should be observed when possible. Masses that celebrate Memorials typically have only a specific Collect prayer assigned in the Roman Missal (and you may or may not know, but the Collect is the Opening Prayer for the Mass), while the remaining Mass prayers are taken from a different section of the Roman Missal called the Commons. I'm not even going to go into that! Memorial Masses include neither the Creed nor the Gloria and are typically assigned only one reading and a Gospel.
The next type of liturgical observance, in order of importance, is a Feast. Feast days can be fixed or movable - meaning that the calendar dates on which they fall can remain the same from year to year, or they can change. It is a tradition in the Church to announce the dates of Moveable Feasts after the proclamation of the Gospel on the Feast of the Epiphany. Examples of moveable feasts (dates that change from year to year) are Easter, Ascension, Ash Wednesday, and the First Sunday of Advent… that's not a comprehensive list by any means - those are just examples. Compare those with Feasts that have fixed dates, like Christmas (December 25), All Saints (November 1), Annunciation (March 25), and Immaculate Conception (December 8). A Feast should always be observed, but not necessarily on its assigned date if that date falls on a Sunday. The specific event being celebrated and the season in which it falls determines whether or not it will be observed when its date falls on a Sunday… generally it will be celebrated during Ordinary Time, but not in other Liturgical Seasons. All the prayers for Feast Day Masses are specified in the Roman Missal - not just the Collect, but all the other prayers as well - the Gloria is required, but the Creed is not, and there may be one or two readings assigned along with the Gospel.
Lastly, we come to the rank of Solemnity, and the term Solemnity can be a bit confusing. The root of the word Solemnity is solemn… but solemn doesn't mean sad or gloomy; it actually means formal, serious, or dignified. So, in practical terms, the Church celebrates a Solemnity with great dignity and formality. Solemnities are reserved for those mysteries of our faith that are of the greatest importance - things like the Trinity, events in the earthly life of Jesus and his mother Mary, and events that hold particular meaning for the entire Church. The observation of a Solemnity always begins the night before with Evening Prayer as part of the Liturgy of the Hours. And several Solemnities also have a dedicated Vigil Mass that may also be celebrated the evening before the date of the Solemnity. Regardless of the day of the week on which it occurs, the Mass for a Solemnity will most closely resemble a Sunday Mass. Like Feasts, Masses that celebrate Solemnities have all of their prayers assigned to them in the Roman Missal - the Collect, as well as all of the other remaining prayers. Unlike Feasts, however, both the Gloria and the Creed are included in a Mass celebrating a Solemnity, and there are always two readings and a Gospel. If a Solemnity falls on a Sunday in Ordinary Time, it is celebrated in place of a regular Sunday Mass. However, if a Solemnity falls on a Sunday during any other season of the Liturgical Year, it will then typically be transferred to the following Monday.
[00:06:17] Because there are so many significant events in the life of Jesus and Mary, so many pivotal events in the history of the Church, and so many canonized saints… most dates - throughout the calendar year - have some sort of special liturgical observance assigned to them… and there are some instances where two or even three Memorials have been assigned to a single calendar day. So how, you may ask, do individual parishes choose what Mass will be celebrated on any given day? Well, there's actually a guidebook (of sorts) that helps answer that question. It's called an Ordo, and every diocese has its own Ordo. Ordos are a daily resource that provides details about the liturgical seasons, Feast days, Mass readings, and what type of liturgies can be celebrated on any particular day (meaning, for instance, whether it's appropriate or even permitted to celebrate a wedding or funeral on any specific day), and what color vestments the priest should wear to celebrate the Mass on that date. Hopefully we now have a better understanding of Solemnities, Feasts, and Memorials.
[00:14:05] So, let's dive a bit deeper into this particular Solemnity that we observe this week - the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. The Church has acknowledged the kingship of Jesus since the Patristic Era (1st - 8th century). Saint Cyril of Alexandria (5th century theologian, bishop, and Doctor of the Church) wrote that Christ “has dominion over all creatures, a dominion not seized by violence nor usurped, but by his essence and by his nature.” That quote highlights the fact that Jesus is both fully divine and fully human. Therefore, his kingship is derived both from his divinity (his divine essence) which he shares with God his Father and the Holy Spirit - and from his humanity which he acquired in the Incarnation, his human nature as the Son of Mary and the long-awaited Messiah descended from the line of King David.
Jesus, in his eternal kingship, is the same Jesus who was born as a babe in Bethlehem and laid in a manger, the same Jesus who taught us that we must carry our own crosses, the same Jesus who laid down his life - who Suffered and Died on the Cross - for us, and who now reigns in glory in the kingdom of heaven.
And while the theology of the kingship of Christ dates from the earliest days of the Church, the Feast wasn't specifically instituted until 1925 when Pope Pius XI issued his encyclical Quas Primus, which established the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King and had it inscribed into the Liturgical Calendar on the last Sunday of October.
Now, you may remember that the phrase inscribed into the liturgical calendar is the Church's way of saying that the Feast was officially established, specific prayers were written for it and included in the Roman Missal, and parishes were then instructed to celebrate it. While this Feast was initially observed on the last Sunday of October, specifically so that it immediately preceded the Feast of All Saints, it has since been moved. In 1970, Pope Paul VI amended the title of the Feast to its current form as the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, and moved its observance to the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year, which emphasizes that this Solemnity points to the Second Coming, the end times, when Jesus’ kingdom will be established in all its fullness throughout all of creation.
Pius XI first instituted this Feast in response to what he saw as the dangerous growth of secularism and atheism in the world. The Pope felt that excluding Jesus from public life would result in even greater division and discord among the nations… and we saw that when Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin rose to power… we saw that in the Holocaust and World War II… and we saw it in the rise of Communism and the Cold War. Unfortunately, that same division and discord that Pius XI feared now impacts our entire world! It is something we not only see - but have come to accept - in the world, yes, but also in our country, in our politics, in our public discourse, and even in our local communities.
Today we live in an entirely secular society, where even most Catholics feel that religious freedom means we can believe what we want in private and practice our faith at home or at church but - when we're out in public… when we walk into a restaurant… when we go to a store… when we drive down the road… when we walk into a voting booth… then our faith goes into a nice, cozy, little box and it no longer has any influence over what we do.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops calls that “compartmentalizing our faith” and it is wrong!
When we walk into a restaurant, we shouldn't be ashamed to pray openly before we eat our meal… when we walk into a store to shop, we should think of those less fortunate and add some extra food to our cart for the local food bank... or perhaps sort through our closet at home and donate some of our unused clothing to our local charitable organizations to distribute to those less fortunate… when we drive down the road, we should be patient and kind rather than short tempered and annoyed… when we walk into a voting booth, we need to remember what Jesus teaches in the Gospel, not what a political party says is important.
“The Solemnity of Christ the King encourages us to celebrate and live out our faith in public.” And lest you think that is simply my opinion, that last sentence was a direct quote from the USCCB (the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)!
Pope Pius Xi wrote that Jesus must - not should, must - reign in our minds, our wills, our hearts, and our bodies. But that's not easy - it is a constant and very real struggle because every single day the world tells us something different. But all that means is that we have to be even more deliberate and more determined in what we think and how we live.
And Catholics are not the only Christians who struggle with this dichotomy, because Catholics are not the only Christians that celebrate the kingship of Jesus. The kingship of Jesus is recognized and observed not only by the Catholic Church, but by most Christian faith traditions - Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, and Nazarenes, just to name a few - and typically on that same last Sunday of the Liturgical Year.
So, Catholics aren't the only Christians that have difficulty declaring Jesus as the King of our hearts and our minds…
But perhaps we can all be more deliberate in living with hearts and minds open to God and be more determined to encourage everyone we encounter to surrender their hearts and minds, their wills and their bodies to Christ Our Lord, the King of the Universe.
[00:22:39] If you would like to reach out to me with questions or comments, send me an email at
[email protected]
Thank you for spending this time with me and until next we meet, may God shower his blessings upon you like a soft and gentle rain, and may he hold you, safe and secure, in the palm of his hand.
From His Word to Our Hearts is produced by SFS Audio Solutions.
The content of the show is assembled by me, Sally Moriarty-Flask.
Our music was composed by Jimmy Flask and is used with the permission of the composer. All rights reserved.
Information regarding references used in preparing this podcast is available upon request.
Thank you for listening and God bless.
