Liturgy imitates life...

As we come to the end of the liturgical year, have you noticed that the tone of the readings and the orations of the Mass have started to shift? Check out this coming Sunday's first reading from Malachi:

Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven,
when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,
and the day that is coming will set them on fire,
leaving them neither root nor branch,
says the LORD of hosts.

Intense, eh? The Church liturgical year mirrors the life of the Church from beginning to end. In the beginning of Advent, we reflect on our need for a savior. In the latter days of Advent, particularly from December 17th to December 23rd, the readings and prayers become more and more intense, as we declare our need, nearly demanding a savior, until we finally enter the peaceful joy of Christmas.

The days of Lent and Easter lead us into a deep reflection into the ministry of Christ, particularly in the establishing of the Paschal Mystery. The physical seasons reflect the mystery of death and resurrection as we proceed from the darkness of winter to the new life of spring. The sixth century poet Venantius Fortunatus wrote a beautiful piece of poetry which was translated into English and set to music by Ralph Vaughn Williams called Salve Festa Dies or Hail Thee, Festival Day. In it he captures this reality very well when he writes:

"Lo, the fair beauty of earth

from the death of the winter arising.

Every good gift of the year

now with its master returns!"

You can see how well the ancient poet connected the divine with the terrestrial, seeing in the terrestrial a prefigurement of a divine reality. In the days of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, we see our sacred past; the revelation of Christ as Messiah and the initiation of the salvific act.

The summer can be easy to just think of as a disjointed bunch of readings that can be difficult to connect together, but nothing could be further from the truth. In the liturgical days of summer/early fall, we see represented where we find ourselves in this period of time. We see the readings and prayers focused on the Eucharist, proclaiming the Kingdom of God to the far reaches of the world.

Now we reach late fall; November to be precise. The readings and orations become more apocalyptic. As we come to the yearly end of our liturgical life, as well as the seasonal end of the earth in its vegetation and harvest, we reflect on the end of the world and the second coming of Christ; the final end. We reflect on the reality that too many of us prefer not to consider: that we are going to die. It is no wonder that the Church focuses so much attention to the faithful departed during this month.

While the readings and orations seem, on the surface, to discuss the final judgement at the destruction of the world, there is a very good chance that the final judgement that we all first experience will be our own particular judgement.

In the end, we reach the celebration of Christ the King of the Universe; the joyful reality that, despite all of our struggles as the Church Militant (the Church on Earth) and our pain as the Church Suffering (the souls in Purgatory), if we persevere, we will ultimately reach the goal of being the Church Triumphant, rejoicing with the saints, in the presence of the Heavenly Liturgy and its Divine Celebrant.