Sunday Scriptures

“A voice of one crying out in the desert.” What a wonderful description of John the Baptist. He is no more than that — the voice. He is the voice that announces Jesus. The one thing that is very clear about John the Baptist is that he knew his purpose. He was steadfast in fulfilling the mission given to him by God. His whole purpose was to prepare for Jesus. “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” His whole being is defined by Jesus. In all that the Gospels tell us about John the Baptist, never did he make it about himself.

By means of his encyclical letter “Quas primas,” promulgated in 1925, Pope Pius XI instituted the feast of Christ the King, to be celebrated in the Roman Rite as the last Sunday of the month of October, meaning the Sunday that immediately precedes the Feast of All Saints.

Our Scriptures this weekend invite us to consider the offerings of three different people, beginning with the widow of Zarephath. She encounters the prophet Elijah at a critical time for both of them.

In the second reading for Oct. 28, we find this fascinating statement attributed to Christ: “Thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek” (Heb 5:6). The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews drew this from Psalm 110, a prophecy about the coming of the Messiah.

October is usually when I preach about stewardship. So, the last thing I want to hear from Jesus is, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.”

One of the most memorable characters in Charles Dickens’ 1861 novel “Great Expectations” is Miss Havisham, a wealthy spinster jilted at the altar, perpetually in mourning for what might have been and wearing her decaying wedding dress every day for the rest of her life. She directed that the remnants of her wedding breakfast and cake remain rotting on a table in her dilapidated mansion.

As a college student, I worked at Byerlys’ restaurant in Roseville as a greeter. My job was fairly simple: Welcome people into the restaurant, get them seated and send them off with a friendly gesture as they left.

I will never forget the first time I visited Toronto on a summer vacation. It has all the sights, beauty and points of interest that you can imagine, but what struck me most was a sight that I observed repeatedly on normal city streets.