Next Sunday will mark the first day of the new liturgical year, beginning with the season of Advent leading to Christmas and beyond.

I'm excited at the things that will be taking place next year, particularly the Easter Vigil when my wife and parents will be received into full communion with the Catholic Church. But for now, let's leave the future to the future.

Yesterday was the Solemnity of Christ the King, which marked the last day of the liturgical calendar of the Church. In a sense, for some of us, Christ is already truly King. But in another sense, that lordship is yet to be realised in its fullest sense.

In commemorating the solemnity of Christ the King, the Church looks forward to more than a mere political reign of Christ over the universe. We look forward to the establishment of ultimate justice, the pervasion of eternal peace in the world. And that is why we look forward to the coming of the King.

We seek the coming of the day when all creation will be renewed, recreated, revitalised, rebeautified, all this to become a new heaven and a new earth.

This solemnity provokes us to reflect on how the world invariably falls short of justice and equality, of how people are still so polarised by their differences in race, religion, sex, education, and social class regardless of how the human race claims to be more progressive than ever before. It is the day when we are reminded of how the Church longs for the coming of the day of the Lord, when all such discrimination and bias will dissipate from the face of the earth.

Peace. Authentic peace and harmony between humanity and God, among humanity, and between humanity and all creation - this is what we long for. And inasmuch as the world has tried to bring about the realisation of these hopes in various ways, our efforts often end up leading to more varied forms of polarities.

Because peace and harmony are truly possible only when Christ is King.

A Blessed Regnum Christi to all of you. I hope it has been a fruitful year for you. May we continue to look to Mary our Mother and the angels and saints for their constant prayers for us pilgrims in our journey towards the day when Christ will truly be King in the most visible way possible.