God promises through the prophet Jeremiah that He will raise up a righteous Branch, who shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. Judgment in the Old Testament denotes both giving and enforcing the law, as well as punishing a violation. Justice is a much broader term whose original meaning is “to be straight” or “to walk a straight path”, being thus inextricably linked with honesty and sincerity.

Depending on when Easter falls in one year or another, the number of Sundays after Epiphany and Sundays after Trinity varies. This year there are twenty-six Sundays after Trinity, and that means that the penultimate Sunday of the church year uses the prayers and readings of the sixth Sunday after Epiphany.

This Sunday’s collect focuses on the authority of the Son of God, with which He has destroyed the works of the devil and shows what must happen within us: in the hope of His redeeming and saving grace, we must purify ourselves to be pure like Him.

Ecclesiastes says: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.” By the evil days and unpleasant years, he means old age, which comes like a devastating storm and causes a man to despair hopelessly when he realizes that his days are soon ended.

In fact, you don’t even have to live to an old age – some feel that most of their lives are over by the age of 17, and sometimes this can be true, because none of us know how many years our Creator will give us.

In a few days, the President of the United States will be elected. This is one of those moments when the citizens of this country must “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” that is, to fulfill their duty to do their part for the good of our country and its people.

When choosing a president, one should not think about who I personally like more but ask who among all the possible candidates is willing to truly commit to standing at the service of the people and working not for personal ambitions, but for truth, justice, peace and prosperity. Who among them is willing to do not just what is personally beneficial to them, nor just what they must do, but to do more, even if it requires serious effort and sometimes even trust to step into the unknown.

This year, the Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity is the last Sunday in October, on which the Feast of Christ the King has been celebrated since 1925. Pope Pius XI instituted this holiday to confirm important facts that emerge from the following Bible verses:

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matthew 28:18)

“For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” (Romans 13:1)

“Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)