The Good Thief
In 2019 our parish group, while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, joined the Catholic parishioners in the Church of the Annunciation in Beth Jala, a suburb of Bethlehem, for the Feast of Christ the King.
The singing was joyous and uplifting and the children, after their own Liturgy of the Word, processed in, wearing crowns and led by a person carrying a huge picture of Christ the King. A great way to mark the climax of the Church’s year.
This feast was established and proclaimed by Pope Pius XI to reassert the sovereignty of Christ and the Church over all forms of government and to remind Christians of the fidelity and loyalty we owed to Christ, who by his Incarnation and sacrificial death on the cross has made us both adopted children of God and future citizens and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven.
In the Gospel today, Luke narrates the crucifixion of Jesus. For Jesus, his throne is a cross. While hanging there in agony, the leaders jeered at him. “He saved others let him save himself.” The soldiers too mocked him: “If you are the King of the Jews save yourself”. Even one of the criminals abused him: “Are you not the Christ, save yourself and us as well.”
Jesus didn’t answer any of these taunts but only responded to the criminal who prayed, “Jesus remember me when you come in to your kingdom.” Jesus replied, “Indeed I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
So do you and I really qualify as subjects of his kingdom? Do we belong to him or not? Do we call him ‘Our Lord’, and if we do, do we really mean it and live it?
Let us turn to our crucified Christ today and like the good thief say;
“Lord I want to follow you by living my life fully in the Spirit of your Gospel. Come into my heart and take charge of my life. Help me to see how the mystery of your kingship illumines my life. Show me in your death the victory that crowns the ages, and in your broken body, the love that unites heaven and earth.”