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King Of Thieves? A Meditation on the Gospel for the Feast of Christ the King

Jesus Christ is King of Thieves, though he never stole. He is savior of sinners though he himself never sinned.

In the Gospel for today’s feast we have an image for the Church. We like to think of more pleasant images such as the Church being the Bride of Christ or the Body of Christ. Today’s image is less exalted and more humbling to be sure but it is an image just the same: The Church is Christ, crucified between two thieves. Yes, this is the Church too. Somehow we are all thieves. The fact is, we are all sinners and we have all used the gifts and things that belong to God in a way that is contrary to his will. To misuse things that belong to others is a form of theft and we are thus thieves for we have all misused what belongs to God. Consider some of the things we claim as our own and how easily we misuse them: Our bodies, our time, our talents, our money, our gift of speech, our gift of freedom and so forth. We call them ours but they really belong to God and if we use them in ways contrary to the intention of the owner we are guilty of a form of theft.

So the Church is Christ, crucified between two thieves. But consider also that these two thieves were very different.

  1. One thief derides Jesus and makes demands of him: – Are you not the Christ! Save yourself and us!
  2. The other thief reverences Christ and rebukes the other saying, – Have you no fear of God? He recognizes his guilt – We have been condemned justly. And he requests – Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom. But he leaves the terms of it up to Christ. He acknowledges he is a thief and now places his life under the authority of Christ the King.

Christ came to call sinners, thieves,  if you will. Yes, we are all thieves, that is true. But pray God we are the good thief, the repentant thief, The one thief who is now ready to resubmit himself to the authority of Christ, who is King of all creation, and King of us thieves.

But is Christ really your king? Well a King has authority. So another way of asking is, “Does Christ have authority in your life? Do you and I acknowledge that everything we call our own really belongs to Him? How well do we use the things that we call our own but which really belong to God?”

  1. How do we use our time?
  2. Are we committed to pray and be at Mass every Sunday without fail?
  3. Do we use enough of our time to serve God and others or merely for selfish pursuits?
  4. What of our capacity to talk?
  5. Do we use our gift of speech to witness, to evangelize, or merely for small talk and gossip?
  6. What of our money?
  7. Are we faithful to the Lord’s command to tithe? (Mal 3:7-12; Matt 23:23).
  8. Are we generous enough to the poor and needy?
  9. Do we spend wisely or foolishly?
  10. Do we pay our debts in a timely way?
  11. What of our bodies?
  12. Do we exhibit proper care and nutrition of them?
  13. Are we chaste?
  14. Do we observe proper safety or are we reckless and unsafe?
  15. Do we reverence life?
  16. Do we love the poor and help sustain their lives?

Well you get the point. It is one thing to call Christ our King, it is another to truly be under his authority. The Lord is clear enough in telling us that he expects our obedience: Why do you call me Lord Lord and not do what I tell you?  (Luke 6:46)

Is Christ your King? Which thief are you?

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The Red Hat: November 20

 

Today, Cardinal-designate Wuerl and all of us who call the Archdiocese of Washington home will participate in the first-part of the Consistory, a tradition that dates back to the 12thcentury. Cardinal-designate Wuerl will receive his red biretta and wear a red cassock. The red is a reminder, as the Church Fathers like to say, that the life blood of the church is the blood of the martyrs.

Read: Luke 20:27-40

Reflect: Pope Benedict, as he gives each Cardinal the red hat, tells the Cardinal that the red hat “signifies that you must be ready to act with strength, to the point of shedding blood, to increase the Christian faith, for the peace and tranquility of the people of God and for the freedom and growth of the holy Roman church.”

Each new Cardinal receives a titular church in Rome and Cardinal Wuerl is assinged St. Peter in Chains. If you have been following this pilgrimage, you know that St. Peter in Chains was the first stop in the pilgriamge tour! A big thanks to Bishop Barry Knestout who provided me with this photo from his seat at the liturgy. Read more. 

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On the job as advisor to the Pope

Friday, Cardinal-designate Wuerl was on the job in his new role as Cardinal as he participated in a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. A wide range of topics were discussed. One topic the Cardinal-designate found very interesting was the one on religious freedom both from an international perspective and a local perspective. Cardinal-Wuerl said the discussion about religious freedom is particularly important, not only because Christians face violence in places like Iraq, but also because of threats in increasingly secular societies like the United States “where faith-based organizations are told they can’t carry out their activities according to their own conscience.”  Read the whole article from Catholic News Service. It is a good preview of the kinds of issues on which Pope Benedict will be seeking advice.

There was also time for celebration as more than 200 family and friends gathered at a restaurant near the Vatican for supper and a song written for Cardinal-designate Wuerl,just for this occasion, and sung by the Archdiocese of Washington seminarians studying in Rome. If you have ever visited Piazza Navona in Rome, surely you heard a group singing “Volare…” As they say, when in Rome do as the Romans and indeed that was the melody of the evening!

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Houses of God: November 19

Houses of Prayer

From the great basilicas to small convents tucked away in cobbled alleys, Rome is filled with houses of prayer.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds people that churches are for prayer and for the work of his father. Pilgrims have to make a choice today among some of the most beautiful houses of prayer in the churches of Santa Maria in Trastevere, San Clemente, Sant’Agnese, San Clemente and Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. A second outing will be to the Benedictine Monastery of Subiaco, where St. Benedict, founder of Western monasticism established his first monastery and nearby, his sister, Scholastica, a convent. It was Benedict and the life he established for his monks that has given us the great prayer of Lectio Divina.  A third group will explore a very different place of prayer, the Roman catacombs, where families would gather at the burial spots of loved ones for prayer and to share a meal.

Read: Luke 19: 45-48

Reflect  Pope Benedict XVI in reflecting on the place of pilgrimage in the life of a Christian said “it is also true that faith, according to its essence, is being a pilgrim…Faith is being a pilgrim above all interiorly, but it must also express itself exteriorly….
Although an interior spirit of pilgrimage is appropriate at all times, the Pope described how actually traveling to a holy site can draw out and enhance that interior spirit.”

 He teaches us that by “leaving behind the everyday, the world of the useful, of practical goals […] to be truly on the path to transcendence”, the faithful can find “a new freedom, a time of interior rethinking, of identifying oneself” that enables us to see God more clearly. 

Respond: Join our school children who will be wearing red today in honor of Cardinal-designate Wuerl and make a visit to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament at your parish or another that is on your route today.

Please take a look at the pilgrimage photos

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Pilgrimage Diary:November 18

The heart of a Roman pilgrimage is a tour of the four great basilicas. In the Jubilee year 1300, Pope Boniface designated the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul as pilgrim churches to commemorate the two great founders of the Church of Rome. In subsequent years, the basilicas of St. John Lantern and St. Mary Major were added and today they offer a journey through the story of salvation and the spread of the Gospel in art, architecture and monuments. In A Pilgrims Guide to Rome and the Holy Land, we learn “the wealth of [this] deposit of the faith is made present and available to the pilgrim who journeys through the streets, squares, churches, and catacombs of Rome in search of deeper faith, hope, charity and conversion of life.” (A Pilgrims Guide to Rome and the Holy Land, pg. 173). The Archdiocese of Washington pilgrims are celebrating this liturgical memorial by visiting these four churches.

Read: Matthew 14:22-33

Reflect:  Cardinal-designate Wuerl challenged pilgrims to think about thier responsibilities as evangelizers. In his homily at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome,  he said all of us should have the the evangelical zeal of Paul to bring the faith to all. Eeach of us is called to be an evangelist for the faith in these times–inviting others (family, friends, co-workers, neighbors) to or back to the faith with the same zeal as Paul.

Respond: Pray a prayer of thanksgiving for the gift of faith and the Roman Catholic Church in your life and the life of the world.

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Living in the Now

A few days ago, I was out with a couple of friends.  We shared a pizza and the usual, “what’s happening in our lives.”  We found ourselves talking about the freedom that is found when we begin to practice living the presence of God – the kind of living that begs us to let go of the past and to hand over everything we fear about the future.  The kind of living that calls out to us and asks us to live in this very moment.  Ironically, or perhaps beautifully, it’s the kind of living that heals our past wounds and gives us the grace to overcome the fears we face.

When we practice living in the present moment something miraculous happens.  We begin to open ourselves to receiving the gift of Jesus Himself – fully present, active and alive in our hearts.  It’s easy in this world, especially as a young adult to become overwhelmed by what the future holds.  We are continuously faced with questions like:  Is this the right career for me?  Is God EVER going to send me a husband or wife?  Am I doing enough to care for and protect my family?  Will these wounds from my past ruin my current relationship?  Am I living God’s will for me?  These questions often burden and sometimes even paralyze us.  The questions in themselves are not bad – for God gave us the Holy Spirit to help us discern His will and dream (and dream big I might add).  However, sometimes the questions block our minds and hearts from hearing the answers we are seeking.  The good news – Jesus is fully present within us and waits for us with great joy and patience.  He invites us to live with Him in the now, to be present with Him at this very moment and receive gifts beyond imagination.  Sometimes He leaves us with answers we might not want, but we must trust in the fact that He always wants the best for us. Today let us ask for the grace to mindfully live with Jesus. Maybe we’ll be surprised at what He reveals to us!

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Welcome Pilgrims: November 17

Today, Pope Benedict XVI greeted pilgrims at the weekly audience. What a grand way to begin the Consistory pilgrimage! Read more about the audience. Following the audience, pilgrims left  St. Peter’s to travel to the Church of St. Peter in Chains. Here we remember that Peter was imprisoned in Jerusalem and the chains at the base of the altar are said to be the chains that imprisoned him. While at the church, the pilgrims will also see Michelangelo’s famous statue of Moses with “horns.” These horns were popular among artists in Medieval time as a symbol of holiness because in Hebrew, the word for “beams of light” and “horns” is similar. The exterior horns are a sign of the interior radiance of the Lord.

Read: Luke 19:11-18

Reflect: Fr. Justin Huber was the celebrant of the Pilgrmage Mass and asked pilgrims to conside what our checkbooks and our calendars say about the outward expression of our interior lives.

“…the Lord uses this parable to speak to us about the perennial truths of the spiritual life.  It is interesting to note that money is the tool that is able to store and transport material or worldly value. It acts as a neutral intermediary between good ands services, which can be converted into nearly anything. But, one could ask: could a carrier of material value be converted into something of spiritual value? Is there something that stands at this interface between the material and the spiritual?

 It has been said that if you want to know what a person truly values in life, then look at their calendar and their checkbook.  Time and money are the two resources that we use to acquire the things that we value.  In our Gospel today, Christ is inviting each of us to invest what we value most.  Beyond just time and money, he is asked each of us to offer over to him our entire life; this includes our gifts and our talents and all that we are.  For, it is none other than Christ who stands at the interface between the material and the spiritual.  Union with God is both the origin and the final goal of humanity and it is Christ who leads us back to the father.  It is in Christ’s will, in the offering of our lives over to his will, that we find the opportunities that will lead to our own growth and that of the Kingdom of God.  Anything less is not merely standing still, but it is moving backward.

 On Wednesday, October 20th, shortly before announcing the Consistory, which will create 24 new cardinals, Pope Benedict XVI remembered the life of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. She offered over her life, the life of a noblewoman, to the service of the poor.  As providence would have it, we celebrate her feast today, 779 years after this humble woman’s death.

 Saint Peter also offered over his life. The humble fisherman, who became the Prince of the Apostles, placed his entire life, the good and the bad, in Christ’s hands and it was transformed. The chains beneath this altar, which are said to have bound him as he lie in prison in Jerusalem, were miraculously unfastened by an Angel, as accounted in the Acts of the Apostles.  Today, we still venerate them as a sign of the transformative power of God.  The place of his burial has now been transformed into the largest Basilica on Earth and has become a place of spiritual pilgrimage, a place were we will go to pray on Saturday morning as Cardinal-designate  Wuerl will receive the red biretta and become Donald Cardinal Wuerl.

 Indeed, even Rome stands as a visible witness to the transformative power of God.  The art and architecture, which has transformed the city, dot the paths of the saints, who were transformed by God and who themselves transformed the Church.  As we follow these paths on our pilgrim journey, we offer our lives anew to the Lord, who alone has the power to bring extraordinary growth from the ordinary offering of our daily lives.”

Respond

Take a look at your checkbook and calendar for the past month…what is it saying?

Follow our photo diary

 The Pilgrimage Facebook page is also here:

 http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/adw.org

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November is Black Catholic History Month

Time to reflect, learn and celebrate

In my school, we have a small display board dedicated to Black Catholic history. One of the items on the board is the biography of the Pope Victor I. Pope Victor I was the 14th Bishop of Rome and the first from Africa. In fact, there are three popes who are African, the other two being Pope Militiades who reigned from 311 to 314 A.D. and Pope Gelasius who reigned from 492 until 496 A.D. Out of all of the facts on this board, the fact that there have been Black Pontiffs seems to gain the most interest – and sometimes, disbelief.

Black Catholic History in the Archdiocese of Washington

I was blessed to grow up in the Archdiocese of Washington. We have had a strong and vibrant Black Catholic culture here for generations and thus, the  ethnicity of Pope Victor I is not incredible to me. We have parishes dating back to before the Civil War such as St. Augustine Roman Catholic Parish, which was founded in 1858. We have the examples of pioneering Black priests such as Rev. Patrick Healy, SJ (pictured above) who served as the president of Georgetown University from 1874 until 1882. Even the first Black permanent deacons where ordained for the Archdiocese of Washington as part of the inaugural class in early 1970’s. Growing up here, I knew that there had been Popes of African decent, parishes where our culture and style of worship is integrated into the Mass and priests, deacons and religious that continue to serve our community with passion and love.

More to come

For the next few posts, I hope to share some of these facts and stories with you. I may also share how these stories have helped me to celebrate the diversity of the Roman Catholic Church.