As we begin this week's Little Triduum, culminating Sunday in the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, I offer this brief reflection from the coffin shop to ponder, and prepare for, Sunday's Gospel in the light of the grave.
We should also keep in mind that next week brings Thanksgiving, the wonderful, earthly, celebration of gratitude for all that we have been given, designated to take place every year on a Thursday, just as Our Lord instituted the ultimate, Heavenly, Thanksgiving Feast on a Thursday, one day before he gave his life for our redemption.
This Sunday's Gospel is Luke 23: 35-43 (from the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible)
And the people stood by, watching; but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others, let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him vinegar, and saying "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews."
One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingly power." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
"He saved others, let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!"
"If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!"
"Are you not the Christ, save yourself and us!"
No, Jesus Christ is not merely the King of the Jews, he is the King of the Universe, and as such self-serving, earthly, power is beneath him. Immediately before this passage Jesus says, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." He has interceded for the very people who go on deriding him, not realizing that the bonds of sin, out of which they are acting, are concurrently being destroyed — as they have been for us and always will be, if only we cooperate in the sacrificial freedom that God has lavished on us.
Habituated as we tend to be to the sinful ties that bind, the only path to claiming our full liberty, and securing the communion we so hunger for, is following the King's example and laying down our lives for others. Contemplating the fact that this life will eventually be demanded of us anyway, let us not waste this opportunity, in thanksgiving, to freely give it away!