Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, before I begin, please could I ask you to join me in praying for the soul of our dear Sister Mary Stella who died here last night. She was a member of this community for over sixty years and had lived as a Carmelite for over seventy.
Today is the Solemnity of Christ the King, and the last Sunday of the year, the Church year that is. So it is that on this last Sunday we look forward to the last times when our Lord will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, as we proclaim every Sunday in the Creed. It will be then, when He appears in majesty, that all will acknowledge His kingship, though now it is frequently hidden, just as it was in the Gospel we have heard read to us. There Jesus was on the cross, mocked by the Rulers of His people and mocked by the soldiers who were pagans, very far from any majesty, glory or signs of kingship as we understand them.
But before I say more about that, I should also say that because this is the last Sunday of the year, it is also the last Sunday on which we shall hear St Luke’s Gospel read for another two years, because next Sunday, the first of Advent, sees the beginning of the year in which we will predominantly listen to readings from St Matthew’s Gospel. Now each of the Evangelists has a distinctive approach to the life, death and resurrection of our Lord. St John is the most distinctive of all, but although the other three have much in common that sets them apart from St John, they also have their distinctive features.
So, for instance, St Luke tells us at the beginning of his Gospel, addressed to a certain man called Theophilus, that he has gone into all the records and accounts of our Lord’s life as carefully as he possibly can so as to be able to write an orderly account for his friend. Part of this account includes things not known from the other evangelists. For instance, in a month’s time, when we draw close to Christmas, we will hear St Luke’s unique account of the preparations for the coming into the world of the Saviour. It is Luke alone who tells us about the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Shepherds and the angels on Christmas night, the Presentation in the Temple with Simeon and Anna, and the mysterious disappearance of the young boy Jesus and His discovery after three days discoursing with the elders in the Temple in Jerusalem. Where did Luke learn about these important events in our Lord’s early life? By the time he wrote his Gospel all those who were involved in those far distant events were dead, except only for one: our blessed Lady. Only she could have been the original source for most of these accounts, and the Church has long held it probable that Luke, being the meticulous historian he was, made sure to learn directly from our Lady what had happened at the very beginning of her Son’s earthly life.
But Luke is also the unique source for certain events at the end of our Lord’s life too. It is Luke alone who tells us of our Lord’s merciful prayer to the Father as He was being nailed to the cross: ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ And whereas both Matthew and Marl tell us of the two criminals crucified with Jesus who also railed against Him, only Luke tells us of the one who rebuked his companion for mocking Jesus: ‘have you no fear of God? …we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then this criminal goes on to do something most unusual: he addresses the man dying next to him by name: ‘Jesus’, he says, which is a mode of address not used by anyone else, for it is usually ‘Lord’, ‘Rabbi’, or ‘Master’, and he continues: ‘Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingly power’. These words of great humility and supplication win a wonderful reply from the dying Jesus: ‘Truly I say to you, this day you will be with me in Paradise’.
We do not hear of this exchange from any other evangelist. We do not hear that one of the two criminals spoke in this way, nor that Jesus replied so reassuringly. Who, then, was the source of these words? It must have been someone who was there. We know from St John that he stood by the cross together with the blessed Mother of Jesus, our Lady. Since she was the source of so much concerning our Lord’s earliest days, then very possibly she may have been the principal source of things from these last days, too. She stood by the cross throughout the entire time Jesus was crucified and shared in all the pain and the opprobrium of the mockery of the chief priests and the soldiers. It was she who from the beginning pondered her Son’s words in her heart. Those words of mercy and of hope must have resounded in her ears and heart too, though hers would be a longer wait to be in paradise with her Son than would this repentant criminal’s.
May our Lord grant each of us the grace to see Him as King on the cross, and to accept our cross for love of Him and in thankfulness for what that cross brings us. May we say with the good thief, whom we know by the name Dismas: “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingly power”. May He say to us: “Amen I say to you, you will be with me in paradise”.
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