The rulers and the soldiers and the criminal sneered at Our Lord, “This guy is supposed to be a king?  Some King.  He’s supposed to free everybody and be the Savior of the People?  He can’t even save himself.”  On a surface level, they’re right.  He is not a King, at least not the way they understand the word.  But this is a problem with them, not with him.  They don’t see just how profoundly Jesus Christ is exactly what a King is, and should be.  And honestly, the world today also sneers at Our Lord, gives a kind of patronizing smile to the old-fashioned idea that this ill-begotten fellow was some kind of a King.  But our world tends to be more subtle about it.  “He’s an important historical figure!  He’s a great moral teacher!  He’s a revolutionary!  He’s a voice for the downtrodden!”  Our world tends to be just fine with Jesus up to that point, as long as he remains this kind of bland, comfortable spiritual guru.  But for us, the truth is much more profound and much more life-changing and life-defining.  He is the King.  He is King of our hearts, the King of our lives, the King of Heaven and Earth, the King of every nation and people, a King who deserves the love and obedience of every single person who’s ever lived.  

But just like in his own day, modern man just can’t get, how this man could be God and King.  He has no armies; he consolidates no empire; he has very little political skill; he doesn’t appear in fine jewels and regalia; “his campaign managers,” let’s call them, namely the apostles and later the clergy, are basically incompetent.  Even today, even in a country largely defined by the Christian Faith, we still don’t really get it: it's why we need this Feast Day so very much: to remind us that he is the King.  To remind us: the truth is, he does have a crown, but it’s a crown of thorns because his greatest ornament is the suffering he bore for us.  He does have an army, but his army is the poor, and all those humble Christians who have chosen to follow him out of love, because his power is seen in the Faith of everyday people.  He has an empire, but it’s not an empire of lands and territories, but of souls, because a single human soul is more precious than the entire world.  He has a throne, but his throne is a Cross, because his authority is ratified by his perfect act of sacrifice.  He even has robes, but they are the humble attire of bread and wine, because his greatest glory is the glory of hidden humility.  This is a real King.  This is a king worth following, all the way to the end.  A king who doesn’t need to trick us into following him with slogans, and with bread and circuses, and by manipulating our emotions and fears.  He’s a king who actually inspires us, actually stirs our hearts to love and follow him, actually wants to be with us and help us, a King who, in his quiet humility, waits for each one of us.  He’s never too busy or too important for us.  In fact, sometimes we’re the ones who act as if we’re too busy or important for Our King.  But he waits for us, always.  He waits patiently for us in every tabernacle of every Catholic church throughout the world.  He wants us to come visit him.  To bring him our needs, to ask him for help when we need it, and simply to grow closer to him as true friends by the time we spend in his presence.  We can ask pardon for our sins and failings, we can pray for what we need, we can give thanks for his many blessings, and we can simply and quietly adore him and wait for him to speak to us.  We can seek an audience with Our King any time we want.  And he will always be ready to listen.  

One person got it, from the beginning: the second criminal, hanging beside the Lord.  “Remember me, when you come into your kingdom.”  Let this magnificent prayer be ours as well; and may Our Lord respond to us as he did to him, “Amen I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”