Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Homily for November 21, 2004
Year C - Cycle II
Christ the King

by Dcn. Bob Villareal
Topic: Just One Hour
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Gospel :
Luke  23: 35-43
The rulers sneered at Jesus and said, "He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God."  Even the soldiers jeered at him.  As they approached to offer him wine they called out, "If you are King of the Jews, save yourself."  Above him there was an inscription that read, "This is the King of the Jews."
Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us."  The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
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How many of you have failed to do something that you felt guilty about for days?  And maybe even years?  And then, later, at some time, you wish you could repair that failing.  I’m sure many of you have felt that, I certainly have.  And I certainly still do.

Today is the Feast of Christ the King.  Jesus began his ministry by calling his apostles and telling them, “Follow me.”  He initiated his teachings with the Beatitudes, for the poor, the weak, sinners, outcasts, and the disenfranchised.  His apostles and disciples followed Him throughout Galilee and Judea, and they did just about everything He asked for.  But prior to His final hour, while in the Garden of Gethsemane, He said to His apostles, “My soul is sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me.”  They could not.  They could go out and fight for Him.  They could go and fight demons for Him, and threaten Satan even, but they could not stand for Him.  Just to be with Him for one hour.

In Luke’s gospel there are four types of people who are present at the crucifixion of Jesus.  There was the crowd, who looked, silently, from a distance; the Jewish leaders who were trying to incite the people, as they constantly reviled Jesus; the Romans who went about their business to assure His death; and there were two thieves crucified, one at His right and one at His left, who, according to Mark and Matthew, were at that time, initially, verbally abusing Him.  So, these were the people around Jesus in His final hour.  But His closest were the two thieves.
In today’s gospel reading from Luke, one of the thieves must have had a change of heart, rebuked his cohort and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  This was the only time in the entire New Testament that someone presumed to call Jesus by His first name, and in an intimate way.  And it was this penitent thief that did that.  Jesus responded by saying, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”  To His last moment, Jesus was the ultimate and supreme redeemer, with His offer to the penitent thief. 

But in today’s world, there is a movement that presumes to qualify Jesus’ redeeming qualities, and preach that only a select group will be secretly raptured to Heaven, and the remainder, including Catholics, will be left behind.  And this is to happen, as they say, imminently.  But they have been saying this for hundreds of years.  The “imminently” might be ten years away, twenty years away, but the time comes and it passes; it doesn’t happen.  In last week’s gospel reading, Jesus emphatically tells us, “See that you not be deceived.  Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am He, and the time has come.’  Do not follow them.”  That was His instruction.  In today’s New Testament reading, St. Paul stated, “Let us give thanks to the Father.  He delivered us from the power of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption.”  In other words, we have already been delivered to Jesus’ Kingdom through the cross, and should not be seeking to earn our salvation, especially with false promises from false teachers.  Jesus warned against this.  I cannot imagine someone directly talking in the name of Jesus, to ignore His words, claiming to have broken some mystical code, to know how, where, and when Jesus is to return.  Instead, Jesus tells us to “Keep the faith.”  Eat His body, drink His blood, and asks us to be with Him for just one hour.  Not to fall asleep or be distracted, or be thinking about “more important things,” but to really listen to His words and give thanks in the greatest liturgy of thanksgiving conceived by God.  And that’s what we call the Mass.  How many of us actually listen to the words of thanksgiving in the Mass?  That is why we are here, and that is why we bring our families, because there is no better foundation upon which to build a background for our families and our lives, to ground ourselves in this great act of love and thanksgiving to God.  But we can also be so easily distracted with our fears, personal attendance, personal weaknesses, external attractions, that we can miss out on the very essence of life.

When I was very young, down in southwestern New Mexico, down by the Gila River, there was no hospital.  It was a very small place.  There was no doctor.  I was born in my mother and father’s house.  One of the things they injected into us, very early, was, “Do not get sick because we cannot afford to take you to a hospital.”  The hospital was about 35 miles away.  Besides that, whenever people got sick and had to go to the hospital, they always allowed the grown ups to go, but they said, “Don’t send those kids to the hospital.”  That was the thinking of that time.  The hospital is full of germs.  The hospital is full of diseases.  People go to the hospital to die.  “Don’t bring the kids to the hospital.”  That was so ingrained in my mind that I never wanted to get sick.  I can remember going to school, and I showed up with the mumps.  They said, “You can’t come to school with the mumps.”  And I said, “But I’ve got to.  I’m not really sick.”  And they drove me back home, with this little sign.  “Tack up this quarantine sign on your front door.”  Some of you older people remember that.  That was the mentality, “Don’t get sick.  Don’t go to a doctor.  Don’t go to the hospital.”  And I didn’t.  I got perfect attendance for the whole time I was in school. 

Then I went to college, and I wasn’t about to go to a hospital, or a doctor.  And then I met my wife, and things changed.  Things changed a lot, because, in the whole menu of marriage, she gets pregnant and, I don’t think about this but, sooner or later, she’s going to go to the hospital.  Or are we going to go to the hospital?  And I didn’t think about it, but it didn’t matter because I was in the service at that time, in the Army, and I was out in the field and she had to get a taxi to go to the hospital because she was going to have the baby.  I showed up late, and it was a very sterile environment.  I went, looked in.  There were babies, didn’t even know which one it was.  The nurse pointed, “This one.”  I don’t know.  But that was my involvement in the birth.  Well, we had three more.  The second one, we were in Germany.  Same thing happened.  I was out in the field, came in, and it was all over.  I went in, they pointed, I looked, and that was it.  But then we came back to the States, and for the other two I could not ignore that.  And my wife, Roberta, asked me, “Why don’t you be with me?  Just be with me for about an hour?”  And I couldn’t, so she had the baby and I was not there.  And then came the next one.  “Be with me for about an hour.”  And I couldn’t.  I had too much background.  I could not do it.

In a way, this is what the apostles could not do; this is what I could not do.  I mean, she could tell me, “Go and fix the can opener.  Go and do this.”  Great!  I’ll do it.  But, “Be with me for an hour, in the hospital.”  That’s different.  I wish I could have that time over again so perhaps I could re-do what I failed to do for Roberta, and myself, and overcome those childhood fears.  But, we have an absolute opportunity at every Mass, to be with Jesus for one hour.  Just one hour.  We can even share in His pain, if but for a moment, and recall His agony, then His victory, on the cross.  And we can give thanks to the Father, through Him, and with Him, and in Him.  We can share our joy with each other in saying, really saying, the Great Amen.  And we have to depend on you to do the singing for this Great Amen, because what are we saying in the Great Amen?  We have been listening to Father John say all the prayers, say all the words.  And then at the Great Amen, what that means is, “May all the words you have spoken, may your prayers be my prayers.”  And that is how I integrate myself into the Mass, at the Great Amen.  “So be it.”  Amen.  And then, each of us can ask Jesus, personally, “Jesus, remember me in Your Kingdom.”  And if you listen, listen very, very carefully, you will hear Him say, in a very tiny whispering voice, “Today you can be with me in my kingdom.”  That is Jesus’ promise to each one of us.  And if, heaven forbid, we should ever fail Jesus, we know we can make things right with Him, and He will forgive us.  There is no greater gift in the world, no greater gift in this life, than to know that we are going to be forgiven so that we can join Jesus in His kingdom.  So, for that we say, “Thank you, Jesus.  You are indeed Christ, our Redeemer, and our King.”
May God be with you.