Jesus, Remember Me

Dear Friend,

Every year at this time of year I go to Google and find a photo of the church where I was baptized, Christ the King, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We left Minnesota as a family in 1964 and wouldn’t you know, we landed in Christ the King parish in Atlanta, so I hit Google and searched for that church too. Both parishes will be celebrating big time this Sunday, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

Both the church where I was baptized and the church where I made my first communion are designed to project majesty: tall, stone, Neo-gothic. Yet, as in all Roman Catholic churches, the baptismal font and the altar of both churches point us to the most humble of human actions - surrender to an immersion in water and the opening of our hands at communion for our sacred food. Baptism and Eucharist point us to the truest expression of the kingship of Jesus Christ, who “humbled himself to share in our humanity.”  

Through Christ the King, God welcomes us into his body at baptism and feeds us with himself as bread at Eucharist. In this Sunday’s gospel, we see that the humble - and humiliating - death of the Lord was an action whose meaning was hidden from those mesmerized by a certain kind of human majesty. And yet, from a criminal at the side of Jesus came this simple request: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  

As we enter the great intersection of heaven and earth this Sunday at Eucharist, the end of our liturgical year is upon us. It’s a good time to remember that all our journeys began - and begin again - in the cross of love, and the humble kingship of Christ our Lord. 

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan ofm, Pastor