By: Bishop James A. Tamayo

This weekend we celebrate the end of the liturgical year, the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe. There are several times in the Bible where it is recorded that people spoke of the kingdom of Jesus, but I think the most amazing one was on the day of His crucifixion, when one of the thieves who was executed along with Him said, "Jesus, remember me when You come into your Kingdom."We can be sure that Jesus crucified to the cross did not look royal in the ordinary sense of that term. So what was there about Jesus that gave the admitted thief the slightest indication that He was a king? Well, we have to expect that a thieves learn to pay close attention to people. They watch people carefully to figure out if they have much worth stealing, whether they guard their possessions well and whether it will be easy to steal from them. Thieves may become pretty good at noticing the traits of others. So what did this thief notice that led him to believe Jesus was a king? I think the thief realized that Jesus had great kingly power. Now many people associate great power with the ability to destroy their enemies. That is the power the Roman armies had at the time of Jesus. That is the power that many countries in our day have. But when a nation destroys its enemies, it is often really due to a lack of power, because they were afraid of being harmed by their enemies. Jesus showed He had greater power than any army because He did not fear his enemies. Instead of trying to destroy them, He loved them and He even forgave them.