The Three Crosses - Peter Paul Rubens 1620 - WikiArt Public Domain

My Brothers,

I recall reading years ago, Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, which imagines a world in which a royal prince trades places with a poor beggar boy (accidently). In the story, Prince Edward learns firsthand what it means to be bruised, mocked, hungry, cold, and unseen; experiences he never would have known from inside the palace. Only when he suffers among his people does he grow into the kind of king who leads with compassion and wisdom.

Twain wrote fiction. But the mystery behind his story is profoundly true in Christ our King.

The eternal Son of God, “the image of the invisible God,” as St. Paul tells us, steps out of the glory of heaven and into the rags of our humanity. He doesn’t pretend to be one of us. He becomes one of us. Like Edward wandering the streets, Jesus walks among the forgotten and the wounded. He is misunderstood, mocked, beaten, and ultimately crucified. Herod cannot recognize Him. Pilate cannot recognize Him. The rulers, the soldiers, the bystanders cannot recognize Him. All they see is a pauper. All they say is, “Save yourself.”

Only one man sees clearly: the criminal crucified beside Jesus, broken, guilty, humbled. From the margin of his own suffering, he whispers the words of true faith: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus, the true King, responds with radical mercy: “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

Brothers, this Gospel is not an ornament at the end of the liturgical year. It is our identity and our mission. Christ the King reigns through presence, compassion, accompaniment, and sacrificial love. His crown is thorns, His throne is the cross, and His royal power is mercy poured out.

Over the next months, this is the same royal pattern we are building into our PEER Support–Resiliency Initiative.

If Christ the King dwells first among the wounded, then the Church’s ministers, its deacons & priests must be men who do the same. Our PEER Support mission is not a program; it is an extension of the Kingship of Christ. It is the structured, intentional way we choose to walk with brothers who feel like paupers: overwhelmed, unseen, burdened, or suffering quietly. We step into their experience, not to “fix” them, but to recognize them, just as the Good Thief recognized Jesus.

In a world that often fails to see Christ, we must be the ones who notice, the ones who listen, the ones who say to our brother: “You are not alone. Christ the King is with you—and so am I.”

May His reign begin in us. May it strengthen our fraternity. And may it form the pastoral heart of our PEER Support–Resiliency Initiative as we shepherd one another toward the Kingdom.

In Christ the Servant + Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Receive + Believe + Teach + Practice