We have reached the end of the Catholic year. As we approach the altar today, we reflect on the end of our lives and the end of the world. As we prepare to do this, we are blessed with a coincidence of the liturgical calendar: today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King and the Feast of Blessed Miguel Pro. We proclaim that Christ is King just as Blessed Miguel did with his final words—Viva Cristo Rey.

Blessed Miguel Pro

Miguel Pro was a Jesuit priest in Mexico at a time of persecution against the Church. Wearing clerical garments in public was against the law, and priests would be imprisoned for speaking against the government. Many of them were forced into laicization or marriage.

He operated in secret and under multiple disguises to keep the faith alive. He was known as a passionate preacher and a light-hearted pastor. He would bring his Mass kit inside a briefcase and secretly say Mass to families in their homes. He would sit in the park in casual clothing, with just a corner of his stole showing. People would sit on the bench and receive the sacrament of Confession under the guise of a regular conversation.

He was arrested multiple times and was eventually accused of being part of an assassination attempt against the president—without evidence.

On this date 98 years ago, he was sent to death without a trial. He prayed quietly on his own and was offered a blindfold. He refused it and faced his executioners.

Pro held out his hands to imitate Jesus on the cross, proclaimed his innocence, and said, “With all my heart I forgive my enemies.” Then he shouted his last words, “Viva Cristo Rey!”

His funeral was attended by tens of thousands of people; his burial was attended by tens of thousands more.

Today, as a church we join our words, “Long live Chris the King,” with Blessed Miguel’s own triumphant cry of “Viva Cristo Rey.”

Two Thieves and a King

In today’s Gospel, we read of two other individuals who were arrested and put to death by the state. As we know, there were criminals on a cross on each side of Jesus’s own cross. One of them demanded that Jesus prove himself and take action.

“Are you not the Christ?”, he asks. “Save yourself and us.”

He is met with condemnation — not from Jesus, but from the other criminal.

“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.”

Archbishop Fulton Sheen presents this interaction beautifully in his masterpiece, Life of Christ:

A dying man asked a dying man for eternal life; a man without possessions asked a poor man for a Kingdom; a thief at the door of earth asked to die like a thief and steal Paradise. One would have thought a saint would have been the first soul purchased over the counter of Calvary by the red coins of Redemption, but in the Divine plan it was a thief who was the escort of the King of kings into Paradise. If our Lord had come merely as a teacher, the thief would never have asked for forgiveness. But since the thief’s request touched the reason of His coming to earth, namely, to save souls, the thief heard an immediate answer:

“I promise thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43)

It was the thief’s last prayer, perhaps even his first. He knocked once, sought once, asked once, dared everything, and found everything. When even the disciples were doubting and only one was present at the cross, the thief owned and acknowledged Him as Savior….Practically everything about the Body of Christ was fastened by nails, or tortured by whips and thorns, except His Heart and His tongue — and these declared forgiveness that very day. But who can forgive sins, but God? And who can promise Paradise except Him Who by nature is eternal to paradise?

Here we are given examples of men at the end of their lives. In a way, the choice between the men on either side of Jesus is a choice that each of us have in accepting not only our deaths but how we live: have we accepted the fact that the end will come—and perhaps sooner than we imagined? More importantly: have we accepted that Jesus Christ is indeed The King?

The first man in our Gospel story today is not prepared to die. He is looking for a way out. We get the sense that this may be a feature of how he lived his life. Even with Jesus just feet away from him, he is not seeking mercy, forgiveness, or grace. He is trying to remove himself from the situation. He’s not trying to prove his care and worthiness; he’s challenging Jesus to prove Himself.

The second man shows us a different way. He has accepted his fate and, more importantly, has accepted that Jesus is who he says he is. He doesn’t ask Jesus for a miracle or a show of force. He simply asks Jesus, “Remember me.”

Yes, “He knocked once, sought once, asked once, dared everything, and found everything.”

Our Blessed Miguel Pro spent his life knocking, seeking, asking, and daring for the Lord. And when it was his own time to face his life’s end, he showed a similar courage. He did not stand before the firing squad and shout for Jesus to intervene. He did not demand that God prove Himself by sparing his life. He had carried his cross throughout his ministry, and he extended his hands so that he would die in the same formation as his Savior. And he understood that Jesus’s kingship was not one of earthly power or domination; it was a deeper power based in love and grace.

Our new lives begin when we realize that Jesus Christ is King. For the criminal—as far as we can tell—this realization finally came in a moment of pleading at the end of his life. For Blessed Miguel Pro, this realization came as a child and led to a lifetime of seeking closeness to the Lord—all the way to the unity of martyrdom.

Jesus promised both of them that they would be with him in paradise; he promises us the same thing.

Do we trust him?

Do we recognize this truth that Jesus is the King?

If we think our answer to that question is yes, do we live like it? If not, who or what are we treating like a king?

Do we have the compassion and perseverance in service to God and the poor that Blessed Miguel Pro had? Do we cry out to the Lord with the same desire for mercy as the man in today’s Gospel?

Let’s not be too hard on ourselves as we ask these questions. Many of us are doing the best that we can. But the Lord and the Church have given us these remarkable examples as a way of drawing us closer to Jesus. We are not called to stay where we are and accept our status quo as “good enough.” We are called to glory! I invite us to spend this week thinking of the ways that we can grow in our commitment to the Lord.

Ask Blessed Miguel Pro for his intercession. After all, he does need a miracle in order to become a saint! So, be bold in your request!

Viva Cristo Rey!