From today's gospel: "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 does 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.'"
Eileen Burke-Sullivan, Creighton University: "To recognize and honor the Kingship of Christ is to know our humanity in all humility and gratitude. It is to receive the gift of salvation from one like us in all things but sin, and it is to be drawn so close to Christ's suffering in our lives that we can ask through suffering to be re-membered -- placed with Christ in the Reign of perfect mercy and everlasting joy."
It occurs to me, teaching in a school network named for Christ the King (Cristo Rey), that what Dr. Burke-Sullivan described is the network goal. Like the second criminal, our students want to be re-"membered", to know and to be included as members of the Body of Christ and Christ's kingdom, through our being Christ for our students. As De La Salle reminded us, we are to be "ambassadors and ministers of Jesus Christ", as God wants "all to come to knowledge of the truth but also that all be saved" (Med. 195.2, 193.3). What in our educational efforts seek to include and reassure our students that they are a part of Jesus Christ? Of salvation? Do our daily plans and objectives emphasize content that must be covered before the semester ends to the exclusion of the Kingdom that is mercy and joy?
Live, Jesus, in our hearts!