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Posted on November 25, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope Why Was Christ Crucified Between Two Thieves? It is good and necessary to ponder more of the Gospel of yesterday’s Solemnity of Christ the King. It remains a profound teaching that Christ was crucified between two thieves. Why?St. Thomas Aquinas proposes three answers to the question. Let’s consider them, with particular emphasis on the third.I. To Identify with Fallen Sinners – St Thomas said, As Christ became accursed of the cross for us, so for our salvation He was crucified as a guilty one among the guilty (Comm. xxxiii in...

THE HISTORY OF PASSIONTIDE AND HOLY WEEK AFTER HAVING PROPOSED the forty-days’ Fast of Jesus in the Desert to the meditation of the Faithful, during the first four weeks of Lent, the Holy Church gives the two weeks, which still remain before Easter, to the commemoration of the Passion. she would not have her children come to the great Day of the immolation of the Lamb, without their having prepared for it by compassionating with him in the Sufferings he endured in their stead. The most ancient Sacramentaries and Antiphonaries of the several Churchest attest, by the Prayers, the...

April 7, 2003Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent Psalm: Monday Week 17 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Gospel Reading IDn 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62 or 13:41c-62 In Babylon there lived a man named Joakim,who married a very beautiful and God-fearing woman, Susanna,the daughter of Hilkiah;her pious parents had trained their daughteraccording to the law of Moses.Joakim was very rich;he had a garden near his house,and the Jews had recourse to him oftenbecause he was the most respected of them all. That year, two elders of the people were appointed judges,of whom the Lord said, "Wickedness has come out of Babylon:from...