Second Word from the Cross: True and False Kings — True and False Paradise
National Catholic Register, 30 March 2026
‘Today you will be with me in paradise.’
Editor’s note: Father Raymond J. de Souza recorded meditations on the Seven Last Words at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Ogdensburg, New York. They will air on EWTN on Good Friday at 1:00 p.m. (EDT). It will also be available at ewtn.com and EWTN+. Through Good Friday, those meditations will be published at the Register.
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One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise’ (Luke 23:39-43).
The question of kingship was central in 1776. The Declaration made a long list of complaints against King George III, a list sufficiently grave that the signers argued that he no longer could claim the right to rule over them.
Jesus was accused of claiming a false kingship, of undermining the rule of the Roman emperor. The charge before the Sanhedrin was that of blasphemy; before Pilate it was that he was disloyal to Caesar. Pilate had him crucified under that charge: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. The chief priests objected. Pilate dismissed them; “What I have written, I have written” (John 19:22).
The Good Thief recognizes the truth of what Pilate wrote. He addresses Jesus as one who has a kingdom, and pleads for remembrance there. Jesus on the Cross does not look like a king. The crown of thorns pressed into his Sacred Head, and the purple robe previously draped upon him were instruments of mockery.
The kings of this world have the proper trappings; some revel in them. They do not permit themselves to be mocked. The challenge of the Christian disciple is to distinguish between the outward appearance and the internal reality. Jesus does not appear to be a king, but he is. He lays down his life for his friends.
Many rulers are frauds, corrupt charlatans, willing to lay down their friends for their own life, their power, their riches. The Christian, like the Good Thief, must be able to recognize the difference.
On July 4, 1776, the same day that the Declaration was signed, the Continental Congress struck a committee to design the official seal of the United States. It was an impressive committee, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. The seal, after years of deliberation, would include the eagle and the pyramid, watched over by the “eye of Providence.” But that was not the original proposal. Franklin suggested a biblical image for the seal, that of Moses parting the Red Sea. The idea of America as an “almost chosen people” was older than Lincoln.
Franklin proposed that the seal show “Moses standing on the Shore, and extending his Hand over the Sea, thereby causing the same to overwhelm Pharaoh, who is sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his Head and a Sword in his Hand. Rays from a Pillar of Fire in the Clouds reaching to Moses, to express that he acts by Command of the Deity.”
Franklin proposed as the Motto: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”
There are different kinds of crowns. Jesus wears one on the Cross. Pharaoh wears one in the Red Sea. Different crowns for different kinds of kings.
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