Christ the King procession and Mass

It was a bit cold and rainy yesterday and today promises to be the same. A cold front, they call it.

This is normal for November, December, and early January. Yet there are often bright, sunny, and even hot days interspersed.

Last Sunday was warm and sunny – which was good for us as we celebrated the feast of Christ the King in the parish of Dulce Nombre with a procession from the outskirts of Dulce Nombre de Copán to Dolores – probably about three kilometers, partly uphill.

My guess is that over 2,000 people came from almost all the villages of the parish to celebrate this all-parish Mass. A few came with statues on decorated pickups.

The pickup with the parish statue of the Sacred Heart broke down and so the statue was carried up hill for more than a kilometer.

Mass was celebrated outside the church in Dolores, with most of the people standing or sitting in the town park.

The communion ministers came and were given a special insignia to wear when they take communion to the sick.

It was a good day to be with the people.

There was only one thing that I found a bit disconcerting. An older artist in Dolores had made an image of Christ the King that was placed above the stage where the altar was.

Take a look.

Jesus is a gringo.

Someone asked me about the image and I respectfully told him that Jesus was not a gringo. He was probably more like them – black hair, brown eyes, dark skinned.

A few months ago I had mentioned the same thing to a young artist in Dulce Nombre about an image he painted in the church. I also showed him a variety of images of Jesus. He recently finished repainting the image of Jesus – ‘más trigueño,” he told me: “more dark-skinned.”

A Christ poor and like the people here is the Christ I envision – a King who came to serve.