This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise

This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise. (St. Luke xxiii. 43)
      
The Cross offends most men. It is a stumbling block. Most men want gods of magic and mystery. They want magic to overcome their slothful refusal to be honest and noble, to work hard and diligently, and to search for the virtue that perfects their characters. Rather than engaging their souls in the pilgrimage of Grace to God’s Kingdom, most men are too busy to seek out and find God’s love in Jesus. Most men in Jesus’ day missed the Crucifixion. They were otherwise occupied, too busy, and utterly oblivious to what was going on outside Jerusalem’s city gates. Like the men of today they were too busy with their lower and lesser selves. Were you to tell them that this is what they were doing, they would take immediate offence. That you might love them enough to try to help them onto a higher spiritual plane wouldn’t register. This is a hate crime. For the brute beast, love means full acceptance of anything he is pre-programed to do. To desire change for the better that reaches out for the best is completely offensive to a world where truth is relative. What is truth? is alive and well. His resentment of you is really the hatred and then murder of Jesus. Violence is the language of the desperately irrational and unthoughtful man. Whether they were present at the Crucifixion or not, most approve of Jesus’ execution. He challenges us to dream about embracing the standards and ways of God. He is the standard and way of God. He is he way back to God. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. (St. Luke xxiii. 24)
         
But from the Cross, Jesus does not condemn his executioners. He longs for their conversion still. Today they kill Jesus. Tomorrow they may repent and believe. For a long as a man lives, Jesus tells us that we must hope for his conversion and turnaround. The executioners, harlots, publicans, mentally deranged, mammon-worshipers, and idolaters in every age have been kept outside of the churches. Why is this so? The Christians are not full of the merciful love and hope of the dying Jesus. They forget that Christ’s Broken Body must pour out his loving Blood! We all do it. We must stop this. We must become one with Jesus in His death. In becoming one with Him, we must be filled with that mercy that desires all men, regardless of their accidental qualities. We must allow our hearts to be touched by those who are sinners today but might be saints tomorrow. If our Jesus is alive in us, they will begin to perceive His love.
         
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. (St. Luke xxiii 42) From His Cross Jesus brings into His Kingdom slowly but surely. The Cross is foolishness to the world.But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. (1 Cor. i. 23) To move out of ignorance and into the clear perception of God’s goodness in Jesus Christ, we must go to the Cross. We must see with the good thief that we are justly punished for our offences. We must see that Jesus has done no wrong. We must then see that in suffering and dying innocently and without guile, malice, bitterness, or revenge, Jesus Christ is the mercy that overcomes and conquers imperfect justice in our world. Jesus Christ is the desire of God for all men. He desires and welcomes the conversion of all sinners. The good thief is the first convert to Jesus’ way. The good thief sees into the nature of Jesus. The good thief does not doubt, hesitate, waiver, or halt. He believes, hopes, and loves. Both Jesus and the good thief are bound and pinned to their crosses in utter agony. But above the pain and transcending the agony Jesus has made a new friend and son for God. 
         
The Cross is a stumbling block and foolishness to most men. Those who are called to follow Jesus to His Kingdom must be prepared for a radically new kind of relationship with God and their fellow men. Those nearest and dearest to Jesus must let go of the limited rational order of things in the world for the purposes of finding God’s love. Jesus had given His family members and His friends a taste of His way long before the crucifixion. Even they did not understand Him. The mercy and love of God in the heart of Jesus see into the heart of a repentant thief. The mercy and love of God in the heart of Jesus forgive the thief and welcome Him onto the journey into new life. New life begins on the Cross with the death of Jesus. New life begins on the Cross as the repentant thief, who knows his sin and confesses, is forgiven and dies to it. He knows Jesus. He knows Him as Lord. He accepts Him as Lord. He believes and follows Jesus to the Kingdom.
         
The good thief provides a model and pattern for our belief. Do we know Jesus? In His presence will we begin to confess our sins to Him? Will we long for the forgiveness that His death brings into the world? Will we travel with Him to the Kingdom? 
 On the cross, the nails fastened his hands and feet, and nothing of him remained free from punishment, but his heart and tongue. God inspired him to offer the whole to Him, of that which he found free in himself, to believe with his heart to righteousness, and to confess with his lips to salvation. In the hearts of the faithful there are, as the Apostle testifies, three chief virtues, faith, hope, and charity, all of which the thief, filled with sudden grace, both received and preserved on the cross.” S. Greg. (xviii. Moral. chap. 13)

Amen

©wjsmartin
 
 
         
 
      

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