Of course, it is a blessing when we can see Christ at work. Christ is healing prisoners in ways known only to each person, ways we may not see. Dismas, we would see no redemption.Īnd yet Christ is working. If we look at these prisoners from an outside perspective, the way the crowd at Golgotha watched St. Externally, nothing will change the darkness around them. Prisoners on death row or serving a life sentence, like St. Dismas’ onlookers know anything had changed for him, still dying on his cross? Luke’s Gospel, we can still wonder, how many people in the crowd heard Christ offer His mercy to St. Nothing externally changed about his circumstances. Dismas was not suddenly taken down from his cross. Dismas that He would deliver him to the Kingdom, St. Dismas pleaded for Christ’s mercy, and after Christ granted his request, promising St. However, there’s something more worth reflecting on in this scene. Dismas was being executed, Christ saw him as His own. Dismas, He saw his sincere repentance, his hope in the Lord. For the crowd gathered at Golgotha, there must have seemed nothing redeemable about St. “We are receiving the due reward of our deeds.” It is likely no one disagreed with him.
Dismas was judged, found guilty, suspended on a cross-and according to St. Dismas, we are preparing to die.īut what does it mean for a convicted criminal to be the first person ushered into the Kingdom of Heaven, ushered by God Himself on the day of His crucifixion? Hopefully, something that comes to our minds when we reflect on these Scriptures is God’s obvious dismissal of our judgments of other people. At the end of our lives, we too will ask God to deliver us into His Kingdom, so we practice this prayer now, in the Liturgy and throughout our lives. Dismas, the thief crucified beside Christ: “Jesus, remember me when you come into Your Kingdom.” When we say these words in the Divine Liturgy, it is customary to make the sign of the Cross, symbolizing how we take St. In the Orthodox Church, we know well the words of St. “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at, 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 into Your Kingdom.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.’” (Luke 23: 39-43)
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