A Presence Worth Dying For
“Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
“You will be with me.” Evidently, this kind of expression is very important to Jesus. In a moment of profound anguish - ultimate anguish - and immense guilt, the “good” thief turns to Jesus with a simple request to be “remembered.” Jesus is God and so he is infinitely good and infinitely wise, which makes it worth paying attention to how he chose to respond here. Jesus could have said or done anything he wanted in that moment. And what is the number one thing Jesus thinks this anguished, guilt-ridden, dying man needs to hear? “You will be with me.” He mentions paradise, but I think it’s fair to say that the more important part of that sentence is his declaration of being “with” him.
I say this because Jesus elsewhere makes a point of saying he is “with” someone. Reread the Last Supper narrative in John’s gospel and take note of how many times Jesus talks about being “with” his disciples or with the Father. The synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, & Luke) all show Jesus delighting in his chance to have supper with the apostles and talking about looking forward to drinking wine “with [them] new in the kingdom of my Father” (Mt 26:29). When hanging from the Cross, Jesus must surely have been thinking of this same intimacy and communion so that he knew the most consoling thing he could offer the dying criminal was the promise of that communion to come.
Now that we’ve come through another Holy Week and are in the middle of the Easter season, it’s worth shining the light of the resurrection back on these famous “last words” of Jesus. After rising from the dead, Jesus appears to his apostles and promises the Holy Spirit. In the gospel of Matthew, the very last words of the whole gospel show us the resurrected Jesus saying “I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). Isn’t it interesting that the promise the crucified Jesus makes to the dying criminal beside him is the same promise the resurrected Jesus makes to the still living, healthy apostles? That correlation ought to point us to several different channels of reflection and prayer.
For one, consider the correspondence between a criminal’s duty to repent and an apostle’s duty to evangelize. The dying criminal rightly embraces his suffering as penance for his sins while at the same time throwing himself on God’s mercy. Even though he knows he deserves his punishment, he does not think that being punished is enough to guarantee him the right to eternal life. A deserved punishment does not save us. It is still necessary to rely on the mercy of God. And God, for his part, promises to be with us in our punishment (as Jesus was crucified with the thief) so that his mercy can transfigure justice from the inside out to grant us a salvation we could never earn. The newly encouraged apostles rightly accept the commission of Jesus to “make disciples of all nations” while at the same time being aware of their reliance on Christ to be able to carry out that mission. Jesus says “all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” but he then sends the apostles out to evangelize the whole world and they don’t have all the power on earth. That’s okay, though, because they do have Jesus with them until the end of the age.
Another thing we can consider is how Jesus’ presence to us bridges the reality of suffering and mission. While Matthew’s gospel ends on a high note of being sent out to convert the whole world, we know the rest of the story does not stay there. All except one of those men would be brutally murdered for carrying out their mission. Yet, just as Jesus’ consoling and strengthening presence helped the dying criminal to endure his final moments of repentance, so Jesus’ presence helps the apostles remain faithful to their mission in spite of death. Indeed, it is because of their willingness to suffer with and for Jesus that the apostles are successful as missionaries and pastors.
Though the crucified thief never goes on a preaching tour of the world, he too becomes a witness to the world of the truth of the gospel. We call him St. Dismas and invoke his intercession. His simple, honest words are remembered by billions of people in history and, for many of those people, are a major reason they were able to approach Jesus themselves in search of salvation. Our willingness to suffer for our sins and our willingness to suffer for the mission of evangelization are linked together by the fact that Jesus is present to both. We’ve reflected here before on the value of redemptive suffering, but it bears repeating. Jesus is with us in our sufferings so that, if we respond with fatih and hope to that suffering, it can become a channel of grace that saves our souls and the souls of others.
Lastly, consider the motivating power of this promise of presence. Jesus asks us to do hard things… impossible things, by human standards. To “take up [the] cross daily and follow” Jesus (Lk 9:23) is something of an absurd request to make of someone. Yet, it is what Jesus asks. In the case of the good thief, it is quite literal. In the case of a few of the apostles, it is also literal. All of them, however, bravely face this because they know, they experience that presence in a way that is tangible enough to carry them through the impossible. This is the supernatural power of the supernatural virtue we call hope. Hope is not just wishful thinking, it is the capacity to persevere because you have confidence in the reward. Although neither the thief nor the apostles experience the fullness of Christ’s presence - we’ll only know that in heaven - the presence they have experienced and the anticipation of that fuller presence are enough to carry the through the supernatural act of facing the cross (literally and figuratively) with patience, love, and faith.
For our part, it helps to remember this when faced with our own response to what God asks of us. He promises rewards in this life and the next. The rewards of the next life are not something we can prove or even fully understand. Yet, by allowing ourselves to be suffused by the grace of Jesus Christ, by embracing his presence, they can be tangible enough to motivate us to do what must be done. So, take note of his promise to be with you. Make sure to spend time in his presence both in personal prayer and in the sacramental presence of the Eucharist. Then, when faced with the challenges and crosses of your life, remember that the same God-man who brought a dying thief to paradise and converted the world with a bunch of fishermen did it by giving them the same thing he has given you: himself.
