Spiritual Reflection

I have always been drawn to the “good thief”, St. Dismas, on the cross next to Jesus, and to Jesus’s empathetic response to him.  Dismas knew he didn’t deserve paradise, yet Jesus promised it to him simply because he asked.  It’s a wonderful picture of the simplicity of grace.

This story also provides us with one of the greatest examples of faith in the all the pages of Scripture.  Think about it.  The thief placed all his trust in Jesus at His worst moment, while He was defeated and dying.  How does a person put their confidence in a Messiah who is hanging condemned and forsaken on the cross right next to him?  This puts our own call to faith in perspective.  How do we respond when life makes no sense and God seems distant and everything seems out of control, like it does right now?  Dismas believed in a dying Jesus.  Can we, during these times, believe in a rising one?