The Good Thief

CONVERT OF CALVARY
by Mark Fellows
Rome may have ruled Israel during Our Lord's time on earth, but robbers
ruled the land. Nestled in the rugged hills, they patrolled the roads,threatening travelers with robbery and mayhem. Herod's quick rise to power
was due to his father, of course, but the son's ruthlessness in dealing with robbers was no hindrance.

A robber who eluded Herod for years was named Dismas, the thief who was crucified next to Our Lord. What we know of Dismas prior to his crucifixion is handed down from tradition. His father was a robber chief, and the apple fell not far from the tree. Whether Dismas ever considered a different way of life is unknown, but upon reaching adulthood he became more infamous than his father. He dwelt in the desert, St. John Chrysostom tells us, and robbed or murdered anyone unlucky enough to cross his path. The thousands of deaths attributed to Dismas may be hyperbole, but that Dismas was a murderer is beyond dispute. According to St. Gregory the Great, he "was guilty of blood, even his brother's blood (fratricide)."

Dismas, whose name in Greek means"sunset" or "death," spent his life sinking to ever lower depths ofcorruption and wickedness.The one recorded good deed before this hardened criminal's crucifixion also occurred in the desert. As he plodded under his cross, bleeding from scourges, dizzy and weak, the memory of his good deed was probably driven far from his mind, especially since it happened almost thirty-three years previously, when he and his men came across a family traveling across the desert and waylaid them. It was like many other robberies, except for two things. This family, unlike most travelers who carried supplies of food and money, had almost nothing of material value. This was because the husband, Joseph, had obeyed the Angel'smessage to leave for Egypt so promptly that he and Mary left most of their possessions in Nazareth.

Had they any money they could have avoided the desert and traveled to a port with boats for hire. Instead they made for Egypt overland, exchanging the pursuit of Herod for the pursuit of wild animals and brigands. It would have been a brutal journey. The holy travelers were not spared from hunger, thirst, and fatigue. In one of her visions, Blessed Anne CatherineEmmerich saw the Holy Family "exhausted and helpless," Mary in particular being upset because She had so little to feed Her child. It was in these circumstances that - according to St. Augustine, St. Peter Damian, and other Church Fathers - the Holy Family met Dismas.

That the Holy Family ran into robbers in the desert is not recorded in Sacred Scripture, but given the times they lived in, such an event may be regarded as inevitable rather than unusual. Which brings us to the second unusual part of this robbery: the infant Jesus. As the story goes, the robbers searched the Holy Family in hopes of plunder, and came across a real Treasure. Something about the infant stopped Dismas dead in his tracks. Not only did he stop looking for plunder, he paid his comrades to do the same.

Stories concerning the desert robbery of the Holy Family vary in the details. Some accounts, including the account of Sister Emmerich, have the robbers taking the Holy Family back to their cave and feeding them. Other versions omit this. What all agree on is the effect the (perhaps nine monthold) baby Jesus had on Dismas. When the Holy Family departed, their meager possessions intact, Dismas, according to St. Augustine, said to Jesus, "O most blessed of children, if ever a time should come when I should crave Thy Mercy, remember me and forget not what has passed this day."

It is unlikely Dismas recognized the infant Jesus as the Messiah, for he was not a Jew. Several authors, including St. John Damascene, have stated he was an Egyptian. Consequently he was most likely a pagan at the time he met the Holy Family. His encounter with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, however edifying it was for Dismas at the time, does not appear to have moved him to change professions.

He remained a robber and a murderer until finally he was caught, perhaps around the age of fifty.That the justice meted out to Dismas was crucifixion confirms he was a notorious criminal. Crucifixion was an excruciating (a word derived from crux, or cross) and humiliating death penalty reserved for the most grave crimes. One of the reasons the Jews clamored for Christ to be crucified was their assumption that such an ignoble death would be proof against the Messiah's life of miracles for the afflicted and admonitions for the comfortable.

The process of crucifixion included scourging and public cross carrying.While Dismas and his fellow thief, Gestas, were spared the brutality meted out to Christ, it is likely they were scourged and made to carry their crosses to the place of their impending death. So they set off under the weight of their doom, cursing their captors, their fate, and any gods within earshot. They probably arrived at Calvary before Christ, and waited as their fellow "criminal" made His tortuous way of the Cross.

Then the three were fastened to their crosses, and raised on high for all tosee and revile. For Dismas and Gestas, their violence against the innocent was at last avenged, and the ransom was their lives. As they hung there with no one to mourn their passing, they saw a holy group mourning the crucified Christ. In despair, impotent rage, and perhaps force of habit, Gestas turned against another Innocent. Dismas joined him in the mockery, according to St.Mark: "They that were crucified with Him reviled him" (Mark 15:32); and St.Matthew: "The thieves also, that were crucified with Him, reproached Him(Matthew 27:44)."

It is hard to breathe when you are being crucified. Gestas' final recorded words were hurled through choked breath like a curse: "If Thou be the Christ, save Thyself and us! (Luke 23:39)" His words were not an act of faith, but the spittle of mockery. Then came the miracle. Dismas, hanging on the other side of the Savior, turned on his fellow thief:"Neither dost thou fear God, seeing thou art under the same condemnation?And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done no evil. (Luke 23: 40-41)"

These are perhaps the most unlikely words ever recorded. Dismas was hangingnext to a Man whose body was horribly broken, on the verge of death; tooweak or beaten to even curse his tormenters; a fellow criminal able only to rouse himself occasionally to utter words that, though they were uttered in a clear voice, were difficult to comprehend. Yet Dismas' change of heart came after Christ painfully raised Himself up on the nails transfixing Him,and spoke to the Father of Mercies: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

It was then that Dismas rebuked Gestas, then turned to the Lord and said,"Lord, remember me, when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom (Luke 23: 42)." We are left to echo the words of St. Leo: "Whence has Dismas received hisfaith? Who has explained the mysterious doctrine? What preacher has inflamed him? For he now confesses, as his Lord and King, One who seems to be no more than his fellow sufferer?"It is divine grace that removed the scales from Dismas' eyes, and gave him the faith, hope, and charity not only to proclaim the Christ, but to dare to ask to enter His Kingdom. This most generous of Kingly gifts, eternal life,was swiftly bestowed by the Dying upon a most miserable sinner with the blessed words: "Amen, I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise."

What was the agent of this grace? Some Fathers have speculated that the prayers of the Virgin Mary to spare Dismas because of his kindness to theHoly Family. Others say Christ Himself repaid Dismas, remembering the thief's plea: "If ever a time should come when I should crave Thy Mercy, remember me and forget not what has passed this day."Still others, like St. Vincent Ferrer, claim the shadow of Christ's body touched Dismas, and that this, like the healing shadow of St. Peter,effected his conversion. Whatever the instrument, Dismas was transformed by a divine moral miracle into a firmer apostle than the men who had for years seen Christ perform miracles, drive out devils, and confound the evil. They had fled, leaving Dismas to proclaim Christ as the Son of God, even as He lay dying on the Cross.

It is this faith that the Fathers say warranted Dismas' speedy entrance into Paradise, that is, the extraordinary promise of Christ after he heard Dismas' confession: "Amen, I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise." Paradise is not the same as Heaven, for Christ would not ascend to Heaven for more than forty days. Paradise is interpreted by the Fathers, including St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, to mean Limbo. Aquinas says,"That word of the Lord ('This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise') must therefore be understood not of an earthly or corporeal Paradise, but of that spiritual paradise in which all may be, said to be, who are in the enjoymentof the divine glory. Hence, as to place, the thief went down with Christ into hell, that he might be with Christ, as it was said to him: 'Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise'; but as to reward, he was in Paradise, for he there tasted and enjoyed the divinity of Christ, together with the other saints."The Fathers agree that from the moment of his death Dismas enjoyed the Beatific Vision uninterrupted. A number of Fathers even believe that Dismas was the first of the saints to enter Heaven. Such an end should give courage to the weary, hope to the sinners - that is, all of us - and fervor to ask St. Dismas to intercede for us so that we may persevere until death with aslively a faith, hope, and charity as he acquired in the last moments of his life.

Truly has it been said:"Suddenly, from being an enemy, he became a friend; a stranger, he became a loving companion; coming from afar, he showed himself the true neighbor; arobber, he was changed into a glorious confessor. Great, indeed was the confidence of the thief. Conscious to himself of every sort of guilt and sin, without a single redeeming good work, he had passed his lawless life in taking the goods and even the lives of men; yet, at the end of his days, at the very gates of death, when all hopes of this present life were over, he conceived a hope of the life to come, which he had so grievously forfeited,or rather which he had never done anything to deserve. If the thief had cause to hope, who shall henceforth despair?

Sources:Msgr. Gaume, Life of the Good Thief, republished by Loreto Publications,2003.The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, From the Visions of Ven. Anne CatherineEmmerich, TAN Books And Publishers, Inc., 1970).From Catholic Family News - April 2006 (www.cfnews.org/cfn.htm).
The feast of St. Dismas is March 25th.