St. Robert Bellarmine: The Seven Words on the Cross

[Stone]

CHAPTER IV: The literal explanation of the second Word, “Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.”

The second word or the second sentence pronounced by Christ on the Cross, was, according to the testimony of St. Luke, the magnificent promise He made to the thief who was hanging on a cross beside Him. The promise was made under the following circumstances. Two thieves were crucified along with our Lord, one on His right hand, the other on His left, and one of them added to his past crimes the sin of blaspheming Christ, and of taunting Him for His want of power to save them, saying–“If Thou be Christ, save Thyself and us.”[1] St. Matthew and St. Mark, indeed, accuse both the thieves of this sin, but it is more probable that the two Evangelists used the plural for the singular number, as is frequently done in the Holy Scriptures, as St. Augustine observes in his work on the Harmony of the Gospels. Thus St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, says of the Prophets: “They stopped the mouths of lions, they were stoned, they were cut asunder, they wandered about in sheepskins and in goatskins.”[2] Still there was only one Prophet, namely Daniel, who stopped the mouths of lions; there was only one Prophet, namely Jeremias, who was stoned, and there was only one Prophet, namely Isaias, who was cut asunder. Moreover, neither St. Matthew nor St. Mark are so explicit on the point as St. Luke, who says most distinctly, ” And one of those robbers who were hanged, blasphemed Him.”[3] However, even granted that both reviled our Lord, there is no reason why the same man should not at one moment have cursed Him, and at another have proclaimed His praises.

Nevertheless, the opinion of those who maintain that one of the blaspheming thieves was converted by Christ’s prayer, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” is manifestly at variance with the Gospel narrative. For St. Luke says that the thief first began to blaspheme Christ after He had made this prayer; we are consequently driven to adopt the opinion of St. Augustine and St. Ambrose, who say that only one of the thieves reviled Him, whilst the other extolled and defended Him; and on this account the good thief rebuked the blasphemer: “Neither dost thou fear God, seeing thou art under the same condemnation?”[4] Happy was the thief from his fellowship with Christ on the Cross. The rays of Divine light which were beginning to penetrate the darkness of his soul, made him eager to rebuke the companion of his wickedness, and convert him to a better life; and this is the full meaning of his rebuke.” Thou, indeed, wishest to imitate the blasphemy of the Jews, who have not yet learnt to fear the judgments of God, but boast of the victory they fancy they have achieved by nailing Christ to a cross. They consider themselves free and safe and are under no apprehension of punishment. But dost not thou, who art being crucified for thy enormities, dread God’s avenging justice? Why addest thou sin to sin?” Then proceeding from virtue to virtue, and helped on by the increasing grace of God, he confesses his sins and proclaims Christ to be innocent. “We, indeed,” he says, are “justly” condemned to the death of the cross, “for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man hath done no evil.”[5] Finally, the light of grace still increasing in his soul, he adds: “Lord, remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom.”[6] Admirable, indeed, was the grace of the Holy Spirit which was poured into the heart of the good thief. The Apostle St. Peter denied his Master, the thief confessed Him when He was nailed to His Cross. The disciples going to Emmaus said, “We hoped that it was He that should have redeemed Israel.”[7] The thief asks with confidence, ” Remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom.” The Apostle St. Thomas declares that he will not believe in the Resurrection until he shall have beheld Christ; the thief gazing on Christ Whom he saw fastened to a gibbet, never doubts but that He will be a King after His death.

Who has instructed the thief in mysteries so profound? He calls that man Lord whom he perceives to be naked, wounded, in grief, insulted, despised, and hanging on a Cross beside him: he says that after His death He will come into His kingdom. From which we may learn that the thief did not picture to himself the kingdom of Christ to be a temporal one, as the Jews imagined it to be, but that after His death He would be a King for ever in heaven. Who has been his instructor in secrets so sacred and sublime? No one, forsooth, unless it be the Spirit of Truth, Who awaited him with His sweetest benedictions. Christ after His Resurrection said to His Apostle: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so enter into His glory?”[8] But the thief miraculously foreknew this, and confessed Christ to be a King at the time when not a semblance of royalty surrounded Him. Kings reign during their lifetime, and when they cease to live they cease to reign; the thief, however, proclaims aloud that Christ, by means of His death would succeed to a kingdom, which is what our Lord signifies in the parable: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.”[9] Our Lord spoke these words a short time previous to His Passion, to show us that by His death He would go into a far country, that is to another life; or in other words, that He would go to heaven which is far removed from the earth, to receive a great and eternal kingdom, but that He would return at the last day, and would repay every man according to his conduct in this world, either with reward or with punishment. Concerning this kingdom, therefore, which Christ would receive immediately after His death, the thief wisely said: “Remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom.” But it may be asked, Was not Christ our Lord a King before His death? Beyond a doubt He was, and therefore the Magi continually inquired, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?[10] And Christ Himself said to Pilate: “Thou sayest that I am a King. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth.[11] Yet He was a King in this world like a traveller amongst strangers, therefore He was not recognized as a King except by a few, and was despised and illreceived by the majority. And so in the parable we have just quoted, He said that He would go “into a far country to receive for Himself a kingdom.” He did not say He would gain it as it were from another, but would receive it as His own, and would return, and the thief wisely remarked, “When Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom.” The kingdom of Christ is not synonymous in this passage with regal power or sway, for this He exercised from the beginning according to these verses of the Psalms. “But I am appointed King by Him over Sion, His holy mountain.”[12] “He shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”[13] And Isaias says, ” A Child is born to us, and a Son is given to us, and the government is upon His shoulders.”[14] And Jeremias, “I will raise up to David a just branch: and a King shall reign and shall be wise, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.”[15] And Zacharias, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King will come to thee, the just and Saviour; He is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.”[16] Therefore in the parable of receiving a kingdom, Christ did not refer to sovereign power, nor indeed did the good thief in his petition, “Remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom,” but both spoke of that perfect bliss which delivers man from the servitude and anxiety of temporal matters, subjects him to God alone, to serve Whom is to reign, and by Whom he is constituted over all His works. This kingdom of unspeakable bliss of soul Christ enjoyed from the moment of his conception, but bliss of body which was His by right He did not actually enjoy until after His Resurrection. For whilst He was a sojourner in this vale of tears, He was subject to fatigues, to hunger and to thirst, to injuries, to wounds, and to death. But because His Body ought always to have been glorious, therefore immediately after death He entered into the enjoyment of the glory which belonged to Him: and in these terms He referred to this after His Resurrection: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to have entered into His glory?” This glory He calls His own, since it is in His power to make others participators of it, and for this reason He is called the “King of glory,” and “Lord of glory,” and “King of kings,”[17] and He Himself says to His Apostles: “I dispose to you a kingdom.”[18] He, indeed, can receive glory and a kingdom, but we can bestow neither one nor the other, and we are invited to “enter into the joy of thy Lord,”[19] and not into our own joy. This then is the kingdom of which the good thief spoke when he said, “When Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom.”

But we must not pass over the many excellent virtues shadowed forth in the prayer of the holy thief. A brief review of them will prepare us for Christ’s answer to the petition; “Lord, remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom.” In the first place he calls Him Lord, to show that he regards himself as a servant, or rather as a redeemed slave, and acknowledges Christ to be his Redeemer. He then subjoins a simple request, but one full of faith, hope, love, devotion, and humility–“Remember me.” He does not say, Remember me if Thou canst: for he firmly believes Christ can do all things. He does not say, Please, Lord, remember me, for he has the fullest confidence in His charity and compassion. He does not say, I desire, Lord, to reign with you in your kingdom, for his humility forbade him. In fine, he solicits no special favour, but simply prays, “Remember me,” as though he would say, All I desire, Lord, is that you would deign to remember me, and cast your benignant eyes upon me, for I know that you are all-powerful and all-wise, and I put my entire trust in your goodness and love. It is clear from the concluding words of his prayer, “When Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom,” that he seeks nothing perishable and vain, but aspires after something eternal and sublime.

We will now give ear to the answer of Christ: “Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.” The word “Amen” was used by Christ whenever He wished to make a solemn and serious announcement to His followers. St. Augustine has not hesitated to affirm that this word was, in the mouth of our Lord, a kind of oath. It could not indeed be an oath, according to the words of Christ: “But I say to you not to swear at all, but let your speech be yea, yea; no, no; and that which is over and above these is evil.”[20] We cannot, therefore, conclude that our Lord swore an oath as often as He used the word Amen. Amen was a term frequently on His lips, and sometimes He not only prefaced His remarks with Amen, but with Amen, amen. So the remark of St. Augustine that the word Amen is not an oath, but a kind of oath, is perfectly just, for the meaning of the word is truly, verily, and when Christ says: Verily I say to you, He seriously means what He says, and consequently the expression has almost the same force as an oath. With great reason, therefore, did He thus address the thief; ” Amen I say to you,” that is, I assure you in the most solemn manner I can short of an oath; for the thief might have refused on three pleas to have given credit to the promise of Christ unless He had solemnly asseverated it. First, he might have refused credence on account of his unworthiness to be the recipient of so great a reward, and so high a favour. For who could have imagined that the thief would have been transferred on a sudden from a cross to a kingdom? Secondly he might have refused credence by reason of the person who made the promise, seeing that He was at the moment reduced to the extreme of want, weakness, and misfortune, and the thief might thus have argued to himself: If this man cannot do a favour to His friends during His lifetime, how will He be able to assist them after His death? Lastly, he might have refused credence by reason of the promise itself. Christ promised Paradise. Now the Jews interpreted the word Paradise in reference to the body and not to the soul, since they always used it in the sense of a terrestial Paradise. If our Lord had meant to say: This day thou shalt be with Me in a place of repose with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the thief might easily have believed Him; but as He did not mean this, He therefore prefaced His promise with this assurance: “Amen I say to you.”

“This day.” He does not say I will place you on My Right Hand amongst the just at the Day of Judgment. Nor does He say, I will bring you to a place of rest after some years of suffering in Purgatory. Nor again, I will console you in a few months or days hence: but this very day, before the sun sets, you shall pass with Me from the gibbet of the cross to the delights of Paradise. Wonderful is the liberality of Christ: wonderful also is the good fortune of the sinner. St. Augustine, in his work on the Origin of the Soul, considers with St. Cyprian that the thief may be accounted a martyr, and that his soul went direct to heaven without passing through Purgatory. The good thief may be called a martyr because he publicly confessed Christ when not even the Apostles dared say a word in His behalf, and on account of this spontaneous confession, the death which he suffered in the company of Christ deserved as great a reward before God as if he had suffered it for the name of Christ. If our Lord had made no other promise than, ” Thou shalt be with Me,” this alone would have been an unspeakable blessing for the thief, since St. Augustine writes: ” Where can there be anything evil with Him, and without Him where can there be anything good?” Christ indeed did not make any trivial promise to those who follow Him when He said, ” If any man minister to Me, let him follow Me: and where I am there also shall My minister be.”[21] To the thief. however. He promised not only His companionship, but likewise Paradise.

Although some people have disputed about the meaning of the word Paradise in this text, there seems to be no ground for the discussion. For it is certain, since it is an article of faith, that on the very day of His death the Body of Christ was placed in the sepulchre, and His Soul went down into Limbus, and it is equally certain that the word Paradise, whether we talk of the clestial or terrestirial Paradise, cannot be applied either to the sepulchre or to Limbus. It cannot be applied to the sepulchre, because that was a most sorry place, the fir abode of corpses, and Christ was the only one buried in the sepulchre: the thief was buried elsewhere. Moreover, the words, “Thou shalt be with Me,” would not have been accomplished, if Christ had spoken merely of the sepulchre. Nor can the word Paradise be applied to Limbus. For Paradise is a garden of delights, and even in the earthly paradise there were flowers and fruits, limpid waters, and a delicious mildness in the air. In the celestial Paradise there were delights without end, glory unfailing, and the seats of the blessed. But in Limbus, where the souls of the just were detained, there was no light, no cheerfulness, no pleasure; not indeed that these souls were in suffering, since the hope of their redemption and the prospect of seeing Christ was a subject of consolation and rejoicing to them, but they were kept like captives in prison. And in this sense the Apostle, expounding the Prophets, says, “Ascending on high, He led captivity captive.”[22] And Zacharias says, ” Thou also, by the blood of Thy testament, hast sent forth Thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein is no water,”[23] where the words, “Thy prisoners, and the pit wherein is no water,” evidently point not to the delightfulness of Paradise but to the obscurity of a prison. Therefore in the promise of Christ the word Paradise could mean nothing else than the beatitude of the soul, which consists in the vision of God, and this is truly a paradise of delights, not a corporeal and a local paradise, but a spiritual and a heavenly one. For which reason, to the request of the thief, “Remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom,” our Lord did not reply, “This day thou shalt be with Me” in My kingdom, but, “Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise,” because on that day Christ entered not into His kingdom, and did not enter it till the day of His Resurrection, when His Body became immortal, impassible, glorious, and was no longer liable to any servitude or subjection. And He will not have the good thief for His companion in this kingdom until the resurrection of all men at the last day. Nevertheless, with great truth and propriety He said to him: “This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise,” since on this very day He would communicate both to the soul of the good thief and to the souls of the saints in Limbus that glory of the vision of God which He had received in His conception; for this is true glory and essential felicity; this is the crowning joy of the celestial Paradise. The choice of words used by Christ on this occasion is also greatly to be admired. He did not say; This day we shall be in Paradise, but, “This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise;” as though He wished to explain Himself more fully, thus: This day thou art with Me on the Cross, but thou art not with Me in the Paradise in which I am in respect to the superior part of My Soul. But in a little while, even to- day, thou shalt be with Me, not only liberated from the arms of the cross, but embraced in the bosom of Paradise.


ENDNOTES

1. St. Luke xxiii. 39.
2. Heb. xii. 33-37.
3. St. Luke xxiii. 39.
4. St. Luke xxiii. 40.
5. St. Luke xxiii. 41.
6. St. Luke xxiii. 42.
7. St. Luke xxiv. 21.
8. St. Luke xxiv. 26.
9. St. Luke xix. 12.
11. St. John xviii. 37.
12. Psalm ii. 6.
13. Psalm lxx.
14. Isaias ix. 6.
15. Jer. xxiii. 5.
16. Zach. ix. 9.
17. Apoc. xix. 16.
18. St. Luke xxii. 29.
19. St. Matt. xxv. 21.
20. St. Matt. v. 34-37
21. St. John xii. 26.
22. Ephes. iv. 8.
23. Zach. ix. 11.