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PART II
18. THE CROSS AND THE TWO
CRIMINALS
The fame of his gentle and winning ways spread far and
wide so that many robbers and criminals used to come eagerly to seek peace and
reconciliation with God.
(St. Vincent Strambi, CP comment on
On each side of the cross of
Jesus was a criminal. One was full of anger and resentment, turning to Jesus,
but concerned really for himself, and who tried to manipulate the power of
Jesus, so that he could be delivered from his own punishment. Jesus surely
would have wanted to 'embrace' him but the criminal was not open to his
embrace. The other criminal, on the other hand, recognized his crime but turned
to Jesus, in the hope of being forgiven.
Spencer Tracy acts as an
elderly priest in the film 'The Devil at 4 O'clock', which refers to an
exploding volcano at that hour on an island in the Pacific. As he accompanies a
criminal, just before the volcano erupts, he speaks to him about the converted
criminal on the cross: St. Dismus. He tells him that Dismus was the smartest of
all robbers, because he robbed heaven. With this he got the criminal to ask
forgiveness of God for his sins by reciting together with the priest, the Our
Father. Immediately afterward the volcano killed them both in a massive
explosion that destroyed the whole island. [1]
Truly St. Dismus was the
first saint to be proclaimed by Jesus Himself.
Now one of the criminals hanging there
reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us.” The
other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, “Have you no fear of God, for you
are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned
justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man
has done nothing criminal.” Then he
said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today
you will be with me in
In truth, we are all in need of God's mercy, which frees
us from the slavery of sin. His mercy
goes far beyond anything we can compare with our human narrow mindedness, so
prone to condemn and not forgive. But we have the "Our Father" to
remind us: "forgive us our
offenses, as we forgive those who offend us…" And Jesus warns us that the
measure with which we measure others will be used to measure us:
"If you forgive others their
transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not
forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your
transgressions." (Mathew 6: 14-15)
Jesus wants us to forgive always as He responds to
Peter's question as to how often must we
forgive others.
Then Peter approaching asked him,
"Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?" Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven
times but seventy-seven times" (Mathew 18: 21-22)
We see how great and holy
people presented in the Scriptures who are not only presented with their
positive points, but also with their limitations: Moses with his lack of trust
in the Lord to the point that God gets angry with him.
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I
should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of
Moses, however, said to the Lord, “If
you please, my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor now
that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and tongue.” The
Lord said to him: Who gives one person speech? Who makes another mute or deaf,
seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, I will assist you in speaking
and teach you what you are to say. But
he said, “If you please, my Lord, send someone else!” Then the Lord became
angry with Moses and said: I know there is your brother, Aaron the Levite, who is
a good speaker; even now he is on his way to meet you. When he sees you, he
will truly be glad. (Exodus 3: 9-10; 4:11-14)
And then there is his pride
that gets in the way of his leadership:
Then Moses and Aaron gathered the
assembly in front of the rock, where he said to them, “Just listen, you rebels!
Are we to produce water for you out of this rock?” Then, raising his hand,
Moses struck the rock twice with his staff, and water came out in abundance,
and the community and their livestock drank. But the Lord said to Moses and
Aaron: "Because you did not have confidence in me, to acknowledge my
holiness before the Israelites, therefore you shall not lead this assembly into
the land I have given them." (Numbers 20:10-12)
Then we have David who gets
carried away with his lust:
One evening David rose from his bed and
strolled about on the roof of the king's house. From the roof he saw a woman
bathing; she was very beautiful. David sent people to inquire about the woman
and was told, “She is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, and wife of Uriah the
Hittite, Joab's armor-bearer.” Then David sent messengers and took her. When
she came to him, he took her to bed, at a time when she was just purified after
her period; and she returned to her house. But the woman had become pregnant;
she sent a message to inform David, “I am pregnant.” (2 Samuel 11:2-5)
This is followed by his
deceit to try to cover up the consequences of his sin:
"David summoned Uriah, and he ate and drank with
David, who got him drunk. But in the
evening he went out to sleep on his bed
among his lord's servants, and did not go down to his house. The next morning
David wrote a letter to Joab which he sent by Uriah. This is what he wrote in
the letter: “Place Uriah up front, where the fighting is fierce. Then pull back
and leave him to be struck down dead.” So while Joab was besieging the city, he
assigned Uriah to a place where he knew the defenders were strong. When the men of the city made a sortie
against Joab, some officers of David's army fell, and Uriah the Hittite also
died." (2 Samuel 11: 13-17)
Then we have James, John and
their mother who are led astray by their pride as they request Jesus’
privileged places in the Reign of Christ:
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee
approached him with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for
something. He said to her, “What do you
wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your
right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.” Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what
you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?” They said to
him, “We can.” He replied, “My cup you will indeed drink, but to sit at my
right and at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been
prepared by my Father.” When the ten
heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them
and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the
great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great
among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be
your slave." (Matthew 20:20-27)
We also see Peter and the
other apostles with their cowardly behavior of fleeing away in the
At that hour Jesus said to the crowds,
“Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to seize me? Day
after day I sat teaching in the temple area, yet you did not arrest me. But all
this has come to pass that the writings of the prophets may be fulfilled.” Then
all the disciples left him and fled. (Mathew 26: 55-56)
Also we see Peter as
previously mentioned, denying knowing Jesus three times before the cock crowed
when Jesus was arrested. (cfr. Mark 14: 66-72)
After all, as Jesus said, He has not come for the healthy but for the
sick.
Jesus heard this and said to them,
“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come
to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)
He said that He had come to save what was lost.
"For the Son of Man has come to
seek and to save what was lost." (Luke 19:10).
The Lord may have to shake us
up at times so that we may not be lost when he fails to help us repent and be
reformed, because of his Love for
us.
Therefore you rebuke offenders little by
little, warn them, and remind them of the sins they are committing, that they
may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, Lord! (Wisdom 12: 2)
Going back to the meditations
of Fr. Cué on the broken crucifix without a face, one arm and no cross as a
consequence of a bombardment during the 2nd World War, one of his meditations
is on the missing arm. He mentions how Christ always uses his gentle right hand
to lead us, but when we resist walking on the right path, He will use the
severe left hand to give us a wake up call so that we don't destroy ourselves
in sin. (Cué 1963)
Jesus actually makes clear in
a particular way how much He is willing to ask the Father to forgive his enemies’ insults, mockery;
and when He is being crucified on the cross, He calls out: "Father forgive
them, for they do not know what they are doing."
(Luke 23:34)
I could not understand for
years why Christ would say "they do not know what they are doing".
But then reflecting on it one day, it suddenly dawned on me why. Do those
people mocking and condemning Jesus, realize that they are robbing themselves
of happiness by excluding and rejecting Christ out of their lives? After all,
every one, no matter how evil, wants happiness…they are losing it by doing
evil…so they truly don't know what they are doing; nor do we when we fall into
sin.
No doubt, we have to be
careful of hypocrisy when judging others. As Jesus says:
"Why do you notice the splinter in
your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, "Let me
remove that splinter from your eye," while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see
clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye." (Matthew 7:3-5).
Proof of this is when Jesus
confronts the group of men wanting to stone the women caught in adultery.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees
brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the
middle. They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of
committing adultery. Now in the law,
Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they could
have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on
the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened
up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to
throw a stone at her.” Again he bent
down and wrote on the ground. And in
response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left
alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any
more.” (John 8:3-11)
When confronted by Jesus they
went away one by one as they all had their own sin to deal with. Jesus 'pulled
the women out of the pit' so to say, restoring her dignity and sent her on the
way encouraging her not to sin again. We see a difference between Jesus and the
Pharisees in their judgments. Jesus often judged others for bad behavior, not
them in person as such, in order to help them renounce evil ways, while the
Pharisees judged the women, projecting their own sinfulness onto this poor
woman in condemnation, sinking her into greater despair. Jesus, in his exchange
with the Pharisees, leads them to confront their own hypocrisy and sinfulness,
while lifting up the woman from her sinful situation through his merciful Love. That is the main
difference. Pope Francis expresses well the proper attitude when addressing the
youth in Panamá:
You see, a love which
unites is a love that does not overwhelm or oppress, cast aside or reduce to
silence, humiliate or dominate. It is the love of the Lord, a daily, discreet
and respectful love; a love that is free and freeing, a love that heals and
raises up. The love of the Lord has to do more with raising up than knocking
down, with reconciling than forbidding, with offering new chances than
condemning, with the future than the past. It is the quiet love of a hand
outstretched to serve, a commitment that draws no attention to itself. It is a
love that does not put on airs, a humble love that gives itself to others with
an outstretched hand. This is the love that unites us today.
(WYD-Panama-2019)
No doubt, fighting evil and
even practicing fraternal correction is necessary and important. It is judging
and condemning a behavior and not the person, with the intent of helping the
person out of their sinful ways. Just as Jesus was critical of evil behavior,
so John the Baptist paid dearly for confronting Herod who was living with his
brother's wife when he said to Herod: “It is not lawful for you to have your
brother's wife.” (Mark 6:18) No doubt many prophets paid with persecution and
death for denouncing evil ways.
In synthesis, the key
difference then when judging, is that the positive attitude is one that tries
to help others to move back onto the right track when they are wrong, while the
negative attitude of judging, is to condemn and tear down a person, getting
them to sink even further into despair over their sin.
19. THE CROSS AND THE
CRUCIFIXION WITH THE TONGUE
[1] The Devil at 4 O'clock is a 1961 American Eastman color disaster film, starring Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra and directed by Mervyn LeRoy