Easter and Passover Lesson: It s Never Too Late – WSJ

Always hits me like a punch. They re minutes from death. One thief goes out the way he d always likely been, insolent and mean. The other thief has a heart for justice we deserve what s happening to us, but he doesn t and asks for mercy. Christ tells him, essentially, you re not forever alone, soon we ll be together in Heaven.

The story, in Luke s Gospel, is understood as a moment of grace and redemption, and it is those things, but it s also a story involving the simple idea that it s never too late. Famous words we say it s never too late to learn physics or go to Machu Picchu but this story is about the infinitely more important idea that it s never too late to become a better human being.

When I asked New York s Cardinal Timothy Dolan why the story moves so many of us, his response sounded like a merry devotional poem. I m ecstatic at your interest / In my buddy St. Dismas. (The good thief became known as Dismas, no one s sure why, and has been called a saint from the first centuries.)

I love him, the cardinal said. I ve always had a deep devotion. When I was a kid at Catholic school, Sister called him the thief who stole Heaven.  

It isn t just that Christ comforted the thief, the thief comforted him. Here is Jesus at the most desolate moment of his life. He was alone, the apostles had run off. He thinks, This thief professes faith in me. He s asking me to perform a miracle and get him into Heaven. This is an immense consolation to Jesus.

Pope Benedict once said it s the only time in the Gospels someone calls the Lord just by his first name Jesus, not Jesus, son of God or Rabbi Jesus. This thief felt so close to him he uses his first name. For Christians the story resonates because we re talking about all of us if the thief got in, we could all get in; if he receives mercy, we all got a chance.

via www.wsj.com

Peggy Noonan.

Looking forward to Easter.