The Bible: January 2002
	A matter of thieves. Luke 23,39 and following

		A bit of humor at the beginning of the New Year. A large part of this text was published in the letter of Jonas.   A matter of thieves, Luke 23, 39 and following  There is the one we call the penitent thief, for him he has a future. His words of conversion and repent and the proclamation of his faith in Jesus granted him to enter immediately into the paradise, that is the House of the Father. However the promise, the engagement of Jesus to take him with him, includes one word, only one, that is directed, like the others, at all the humanity: "I am telling you, today you will be with me…" The word "today" tells us that between our departure from this world and the coming into the House of the Father, there is no delay; there is no purifying lock chamber (Is there a thief who does not deserve a purification?). It is just as if there were no need for an extra time to complete and achieve the salvation brought on earth by the Redeemer…   Two of them managed to pass through: one of them was Jesus and the other the ''good one" What about the third one? The one considered as the "bad one"? For me I see that even if Jesus takes care of the "good one ", he says nothing about the other. And popular wisdom tells us that "who says nothing agrees" Jesus takes care also of this poor man suffering like himself and who begs some how for help. And looking more closely, he also has some belief in Jesus: " Are you not the Messiah…?"  Can we look down on him? How many of us have addressed to Jesus like this " If you want, you can heal me…" without to be considered as evil? We have to have compassion for this poor guy. More so, how could the first two abandon him? To be coherent, having being put together in the same "situation" they should have taken him with them. There is some truths that stand as truths, like "Never two without three" or "we all go to heaven!" Consequently Jesus in going to heaven, had to hold in his right hand the left hand of the penitent thief, and in his left hand the right hand of the impenitent thief. To the Father who was waiting and seeing them coming in the distance (I read some thing like that somewhere…), Jesus said: " Father, these are the first two I managed to save…" and the Father answered to him: " Good and faithful servant comes and seats on my right" and since then we sing and proclaim: "I believe in Jesus-Christ…sitting on the right hand side of God"