The First Confession

All Christians should be well aware of the details of Our Lord’s Passion.  One small part of Passion, His interaction on Calvary with the two thieves crucified next to Him (Mt 27:38-44; Lk 23:39-43) has always intrigued me.

According to an apocryphal book, The Gospel of Nicodemus, which scholars date to the fourth century AD, the unrepentant thief was named Gestas. The so-called ‘good’ thief was named Dysmas.  Whatever their names, these two neighbors of Christ on Calvary that day epitomize the choice we all face regarding our sinfulness and our eternal destiny.

The unrepentant thief remained unrepentant to the end.  But the good thief reconsidered his thoughts and actions enough to chide the unrepentant one, admit his wrong, and humbly ask for Our Lord’s forgiveness (Lk 23: 39-42).  Perhaps, we may consider this good thief’s repentant outreach to Christ the first confession!

Our Self-Love and Sinfulness

Recall that there were no innocent crucifixion victims on Calvary that day other than Our Lord.  It is a given that both men were guilty of many crimes, just as we all are in one way or the other.  We may not have committed earthly crimes per se, but our sinfulness and ingratitude toward such a good and loving God are crimes worthy of punishment.

Most sins are rooted in love-of-self above God. This is because we base our thoughts and actions only on our own agenda and desires.  From Adam and Eve to Cain to David and beyond, Scripture reminds us that sin enters the equation when we base our decisions merely on self to the exclusion of God and others.

So we hang guilty, before Our innocent Savior who hangs with us.  He takes up our cause despite the fact that we are the guilty ones and, worse still, that we are too self-absorbed and ungrateful to appreciate what He has done for us.

Every time we ignore His loving invitation to embrace His Will alone and turn this life into our personal pleasure tour, we mock Him.  In truth, we mock Him every bit as much as the Pharisees, soldiers, and the two thieves did that Good Friday.  But those fools were oblivious to what they were doing, as Our Lord clearly stated (Lk 23:34). We, however, mock Christ knowing He is our only path to salvation.

The Crossroad is The Cross

1) The Unrepentant Option

Human nature being what it is, our spiritual rubber does not hit the road until things get dicey and we face our crosses.  Like typical card-carrying sinners, we may do our best to ignore, avoid, or curse those crosses. However, our life moments of truth are usually cross-shaped.  Such a moment faced the two thieves that momentous day so long ago.  Both came into the situation as guilty and lowly as anyone could ever be.  But their decisions on their crosses determined their eternal fate regardless of their spotty pasts.

One persisted in his stubborn self-absorbed delusion that he was somehow the victim of injustice, deserving of a free get-out-of-jail card.  Isn’t that precisely what sin is – a self-absorbed delusion that our desires and agenda are all that matter?  It is the delusion that others are here for our convenience and manipulation, and that we are all the god we need.

Part and parcel to this delusion is the shifting of responsibility. The victimizer becomes the victim, forestalling any possibility of admitting much less feeling contrition for wrongs.  Beyond this, with the gleeful assistance of the devil, the sinner sees the sin not as a wrong but a rightful effort to get what has unfairly been denied.  It is all about self and shifting blame.  That was the script and the song of the unrepentant thief.

One cannot imagine a more poignant and powerful image of stubborn, ignorant arrogance than a man hanging on a cross, nearly naked, mocking and judging anyone else.  It is at this point that the arrogance, delusion, and self-absorption turn from brazen to pathetic and pitiful.  This is the epitome of making a bad situation far worse than it already is.  One turns an earthly mistake into an eternal one.  This is a cross wasted.

2) The Repentant Option

According to the Gospel of Matthew, the repentant thief originally joined in this mocking (Mt 27:44). But according to Luke, he apparently had a change of heart (Luke 23:40-43).  Perhaps he realized that nothing could be gained by stubbornly and foolishly persisting in exactly the kind of attitude and behavior that had gotten him on that cross in the first place.

It could be that the repentant thief saw and heard how Jesus forgave those responsible for putting him on that cross. Perhaps he figured there was nothing to lose by reaching out for that same forgiveness. Whatever his motivation, the repentant thief became the good thief on his cross at that moment. He humbly, contritely, and sincerely accepted the blame and responsibility for his sin.  Beyond this powerful realization, the good thief reached out to Christ, showing the kind of daring, brazen audacity that only a child of God can show.

St. Therese The Little Flower tells us that we must think, act, and love as children do if we are to fulfill our destiny in Heaven.  Children believe anything is possible, and reach for it.  Adults allow their cynicism, skepticism, and pride to get in the way.  The good thief loved like a child of God as he faced his cross.  He was child-like.  The unrepentant thief, on the other hand, behaved like a child as he faced his cross.  He was childish.

Audacity

One cannot imagine a more poignant and powerful image of redemption and God’s Divine Mercy than a man, hanging on a cross nearly naked, guilty as guilty can be, having the humility, contrition, sincerity, and audacity to ask Jesus to remember him.  This is the sincere and humble audacity that God seeks.

This kind of audacity is not pretending that one is perfect or sinless.  Neither is it playing the victim or shifting responsibility.  It is not stubbornly embracing self to the end.  Neither is it desperately avoiding the falls we are certain to have in our human weakness. Rather, it is admitting our weakness and imperfection.  It is admitting that we cannot overcome our sinfulness without Christ, and reaching out to him as we accept the crosses we are called to bear.  It is turning earthly mistakes into eternal redemption and joy.  This is truly a cross maximized.

Conclusion

The story of the two thieves crucified with Christ on Calvary epitomizes the choice we all face.  We can stubbornly delude ourselves that it is all about us, that we are victims of injustice, that we can avoid the consequences of our actions, and that God somehow owes us something.  Conversely, we can humbly and contritely admit our fault, blame, and responsibility.

We can recognize that we are nothing going nowhere without God. We can sincerely and lovingly have the audacity to believe in a loving God Who is more concerned with our future than our past if we are willing to change.  That is the lesson of that First Confession on Calvary.  Turning a cross into a ladder to Heaven.