 Seeking our lady's intercession, let us pray. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners. Nound at the hour of our death, amen. Good morning, brothers and sisters. So on Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, this past week, I began what would be ultimately a seven part series of homilies on the last words of Jesus. The last words of Jesus are not the seven last individual words of our Lord, but the seven last statements that he made while he was dying on the cross. And the church has always recognized that these words are probably the most significant in the entire Bible. For many reasons, they were the last words of the gospel before his death, and they cost him so much to say. I'll remind you again that crucifixion, being the cruelest of deaths, the cruelest of tortures, did not kill somebody through bleeding them to death, right? They died of asphyxiation, which means they basically choked on their own spittle. The reason was being nailed to the cross by their wrists and feet, they could not breathe unless they pulled up on their hands and pushed up on their feet. That meant they would cause themselves great agony just to get one breath, and they had to do this for as long as they were up on that cross. And it would usually last days, if not weeks, depending on the strength of the individual. Now if it was that painful just to take a breath, imagine how much more painful it would have been to get enough breath to speak. So it cost our Lord so much to say these last things to his people before he died, which means each one of them is very precious. On Wednesday, I spoke to you about the first of his seven last words. Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. And if you want, you can go back and listen to that sermon, that homily, I'm sure it was recorded and put on the website or something. But today we hear the second statement Jesus made while dying on his cross. Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Again, these are some of the most consoling words from the cross. Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. I think each one of us as believers in Christ can say that we want these words to apply to us. We want Jesus to say these words to us, especially when we're nearing death. On our deathbed, don't worry, I pronounce to you, today you will be with me in paradise. What consoling words. And whatever comes after that point, you know you won't be worried or afraid because you are assured of your salvation. But to understand these words of our Lord, we have to understand to whom he spoke them because Jesus did not speak them to everyone present at his crucifixion. He certainly wasn't speaking to the crowds, not even his own mother, technically. He was speaking to Saint Dismas, the good thief we call him. You will call that Jesus was crucified with two others, two thieves or revolutionaries, one on his right, the other on his left. And these criminals were having a little debate, so to speak. The first one turns to Jesus and says to him, if you are the Messiah, if you are the Christ, come down from that cross and take us with you. And then Dismas turns to the other thief and says, you and I deserve to be up here, but this man is innocent. And then he says to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. That's when Jesus turns to him and says, amen I say to you, this day, you will be with me in paradise. The fathers of the church tell us that these two thieves represent every human being on earth. You are either one or the other. There's no third option. You fit into one of those two categories. And so it's important that we understand them, how they're similar and how they're different, and why Jesus gave such a consoling message to one and spoke nothing to the other. Now we don't know what happened to the bad thief. We don't know if he went to hell or he got to purgatory. We don't know. The gospel doesn't tell us, but we do know the good thief went to heaven that day. So let's look at their similarities first because they have a lot in common. They're both public sinners and criminals. They both committed the same offenses in society and against God. They're both being punished in the exact same way for those offenses. They both know what they did and they know that they deserve what they're getting. So up to this point, there's little to no difference between the two men. The only thing we know that's different between them is what is revealed by their words. You see the bad thief, the one whose name we will never know, he reveals his mind and heart to us in what he says to the Lord. He says to him, if you are the Christ, if you are the Messiah, come down from your cross and take us with you. Now he knows he's guilty of his offenses. He knows he's a criminal. He knows he deserves to be punished, but he doesn't wanna suffer for his crime. He refuses to take responsibility for what he has done. He doesn't believe in Jesus as the Messiah. If he did, he'd understand that the Christ had to come and suffer and die. He wants to avoid suffering by any means necessary even when it is deserved, let alone for love's sake. That's all that he cares about. And such an individual cannot be saved for one simple reason. They deny their own sin. They refuse to repent. Now St. Dismas is the opposite. He's the same kind of sinner. He's no better, no worse in regards to the sins that he commits. But what he says to the Lord reveals everything we need to know about him and his faith. First he says, this man is innocent, Jesus is innocent, and we deserve to be up here. So he takes responsibility for his sins. He says, I deserve the pain and the suffering that I'm enduring because of my sins. But he doesn't stop there. He doesn't just take responsibility. He professes faith in Jesus Christ and he asks for mercy. Lord, he says, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Now for a Jew you have to understand, when you ask someone to remember you, especially in any spiritual context, that's not just like, oh yeah, I'll think about you later. Remembrance for a Jew is one of the most powerful concepts. It's to make present. It's basically saying, bring me to your kingdom. He's basically asking that. So he's saying, save me Lord, save me. And so after taking responsibility for his sins, accepting his cross, not running from it, not fleeing from it, he asks for mercy. And that's when Jesus says, today you will be with me in paradise. That's really all it takes to be saved. So many times Christians think they need to be sinless to be saved. That's ludicrous. Where in the gospel does it teach that? Christ came for the sinner. Doesn't mean we don't strive for sinlessness, but you could sin until the day you die, not that you should, but I'm just saying, you know, whatever sins you struggle with, whatever weaknesses and failings, you could continue to fall until the day you die, but as long as you imitate St. Dismas, you accept whatever suffering and punishment and pain comes to you in your life. You endure patiently, humbly, realizing it's for your sins and you ask Jesus for mercy. You're fine. You are good to go. You will be saved. How often throughout the gospels does Jesus say, if you would be my disciple, you must pick up your cross daily and follow me. Our daily crosses are always because of our sins. And many people come to me at various times and they say to me, Father Miller, you know, I'm dealing with this cross in my life, but it's not my fault. You know, so and so just keeps doing this and I'm not doing anything wrong or I was driving down the road and, you know, minding my own business, safe driver, you know, going the speed limit, seatbelt on, and somebody just hit me and now my car is damaged. Why am I suffering this cross? I didn't do anything to cause it. And I say, yeah, not in that moment, not in that instance, but just think over the years of your life with all of the sins that you've gotten away with and haven't been punished sufficiently for. God is just giving you an opportunity. He's like, I'll let you get away with it then, but now it's time to pay. There's always a reason why we suffer. And the fathers are very clear. The majority of the time, it is because we are making up for past sin. That's why those are the crosses that God sends us. But even if, as I've said many times before, we have already made up for all of our sins, even if we've already done that. Well, like Jesus, we now have to suffer out of love for the sins of others. I'm Jesus wasn't guilty of any sin. He didn't have to make up for his own sin, but he's still suffered crosses, not his own now, but the crosses of others, our crosses. So to deny the cross is to deny Jesus Christ himself. To deny Christ is to be damned. But salvation is really not as difficult as people make it out to be. Jesus knows how hard it is to turn from sin. That's why he's so merciful. So let us imitate Saint Dismas, especially during this time of Lent, but throughout our whole lives. Let us accept patiently the crosses that come to us each day as just punishment for our sins, even repeating the words of Dismas. You and I, we deserve this. I deserve this. But, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus, forgive me of my sins. And then we will be consoled for on that day, our Lord will turn to us and say, don't worry, everything's going to be fine. This day, you will be with me in paradise. In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit.