How good a Christian are you?

Are you at least as good as the "Good Thief?"

That might sound like an odd question, given the fact that this man was a Christian for less than 3 hours of his life; but he definitely made the most of his brief earthly discipleship! As the old saying goes, he "seized the moment"—in such a way that he now serves as an example of faith to all of us.

We hear about this man and his conversion in just one Gospel—the Gospel of Luke—and only in a very few verses of that Gospel (the ones I read a couple of minutes ago). But—amazingly—we learn an awful lot about him in these few verses.

First of all, we see that he wasn’t someone who formed his views based on majority opinion. As he hung on the cross, he was surrounded by many people who were openly hostile to Jesus: the Jewish religious leaders, the Roman soldiers, and even his fellow thief. They far outnumbered the few—like St. John and our Blessed Mother—who were there in support of our Lord. But all those opposing voices didn’t stop this man from submitting himself to Christ.

Think for a moment about how you form your beliefs on the hot issues of the day. Do you accept the majority opinion uncritically? Most people do! They don’t often realize it, but they think just like the secular media "programs" them to think. That’s why I always laugh when I hear someone say, "Catholics are brainwashed (i.e. by the Church); they don’t think for themselves." The truth of the matter is: most of our society is currently brainwashed; and real, committed Catholics are among the few in our culture who actually have minds of their own and think clearly! They don’t accept what CNN says, just because CNN says it. They dig deeper, learn more, and seek out the real truth. The only Catholics who are brainwashed are those who allow themselves to be brainwashed by the world!

Because he thought for himself, and wasn’t unduly influenced by all the negative voices around him, the Good Thief was willing to defend our Lord publicly by rebuking the thief on the left. When was the last time you defended your Catholic faith? Or maybe I should rephrase that question: Have you ever defended your Catholic faith? One of the teenage girls who has come to our Thursday night group for almost four years (and learned a lot in the process) said to me the other night that she loves it when she has the opportunity to defend the truth to her friends and to others at school. Her attitude is, "Bring ‘em on! I’m ready." I like that attitude, because it tells me that she’s one of the few people around who has thought matters through for herself and accepted the truth; consequently, her convictions run deep—as they should. The Good Thief would heartily approve.

This man who hung on the right side of our Lord also had the proper perspective on himself; in that he’s also an example for us. He knew he wasn’t perfect, and he wasn’t afraid to admit his sin. When he rebuked the thief on the left he said to him, "We have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes." What a different world it would be if every Catholic were that honest in the confessional!

The Good Thief had the right perspective on himself, which is why he admitted his sin; but he also had the right perspective on Jesus, which is why he didn’t despair! He knew that somehow and in some way Jesus was the answer to his present problem. He recognized Jesus as a king (even though our Lord didn’t look like a king as he hung there on the Cross); he affirmed his belief in Jesus’ kingdom (even though he didn’t fully understand the nature of that kingdom); and he believed that Jesus could somehow change and cleanse him so that he would be worthy of living there. This led him to say the beautiful prayer which expressed his deep conversion: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus responded, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." Bishop Sheen’s famous comment on this text is always worth repeating. He said, "This thief died a thief, for he stole Paradise; and Paradise can be stolen again!"

Any discussion of the Good Thief must also include a reference to the way he responded to his suffering. Everybody suffers; it’s part of the human condition. The all-too-typical response to suffering was exhibited by the thief on the left, who turned away from God in bitterness and anger: "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us." Here we have a selfish man who was only interested in his own comfort. As Bishop Sheen used to say, all this thief wanted was to be taken down from the cross, so that he could go back to his old, dishonest way of life.

On the other hand, the Good Thief—who suffered just as much—responded to his cross by allowing it to bring him to conversion! He saw his suffering as a path to something greater—which it was! And once he heard those words from Jesus—"Today you will be with me in Paradise,"—I’m quite certain he had a great joy in his heart, a joy which strengthened him in the midst of the intense physical pain he was experiencing.

This is an example we need to follow as individuals—and also as a nation—in the aftermath of the tragedy of September 11. Our national suffering needs to bring us to national conversion. That is crucial. But, unfortunately, it hasn’t happened yet. We’ll know when it does, because our laws will begin to change, such that innocent human life is respected from conception to natural death; the media will begin to clean up its act, and stop filling people’s minds with violent and sexually-perverse images; and God and his moral law will be invited back into our families, schools and cultural institutions.