By: Nancy Escalante

These were one of the criminal’s words: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”. These words show us that the sinner not only recognizes Jesus Christ as the Lord and himself as His servant, but he recognizes Jesus as the Redeemer, “remember me”. The criminal shows, in his words, a strong faith is Jesus Christ, he trusts in His infinite love and His infinite mercy. Do we really pray with true faith in His infinite mercy and charity?

Jesus Christ shows us that when He hears that man’s loving, sincere and humble words, He listens, forgives his sins, and tells him: “you will be with me in Paradise”.

Here is Our Lord Jesus Christ Divine Grace, he who had been a sinner all his life, who seemed so far from eternal life, was touched by God’s Grace during the last moments of his life allowing in this way the conversion as well as God’s mercy. God always gives the grace of conversion, but here is man’s freedom and will.

We can also see in this passage that there were three persons crucified at the same time, one of them was Christ, who was innocent; the good criminal was a repentant sinner; and the third one, the bad criminal, decided to remain a sinner. The three of them were in different circumstances, but each of them carried his own Cross, so we can see that everybody in this world has to carry a Cross and it is only bearable if you live hand in hand with God. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his Cross, and follow me”. (Matthew 16, 24), and again: “Whoever does not carry his own Cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14, 27) which is exactly the Apostle’s doctrine: “In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3, 12).

Consequently, there is no doubt that there is a Cross awaiting the good one as well as the bad one, the only thing left for me to say is that while a saint’s cross lasts short time, is light and fertile, the sinner’s is eternal, heavy and futile.

About His yoke, which can be called Cross, Jesus says: “For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Matthew 11, 30); and: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy”. And the Apostle writes: “I have great confidence in you, I have great pride in you; I am filled with encouragement, I am overflowing with joy all the more because of all our affliction” (2 Cor 7, 4). In a word, we cannot deny that the cross of the just is not only light and temporal, but fertile and useful, carrying a good gift, when we hear our Lord saying: “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. (Matthew 5, 10), or Saint Paul exclaiming: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us” (Romans 8, 18).

The Lord’s yoke brings peace, according to His own words: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves” (Matthew 11, 29). Can the devil’s yoke, which is completely opposed to that one of Christ’s, bring something different from worries and anxiety? And the most important thing: that while Christ’s Cross is our way to eternal happiness, “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (Luke 24, 26), the devil’s cross is the way to eternal suffering, according to the verdict against the evil: “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25, 41).

In this passage, God let us see His infinite love, His infinite mercy and that we will be able to bear the fertile cross that sooner or later will bring peace to our souls, only if we are hand in hand with God with faith, hope, humbleness and true love.

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