Which thief are you?

There is a portrait in our adoration chapel entitled, "Night at Golgotha."  In the portrait, they have just taken Jesus down from the cross and are carrying Him to the tomb.  The two thieves remain hanging on thier crosses.

Jesus has borne His cross and He has left it - but has He?  Does He still not carry that cross and suffer His wounds because we continue to sin and often refuse to carry our own crosses? 

My eyes are drawn to the thieves.  They earned their fate, they were not innocent. 

We are those thieves.  There is no denying it.  But which?

Which thief are you?  The "good" thief who humbles himself and admits his guilt and goes to our Lord?  Or the other thief? The thief who ridicules holiness?  He doesn't just deny Jesus, and thus the Holy Spirit, he mocks our Lord.

Is our world so different today?  Has anything changed over the last 2000 years?

I meditate on the portrait and notice light peaking through the clouds and that light shines down on our Lord, and even, it seems, on the frontside of one of the thieves.  He is allowed  in the light now, he has been forgiven.  In fact, that very day he will find himself in paradise.  Jesus promised.

But not the other.  He made his choice to deny Christ.

Today everyone screams about their rights; especially their right to choose.  They're right.  God has given free will - to each and every one of us.  We have the right to choose, because God gives us that right.

We can choose to be the "good" thief - admit our sins, repent and ask forgiveness and mercy and live in the light or we can choose not to.  It's our choice.

People say God is good and He loves us - He is absolute good and He does love us.  I've heard people justify their lifestyles by saying God would never send them to hell.  Again, they are right, He doesn't send us to hell.  He allows us to choose with our own free will where we will spend eternity.

The two thieves remain on their crosses, just as we ought, until death comes.  What comes after death for us is determined by what came before death.

Make a choice.

Do you mock holiness or embrace humility?

Do you live in the world or of the world?