Palm Sunday Homily 2010

Abbot Paul Stonham

Mantegna, Louvre

"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Only in St Luke do we find the conversation between the two criminals crucified with Jesus and his reply to the good thief, "I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise." We often call them thieves, but the Gospel simply calls them wrongdoers, without specifying their crimes.

Although most of us identify with the "good thief", you might be surprised to learn that in some countries that, unlike Britain, did not suffer a Protestant Reformation and with it the abolition of its popular customs and traditions, there is a great deal of devotion to the "bad thief". In parts of Southern Europe and Latin America there are Holy Week processions in his honour and people vie with one another to pay for the band, the food and the fireworks.

I suppose, if we were honest, we would have to say that there is as much of the bad as of the good thief in each one of us. I think of the number of times I have said or thought the very words uttered by the bad thief, "If you are the Christ, save me." I believe it does help to admit our anger and resentment, our doubt and even our hatred of God. The psalms do it all the time. God prefers us to tell him the truth when we pray, to say what we really feel, not to cover things up with pious words, or to lie. Prayer is often a burden because it is so false.

Yet often, like the good thief, I have also cried out in anguish, "Jesus, remember me." Did you know that this is the only time in the Gospels where Jesus is addressed simply by his name? No one else calls him by his name, not even his mother or his friends. There is, of course, a special intimacy in suffering and death. It's when we get closest to another, even a stranger. I am sure you have all experienced that.

Then again, and this is something we mistakenly take for granted, the good thief does not ask specifically for forgiveness; he simply asks to be remembered. We know that Christ came to forgive us our sins and to reconcile us with the Father by dying on a Cross. Even so, I often feel that it is presumption to ask for forgiveness because I am not truly repentant of my sins. I am sure you have experienced that too. Oh yes, he does say, "We are paying for what we did," but that is not the same as saying that he is sorry or repentant. I believe "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom," to be one of the most perfect prayers there is. It expresses faith in Christ as Saviour, but it also leaves him completely free to do with and for us as he sees best. There should be no coercion in prayer, no telling God what to do, just asking him to remember us. "I promise you," says Jesus, "today you will be with me in paradise."

But what did Jesus say to the other man, to the bad thief? We won't know the answer to that question until, through the merits of Christ's Passion, we enter paradise ourselves. In the meantime we will have to take it as Gospel that there was but one answer, one promise, that day and that both wrongdoers, the good and the bad, crucified with Jesus heard what Jesus said. There was to be no repetition of the blasphemy, only a shared agony and death.

And when, as the end came, Jesus prayed to his heavenly Father, he spoke in the name of all three who died together that day on Golgotha, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." What is more, on the Cross he also prayed for you and me. Jesus, remember me. Amen