"I promise you that today you will be in Paradise with me."
by: Fidji Rivera-Sarmiento
Today. Ahora mismo. Ngayon na. Agad-agad.
The Lord is such. Jesus said the same thing to Zaccheus when He announced salvation in his house; the very same way when He spoke of seeking first His kingdom and not worrying about tomorrow.
And here we are still with high levels of anxiety years after the pandemic. Social anxiety has climbed up, regardless of culture and socio-economic status. Studies will show us how the pandemic has negatively affected our view of ourselves and the world. We see the future as bleak and hope has almost gone down the drain. Yet Jesus’ second word becomes a healing balm to our tormented soul – “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43
The oxymoron in the flesh beside Jesus, that is the good thief, paints us a picture on how our Lord Jesus Christ becomes so thrilled when we face our shadows and repent. He was merely asking for a remembrance, but Jesus promised to take him for a ride. The audacity of this guy probably in his desperation and exhaustion to ask for grace from his cross-mate. The penitent thief proves to us that it is never too late. We can turn things around. Not when we fight and wrestle with what’s here and now, but rather when we utterly surrender to our fate. When we realize who we are, where we are exactly in our journey, and what we merely have in our hands, only then can we change the course of our sails.
As a special educator and a behavior coach, one of the very first things that I teach my students is to list the things they can and cannot control. For the younger group, students would typically be frustrated that they cannot control their parents’ minds or the weather or what their friends would say about them. Adolescents who are developmentally, and appropriately, operating from their emotional brain or the limbic system, would feel validated to know that yes, they cannot really control their feelings as what the adults would say to them. But given the right tools, they can definitely manage and regulate those emotions that inundate them.
Connecting this thought to San Dimas or St. Dismas, who the Catholic Church actually celebrates every March 25th as canonized by Christ himself, we see that he knew in his heart that there is no escaping the consequences of his crimes. He cannot control that anymore. He even knew that he deserved it. He accepted his earthly life had to end gruesomely. But he was enlightened to probably realize that, “Hey, I can bargain with my after-life. Maybe there is such, as what this guy has preached non-stop.” He can still control his mouth, and boy, he ran it so well that he humbly sought a simple remembrance.
Lo and behold, Jesus gave him so, so much more. So today, what are your worries? What have you not accepted still? Are you still marinating in your wretched yesterdays or are you chained in a future groundwork that you cannot honestly hold?
Let Jesus’ words point our eyes to the NOW.
Accept and surrender your today, TODAY! Ahora mismo. Ngayon na. Agad-agad. And witness how Jesus will turn things around for your life and so much more.
Prayer
Dear Jesus, our Lord and Savior, today we offer to You all our anxieties.
We are sorry that we tend to forget about our child-like wonder to Your miracles. We exhaust ourselves and continue to counterflow and wrestle with our situation with our limited humanness. We carry our mountains instead of merely climbing them, not trusting that it is Your job to move them.
Lord, thank You for remembering us. You have always had our backs. You even know how many strands of hair we still have on our heads.
And so even if we feel afraid we will not stop calling unto You. Bring us with You into the paradise that You have promised. Together with all the saints, St. Dismas, and our Holy Mother. Amen.
