"Today you will be with me in paradise."  This is the promise that brought comfort and peace to one of the criminals crucified with Jesus, the one we call the "good thief."  What images or thoughts does the word paradise bring to mind?  None of us has died, so we cannot really envision the details of a heavenly existence.  We believe we will experience the fullness of God’s presence with all those who have gone before us when we are called home to heaven.  There will be no more suffering or pain, separation or alienation.  The gospel last Sunday spoke of the end of the world as we know it.  When Jesus was asked when it would happen and what the signs would be, he spoke of wars, insurrections, earthquakes and disasters.  In other words, the signs will be those events where we as human beings separate and threaten to annihilate one another as well as natural disasters.  The natural disasters are out of our control.  We cannot stop earthquakes, tsunamis or famines. But we can stop wars and insurrections. 

As individuals we are powerless to end the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places in our world that take the lives of the people there as well as those in our armed services.  We can petition our government and pray for peace.  But beyond that we are powerless as individuals.  The conflicts and destruction we can end are those where we are separated from one another because of hatred, anger, mistrust, greed, injustice and prejudice.  All of these are negative and drain life out of us whether we are on the winning or the losing side.  It is only the power of Jesus and his love that will enable us to rise above all that kills, harms and destroys life.  Forgiveness, patience and understanding are the only "weapons" that will bring about a victory for everyone involved in conflicts.  Jesus’ power of love is seen on the cross as he promises paradise to the man who was a convicted thief and as he prays for even those who crucified him.  Injustice did not get into his heart and soul.  It resulted in the end of his earthly life, but revealed his Sacred Heart.  That is the heart fueled with divine love, the heart that warms us with his life so we can warm one another with that life.  His Sacred Heart is the foundation of the Kingdom of God. 

In his chapter entitled "A Spirituality of Justice and Peacemaking" Ronald Rolheiser says, "All of our actions for peace must be rooted in the power of love and the power of truth and must be done for the purpose of making that power known and not for making ourselves known.  Our motivation must always be to open people to the truth and not to show ourselves as right and them as wrong.  Our best actions are those which admit our complicity and are marked by a spirit of genuine repentance and humility.  Our worst actions are those that seek to demonstrate our own righteousness, our purity and our moral distance from the violence we are protesting."  Victory does not come for those who follow Christ the King when one side or person wins and the other side or person loses.  Victory only comes when we rise above our differences, see the goodness and love in one another and respect and accept one another for who we are.  Jesus accepted a convicted criminal on the cross for the kingdom of heaven.  Who are we to reject or exclude people from our love, goodness, mercy, compassion and forgiveness?

Each one of us is very powerful when we give our hearts, minds and souls to Jesus.  We are privileged and blessed to be invited to be part of and to be his kingdom in the world.  That kingdom, as we hear in the preface of today’s mass is: "An eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace."  In other words we are invited by Jesus, as the thief in today’s gospel, to be one with him in paradise.  The spread of his kingdom on earth depends on us who believe in living out truth, justice, love and peace which we can only do because we are enlivened by his life and grace.  The world as we know it will end and the experience of Paradise will begin when we work to answer the words we pray everyday in the Our Father: "thy kingdom come!" 

Father Walden