March 25---A day with a positive message for prisoners!

March 25 is a day when this Protestant writer joins up with Catholics. The Catholic Church observes the feast of St. Dismas on the 25^th. 

And by now you’re asking, “Just who is this Dismas character?” 

I’m glad you asked! That's the name given to the convicted criminal who was granted the greatest clemency ever!  Dismas, sometimes referred to as The Thief on the Cross, was welcomed into Paradise by Jesus himself just before both of them died on side-by-side crosses. 

I love this story! I love the hope that it gives to our friends behind bars. And, I love the way Gloria Gaither tells the tale in contemporary terms using these words of Bob Benson’s The Misfit:

 

It seemed to be his lot, he was one of those unfortunate people,

With a talent always to be in the wrong place … always at the wrong time.

He was born wrong: The declining Roman Empire, the broken home.

The conquered Jewish nation, the poverty-stricken slums.

He lived wrong: When others went to school, he played hooky,

Others played ball, he stole apples.

Others learned trades, he learned to cheat.

Just a common thief … he started wrong, he lived wrong,

And it looked as if he’d finish wrong: The wrong place, and the wrong time.

A Roman cross, a painful death … A final shame.

When, from the middle cross, came words of redeeming love:

“You shall be with me in Paradise!”

In all the stream of history,

One and only One

Of all the numberless sons of Adam could have said these words

… and he hung beside Him!

In one instant his life, given to evil … thoroughly misused,

Doomed to die, was changed and ended in crowning glory,

It was the one sentence without which there is no success,

It was the one sentence which redeems all failure,

And it was said to him at life’s final flickering moment.

The one most important issue of all was gloriously solved:

At long last, he was in the right place at the right time!

 

   What a 'sentence' handed down from the middle cross; one single 'sentence' that commuted the sympathetic robber's death sentence to life ... in Paradise.