Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues the passion of Christ, and narrates the accusation of the Jews against Him, the mockery of Herod, Pilate's scourging, condemnation, crucifixion, and Joseph's burial: nearly all of which we have heard in Matthew chapter 27.
Vulgate Text: Luke 23:1-56
1. And the whole multitude of them arose, and led Him to Pilate. 2. And they began to accuse Him, saying: We have found this man subverting our nation, and forbidding tribute to be given to Caesar, and saying that He is Christ the King. 3. And Pilate asked Him, saying: Are You the King of the Jews? And He answering, said: You say it. 4. And Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds: I find no cause in this man. 5. But they grew more urgent, saying: He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place. 6. But Pilate hearing Galilee, asked whether the man were a Galilean. 7. And when he understood that He was of Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who was himself also at Jerusalem in those days. 8. And Herod, seeing Jesus, was very glad: for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him, and he hoped to see some sign wrought by Him. 9. And he questioned Him with many words. But He answered him nothing. 10. And the chief priests and the Scribes stood by, constantly accusing Him. 11. And Herod with his army set Him at naught and mocked Him, putting on Him a white robe, and sent Him back to Pilate. 12. And Herod and Pilate became friends that same day; for before they had been enemies to each other. 13. And Pilate, having called together the chief priests and the magistrates and the people, 14. said to them: You have brought this man to me as one who perverts the people, and behold I, having examined Him before you, find no cause in this man in those things in which you accuse Him. 15. Nor does Herod; for I sent you to him, and behold, nothing worthy of death has been done by Him. 16. I will therefore chastise Him and release Him. 17. Now he was obliged to release to them one on the feast day. 18. But the whole crowd cried out together, saying: Take this man away, and release to us Barabbas; 19. who had been cast into prison for a certain sedition made in the city and for murder. 20. And Pilate again spoke to them, desiring to release Jesus. 21. But they cried out, saying: Crucify Him, crucify Him. 22. And he said to them the third time: Why, what evil has this man done? I find no cause of death in Him; I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go. 23. But they were insistent with loud voices, demanding that He be crucified; and their voices prevailed. 24. And Pilate gave sentence that their petition should be granted. 25. And he released to them him who for murder and sedition had been cast into prison, whom they had demanded; but Jesus he delivered up to their will. 26. And as they led Him away, they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him to carry after Jesus. 27. And there followed Him a great multitude of the people and of women, who bewailed and lamented Him. 28. But Jesus, turning to them, said: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29. For behold, the days shall come in which they shall say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not given suck. 30. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us. 31. For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry? 32. And there were also two other malefactors led with Him to be put to death. 33. And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, they crucified Him there, and the robbers, one on the right hand and the other on the left. 34. And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And dividing His garments, they cast lots. 35. And the people stood beholding, and the rulers with them derided Him, saying: He saved others; let Him save Himself, if He be Christ, the elect of God. 36. And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him and offering Him vinegar, 37. and saying: If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself. 38. And there was also a superscription written over Him in Greek and Latin and Hebrew letters: This is the King of the Jews. 39. And one of those robbers who hung there blasphemed Him, saying: If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us. 40. But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying: Neither do you fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41. And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing amiss. 42. And he said to Jesus: Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. 43. And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to you: This day you shall be with Me in paradise. 44. And it was almost the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. 45. And the sun was darkened; and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. 46. And Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said: Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit. And saying this, He expired. 47. Now the Centurion, seeing what was done, glorified God, saying: Indeed this was a just man. 48. And all the multitude of those who were come together to that sight, and saw the things that were done, returned striking their breasts. 49. And all His acquaintances stood afar off, and the women who had followed Him from Galilee, beholding these things. 50. And behold there was a man named Joseph, who was a councillor, a good and just man: 51. he had not consented to their counsel and doings, of Arimathea, a city of Judea, who also himself was looking for the kingdom of God. 52. He went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus; 53. and taking Him down, he wrapped Him in fine linen and laid Him in a monument hewn in stone, wherein never yet any man had been laid. 54. And it was the day of the Preparation, and the sabbath drew on. 55. And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and saw the sepulchre and how His body was laid. 56. And returning, they prepared spices and ointments; and on the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
Verse 39: One of the Robbers Blasphemed Him
39. And one of those robbers who hung there (on the left side of Christ) BLASPHEMED HIM, SAYING: IF YOU ARE THE CHRIST (the Savior of the world), SAVE YOURSELF AND US — that You may free us from the cross and restore us to life and liberty. Christ willed to suffer the most atrocious things, and that from every kind of men, and therefore to be mocked and blasphemed not only by the Scribes and Jews, but even by the robber himself, His companion in punishment, which was far more bitter: for this robber, who was breathing his last, should have compassionated Christ and thought about the salvation of his own soul, and sought it from Christ; so that we too may be silent under taunts, mockeries, and derisions, and show patience in our minds and silence on our lips.
Verse 40: Neither Do You Fear God
40. BUT THE OTHER ANSWERING (hanging on the right side of Christ, as tradition holds) REBUKED HIM, SAYING: NEITHER DO YOU FEAR GOD, SEEING YOU ARE UNDER THE SAME CONDEMNATION (Greek κρίματι, that is, judgment, punishment of the cross with Christ and with me)? — The Syriac has: not even from God, do you not fear? As if to say: Granted that the Scribes and Jews, who are free and strong, do not fear God, and therefore mock Christ; you however, who are tortured on the cross and tending toward death, ought to fear God, lest shortly after death He punish you severely, because you so sacrilegiously blaspheme Christ, who is His. This robber therefore signifies that he fears God: "The beginning of wisdom (and salvation) is the fear of the Lord," Sirach 1:28, and not only that he fears God, but also exhorts his fellow robber to the same fear, as if to say: Granted the Jews mock Christ, yet it is your duty to fear God, both because you are under the same condemnation, that is, the punishment of the cross to which you have been justly condemned — while Christ, an innocent man, has been unjustly condemned — and therefore it befits you rather to have mercy on your companion in punishment, especially an innocent one, than to revile Him; and also because you ought to compose yourself for death and for the judgment of God, where you will render account for this blasphemy of yours and undergo the fierce vengeance of hell. Moreover, by saying: "Neither do you fear God," he seems to designate Christ and to confess Him to be God, as if to say: Fear the vengeance of Christ, whom you blaspheme, because He is not only man but also God; for that this robber, illuminated by Christ, believed this, will shortly be evident. So say St. Ambrose and Eusebius, whose words I shall quote.
Verse 41: We Indeed Justly
41. And we indeed justly (condemned, we find ourselves in this condemnation, that is, the punishment of the cross), FOR WE RECEIVE THE DUE REWARD OF OUR DEEDS (behold an act of profound and public contrition, confession, and penance by which he expiated his former crimes): BUT THIS MAN HAS DONE NOTHING AMISS. — In Greek, nothing ἄτοπον, that is, nothing absurd, improper, incongruous, nothing that could even slightly be reproved or blamed. Behold the free and public confession and testimony to Christ's innocence, which this robber gives to Christ before the Scribes and chief priests who had condemned Christ, in no way fearing their anger and fury.
Verse 42: Lord, Remember Me When You Come Into Your Kingdom
42. AND HE SAID TO JESUS: LORD, REMEMBER ME WHEN YOU COME INTO YOUR KINGDOM — the heavenly and divine kingdom, toward which You are tending through the death of the cross, so that immediately after death You may enter it and introduce Your own into it: therefore I beseech You to lead me also into it with You; and therefore I humbly beg pardon from You for all my sins, of which I am most deeply repentant. And as satisfaction I offer You these torments of the cross and the death in it which I willingly undergo: therefore I resign, dedicate, and consecrate my whole self to You. Would that it were granted me to suffer these and more torments for You and for faith and love of You. For these words of his signify his living and ardent faith, hope, charity, devotion, humility, patience, contrition, and the other virtues.
Morally: learn here the power, efficacy, and swiftness of the grace of Christ, which on the very cross made a holy man, indeed a most holy man, out of a robber. Wondrous was the conversion of St. Mary Magdalene, wondrous that of St. Paul, but more wondrous that of this robber; because St. Magdalene had heard the sayings and miracles of Christ, St. Paul felt Him striking from heaven; but the robber on the very cross, where Christ was suffering the infamous and atrocious punishment of robbers, was converted to Him through heroic acts of faith, charity, devotion, etc.
St. Jerome, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, on Matthew chapter 27; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 13; and Origen, tract. 35 on Matthew, add that this robber had previously blasphemed Christ along with his companion: for Saints Matthew and Mark say in the plural that the robbers reproached Christ; although more probably St. Augustine, Epiphanius, Anselm, and others with Suarez hold the contrary opinion, and judge that by synecdoche "robbers" is used for one of the robbers, for Luke expressly says that one blasphemed and the other confessed Christ. If he had previously blasphemed, his conversion was the more wondrous, by which he suddenly converted his blasphemies into confession and praise of Christ. Hence St. Augustine exclaims: "This change of the robber on the right is the work of the Most High."
You will ask, by what means was he converted? I answer: Externally, through the examples of virtues that he perceived in Christ, namely, of extraordinary charity, in that he heard Him praying for His enemies, of patience, fortitude, modesty, piety, and all virtues. So say Theophylact here and Euthymius, chapter 67 on Matthew. But interiorly, through a rare and almost miraculous motion and illumination from God, by which he recognized that Christ was innocent, and the King of a higher kingdom, and the supreme Lord, in whose power it was to make even a dead man blessed: therefore that He was the Messiah, the Son of God and the Savior of the world. So St. Leo, sermon 2 On the Passion: "What exhortation," he says, "persuaded this faith, what teaching imbued it, what preacher kindled it? He had not seen the miracles previously wrought; the healing of the sick had ceased, the enlightening of the blind, the raising of the dead; the very things that were soon to be accomplished were not yet present; and yet he confesses Him as Lord and King, whom he sees to be the companion of his own punishment. From that source, then, this gift arose, whence faith itself received its answer."
Note here those words: "the very things that were soon to be accomplished were not yet present;" for he seems by them to tacitly rebuke what we find written in Jerome on Matthew chapter 27, that when the sun fled, the earth shook, the rocks split, and darkness came on, one of the robbers began to believe and confess Jesus. Chrysostom holds nearly the same opinion in almost the same words, homily 2 On the Cross and the Robber, and Origen indicates it, tract. 34 on Matthew.
But it is surprising that these Fathers did not notice that this opinion conflicts with the Gospel, because, except for the darkness, the other signs occurred when Christ was already dead (as is plainly evident from the Gospel), while yet from the same Gospel it is clear that the robber was converted while Christ was still living: moreover, the eclipse of the sun and the darkness are narrated by Luke after the robber's conversion. St. Cyril, Catechesis 13, teaches the same opinion as St. Leo, saying: "What power illuminated you, O robber? Who taught you to worship one despised and at the same time nailed to a cross? O eternal light, illuminating those in darkness!" St. Augustine pursues the same at length, sermon 43 On Time; St. Chrysostom, homily On the Robber, and sermon 1 On the Cross and the Robber. So too Suarez, who also adds that it could have happened that the robber, before he was imprisoned, had heard Christ preaching, had seen or heard of His miracles, and perhaps had believed in Him. St. Vincent Ferrer adds, in his sermon On the Good Robber, that he was converted by the shadow of Christ, namely when, as the sun moved, the shadow of Christ's cross touched him. For thus the shadow of St. Peter healed the sick, Acts 3. Others add that the Blessed Virgin stood between this robber and Christ, and obtained grace for him and presented the crucified Christ in reality to him as he was dying, as a crucifix is usually placed before the dying. Add that he saw heaven and the sun grow dark, and day turned into night, on account of the cross and death of his Creator.
Moreover, the sanctity of this robber is evident from his extraordinary faith, hope, and charity: faith, by which he believed in Christ as King of kings, whom he saw as the most vile of men, indeed as a robber crucified; hope, by which he asked Christ to be admitted to His kingdom; charity, by which he rebuked his fellow robber for blaspheming Christ, openly confessed and defended Christ's innocence before the Jews and His most hostile enemies, when all the rest, even the Apostles, had fled in fear and abandoned Christ. Heroic therefore was his confession. Hence St. Gregory, book 18 of the Morals, chapter 12: "On the cross," he says, "nails had bound his hands and feet, and nothing in him remained free from punishments except his heart and tongue. By God's inspiration he offered to Him all that he found free in himself, so that he might believe with his heart unto justice, and confess with his mouth unto salvation. Now the Apostle testifies that three virtues especially abide in the hearts of the faithful: faith, hope, and charity, all of which the robber, suddenly filled with grace, both received and preserved on the cross."
St. Augustine exclaims, in the sermon On the Third Day of Easter, and book 1 On the Soul and Its Origin, chapter 9: "What could be added to this faith, I do not know. If those who saw Christ raising the dead wavered, he believed who saw Him hanging with him on the wood. Truly Christ did not find such great faith in Israel, nor indeed in the whole world." St. Chrysostom: "Before," he says, "he asks anything for himself, he takes care to win over his companion: which is outstanding charity." Indeed, some call this robber a martyr, as St. Cyprian, in his epistle to Fabianus, and he asserts that he was baptized in his own blood, and repeats this in his sermon On the Supper and his sermon On the Lord's Passion, where he says: "Thus the robber confessing on the cross not only merited pardon, but having become the intimate of Christ, was sent ahead into paradise and was made a sharer of the kingdom, through his confession made a colleague of martyrdom." St. Augustine reports this opinion of Cyprian, book 1 On the Soul and Its Origin, chapter 9, and book 4 On Baptism, chapter 22, where he says the robber had no need of baptism or martyrdom, but could have been saved by contrition alone. In the former passage he says that, although the robber did not die for Christ, yet before God it was worth as much that he confessed the crucified Lord, as if he had been crucified for the Lord, and thus the measure of a martyr was found in him, who then believed in Christ when those who were to be future Martyrs had failed.
Again, St. Augustine, sermon 120 On Time: "The robber," he says, "not yet called, and already chosen: not yet a servant, and already a friend; not yet a disciple, and already a master, and from a robber a confessor; because although the punishment began as a robber's, it is consummated in a new manner as a martyr's." The same, in the book On the Soul and Its Origin, chapter 9, in volume 7: "The robber," he says, "gained as much by confessing the crucified Lord, as if he had been crucified for the Lord." St. Jerome, epistle 13 to Paulinus: "The robber," he says, "exchanges the cross for paradise, and makes the punishment for murder into martyrdom." Drogo, Bishop of Ostia, tract. On the Sacrament of the Lord's Passion (found in volume 2 of the Library of the Holy Fathers), likewise calls him a martyr.
Moreover, some assert this explanation of his martyrdom as probable, namely that the Jews, hearing his confession of Christ, by which he condemned their deeds and the condemnation of Christ, were driven by anger and fury to rage against him, and cruelly broke his legs, as the Evangelists relate, and thus made his death more bitter and hastened it, and therefore made him a martyr. Hence also St. Hilary, book 10 On the Trinity, likewise calls him a martyr: "Promising paradise to His martyr," he says. Martyr, that is, witness, because the robber on the cross bore witness to his faith and hope in Christ; otherwise he was not properly and precisely a martyr on account of his own suffering, because he suffered for his own crimes, not for Christ; unless you say that the Jews made his death worse and hastened it on account of this confession, as I have already indicated.
Finally, Arnold (others call him Renald), abbot, tract. 9 On the Seven Words of Christ on the Cross, in the Library of the Holy Fathers, asserts that this robber was raised up to heaven, occupying a seat above all angels, above the Cherubim and Seraphim, and the very throne of Lucifer. See our Father Stephen Binet, in the book On the Good Robber, where he calls him the Archangel of paradise, the firstborn son of Christ crucified, a martyr, apostle, and preacher of the whole world, inasmuch as from the chair of the cross he preached Christ to the entire world. Paul, he says, speaks like a Cherub; the robber loves like a Seraph.
Hear now the praises of the Fathers concerning him.
St. Chrysostom, homily On the Cross and the Robber: "This robber," he says, "purchases salvation from the wood. This robber steals the heavenly kingdom, does violence to the Majesty." And further on: "You will find no one before the robber who merited the promise of paradise — not Abraham, not Isaac, not Jacob, not Moses, nor the Prophets, nor the Apostles; but before all of them you will find the robber." Then he compares and prefers the faith of the robber to the faith of Abraham, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Moses, because he believed in Christ not in the temple, not on a throne and in glory, as they did, but on the cross and in torments. "He sees Him," he says, "in torments and adores Him as though in glory. He sees Him on the cross, and prays as if to one seated in heaven. He sees one condemned, and invokes Him as King, saying: Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. You see one crucified, and you proclaim Him King; ... you behold Him hanging in agony, and you contemplate the kingdom of heaven. O wondrous conversion of the robber!"
St. Ambrose, sermon 43: "This," he says, "redounds to his (the robber's) grace with greater merit, that he believed in Christ on the cross, and the passion which was a scandal to others, advanced him to faith: rightly therefore he merits paradise, who did not consider the cross of Christ a scandal, but a virtue." And further on, sermon 50: "Though he may see His gaping wounds, though he may behold His blood flowing, yet he believes Him to be God whom he does not know as a criminal; he declares Him just whom he does not remember as a sinner." And immediately: "For he understood that He received these wounds for the sins of others, sustained these injuries for the crimes of others; and he knew that those wounds in the body of Christ were not Christ's wounds, but the robber's own; and therefore he began to love Him more, after he recognized his own wounds in His body." And after several intervening passages: "Great indeed and admirable is the faith that believed Christ crucified to be glorified rather than punished. For in this is the pattern of all salvation. He recognizes the Savior as the Lord of majesty when He is seen to be crucified with the patience of humility. He surpassed in devotion, who surpassed also in reward; for the robber arrived at paradise before the Apostles."
Eusebius of Emesa (or whoever is the author; for the style indicates a Latin author, not a Greek or Syrian, as Eusebius was), homily On the Blessed Robber: "How singular," he says, "and how stupendous a devotion: at that time the condemned man believed, when the chosen one denied. This therefore was more praiseworthy and more magnificent in the robber, that he believed as Lord a man condemned and expiring amid the utmost tortures, than if he had believed amid works of virtue: therefore not without cause did he merit so great a reward." He adds the cause: "The bodily divinity, I believe, had illuminated the nascent faith of the robber, already believing in Christ, being nearer, and had poured itself out more abundantly in that moment of the redemption being accomplished." And immediately: "He did not say: If You are God, deliver me from the present punishment; but rather: Because You are God, free me from the future judgment; he proclaims to the ages the Judge and King of the ages, etc., though the punishment began as a robber's, it is consummated in a new manner as a martyr's."
Moreover, this penitent robber is called an Evangelist by St. Athanasius, in his sermon on Good Friday: "As a robber," he says, "you were crucified, O good man, and suddenly you became an Evangelist." By St. Chrysostom, in his sermon on Good Friday, he is called a Prophet, that is, a preacher and proclaimer of the greatness of Christ: "O the power of Jesus!" he says, "the robber is already a Prophet, and preaches from the cross." The same author in the same place calls him a plunderer and seizer of paradise: "You have seen," he says, "how not even on the cross does he forget his trade, but through his very confession he plunders the kingdom."
Hence Sedulius, Paschal Poem, book 5:
He seized the kingdom of heaven by his own plunderings.
By St. Cyril, book 2 On Adoration, and by Blessed Peter Damian, sermon On the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, he is called the first-fruits of the cross of Christ and of believers. By Drogo, On the Sacrament of the Lord's Passion, he is designated as Peter on the cross: "You," he says, "were Peter on the cross; and Peter in the house of Caiaphas was a robber," because Peter denied Christ, whom the robber confessed on the cross before all the people. By St. Cyprian (or whoever is the author), sermon On the Passion, he is called "a colleague of the martyrdom of Christ." By Arnold, abbot of Bonneval, tract. 2 On the Seven Words of Christ: "the companion of Christ and the precursor of His victory." By St. Chrysostom, homily On the Man Born Blind: "the advocate of Christ," because he defended Him against the Jews like an advocate. By Anastasius of Sinai, book 5 of the Hexaemeron: "a bird of heaven, a great eagle flying through the air into paradise." St. Athanasius heaps up more praises of him, in the cited sermon on Good Friday, where among other things he says: "O robber, fellow soldier of Peter, accuser of the Jews! O robber, purchaser of the kingdom, guardian of paradise! O robber, like a garland of the cross, gaining heaven for yourself! O robber, teaching men how to seize the kingdom as if by theft! O robber, last to come, but first to be crowned! O robber, vehement accuser of Judas! O robber, companion of the Apostles, justly purchasing Christ!"
Hear St. Paulinus, in the Panegyric of the Boy Celsus:
Depart, O grief; withdraw, O fear; flee, O sin; death falls,
Life has risen, Christ calls to the stars,
Having died my death, dead for me, and victor for me,
That the death of sin may be for me the life of God.
Finally, the one saved He led from the cross by an open
Path, where paradise lies.
To one asking on behalf of a penitent sinner who did not have access to a confessor, Christ answered St. Bridget in these words: "He weeps because he has no one to hear his confession. Tell him that the will suffices. For what availed the robber on the cross? Was it not his good will? Or what opened heaven, if not the will to desire good and to hear evil? But what creates hell, if not an evil will and a disordered affection?" So it is found in book 6 of the Revelations of St. Bridget, chapter 115. For more, see our Theophilus Raynaud, in the learned work that he wrote On the Metamorphosis of the Robber into an Apostle, where, in chapter 17, he composes and weaves a tropological honeycomb through Christian bees gathering from the meadows of the holy robber's virtues.
Verse 43: Today You Shall Be With Me in Paradise
43. And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to you: today YOU SHALL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE — that is, in a place of delight, where namely you shall be in blessedness and the beatific vision of God; as if to say: Today I shall make you happy for all eternity, today I shall establish you as a king reigning with Me in the kingdom of divine glory. And this Cyril of Jerusalem seems to mean, Catechesis 13; St. Chrysostom, homily 2 On the Cross and the Robber; Gregory of Nyssa, sermon On the Resurrection; St. Augustine, tract. 111 on John, who explains "in paradise" as in heaven, that is, in heavenly blessedness. For it is certain that Christ with the robber did not ascend into heaven on the day He died, but descended to the limbo of the fathers (hence St. Augustine, book 12 On Genesis Literally, chapter 34, and Maldonatus take "paradise" here to mean the bosom of Abraham), and there imparted to them the vision of His divinity, and thus made them blessed; therefore Christ then changed the lot of things: for He made the limbo to be paradise, He made the lower regions to be the upper, He made hell to be heaven; for where Christ is, there is paradise; where the vision of God and blessedness are, there is heaven.
For what Euthymius and other Greeks here, denying that the souls of the Saints see God and are blessed before the day of judgment, understand by paradise is the earthly paradise, to which Enoch was caught up — this cannot be true. For it is a matter of faith that Christ immediately after death descended to the underworld, namely to the limbo of the fathers; but He did not go to the earthly paradise. Add to this that it is uncertain whether the earthly paradise still survives after the flood; and even if it does survive, it is a happy and blessed habitation not of souls, but only of bodies. Therefore from this passage against the Greeks, and against Calvin and other Innovators, it is clear that the souls of the Saints fully purged from sin do not sleep until the day of judgment, but immediately see God and are made blessed by that vision.
Morally: Note here the liberality of Christ, who exceeds the prayers and wishes of suppliants. The robber had asked only that Christ, when He was in His kingdom, would remember him; but Christ promises him the kingdom that very day, so that in it he might reign with Him as a king. "Today," says Eusebius of Emesa, homily On the Blessed Robber, "as if to say: Why, O my faithful companion, and only witness of so great a triumph, do you think I need so much entreating, that on the day of judgment I should remember you? Today you shall be with Me in paradise." And immediately: "Placed on the gibbet (Christ), like one standing strong in the middle of a field of combatants, repelled the one who denied, received the one who confessed: He assigns this one to the kingdom, He leaves that one to hell. After this, then, let us believe that He will judge in majesty, whom we already see exercising judgment on the cross."
This therefore is the most sweet response of Christ to the robber, which St. Fulgentius, new Sermon 60, rightly calls "Christ's testament, written with the pen of the cross."
Finally, the name of this blessed robber is said to have been Dismas; for under this name of St. Dismas the robber, several chapels are found erected in his honor. He was enrolled in the catalog of the Saints in the Martyrology on March 25; for on that day he appears to have suffered, and consequently Christ. For thus we read in it: "At Jerusalem, the commemoration of the holy robber, who confessing Christ on the cross, merited to hear from Him: Today you shall be with Me in paradise."
Verse 46: Father, Into Your Hands I Commend My Spirit
46. FATHER, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMEND (the Arabic has: I place; Tertullian, book Against Praxeas, chapter 25, has: I deposit, as if to say: I hand over as a deposit; for this is what παρατίθεμαι signifies, whence παραθήκη means a deposit. The same is signified by the Hebrew הפקיד hiphkid, which our translator renders: I commend, namely as a deposit, that You may keep it for Me and restore it in due time) MY SPIRIT. — St. Athanasius, book On the Human Nature of Christ Against Apollinaris, at the beginning: "When on the cross," he says, "He says: Father, into Your hands I deposit My spirit, in this He deposits and commends all men to the Father, to be vivified through Him and in Him: for we are members, and these many members are one body, which is the Church itself; therefore He commends all in Himself to God." Christ therefore, according to St. Athanasius, calls men His own soul and spirit: how much therefore the adversary, appearing in a horrible form to the same person on his deathbed, and tempting him to despair and other crimes, as he appeared to St. Martha and others, though not to all. The same seems to be the opinion of St. Ephrem, in his sermon on those who fall asleep in Christ; St. Chrysostom, homily 34 on Matthew, and others whom our Lorinus cites, on Ecclesiastes chapter VIII, 8. Many hold the same view about Christ. Hence Eusebius, book X of the Demonstration, final chapter, understands that saying of Christ: "Fat bulls have besieged me," Psalm XXI, 13, as referring to demons whom Christ saw on the cross, gaping and mocking Him as though He were a criminal and evildoer, because of the crucifixion and His approaching death. That passage of Habakkuk, chapter III, 5, supports this: "The devil shall go forth before his feet." And that saying of Christ: "The prince of this world comes, and he has nothing in me" (John XIV, 30). He therefore commits His spirit into the hand of God, certain that no one can snatch it from that hand. For God is the most faithful and most powerful guardian of what is entrusted to Him.
So St. Jerome, on Psalm XXX, 6: "Into your hands I commend my spirit, that is, he says, into your power I commend my soul. The Church received this example from Christ. St. Stephen also did this. The Saints also pray this when they depart from the body, as in that verse: They commend their souls to the faithful Creator by doing good. The Lord said this while placed on the cross, that He commended His spirit into the Father's hands, soon to receive it back when He Himself would be raised."
Symbolically: Didymus, in the Catena on Psalm XXX, says: There is a threefold spirit — the first is our thought, the second is the soul, the third is the conscience — and we ought to commend all three to God.
We ought to devote ourselves to winning and saving souls, so that we may, as it were, preserve for Christ His own soul and spirit. Thus Paul, writing to Philemon, calls Onesimus his own heart.
"He delivered His soul into the hands of His Father," says Cyril, book XI on John, chapter XXXVI, "so that from that act and through it, a beginning being made, we might have a sure hope of this reality, firmly believing that we shall be in the hands of God after death." So also Victor of Antioch, on Mark: "This commendation of Christ," he says, "was also for the benefit of our souls: for those souls which He released from the body they had inhabited, He delivered by that prayer, as a kind of deposit, into the hands of the living God." And Euthymius: "The Lord also accomplished this for us," he says, "so that henceforth the souls of the just would not descend into hell, but rather ascend to God." Christ cites Psalm XXX, 6, where David, afflicted and placed in danger of death, both in his own person and in the person of Christ, says and prays: "Into your hands I commend my spirit."
Hence the Church daily uses and sings the same verse and psalm at Compline as night falls, to teach us, when we go to bed, to commend our soul to God, because at night many dangers of sudden death arise from catarrh, suffocation, apoplexy, etc. The dying also use the same verse, as did St. Nicholas, St. Louis, King of France, and St. Basil — the latter in the presence of angels by whom he was being taken away, as Gregory of Nazianzus testifies in his oration on St. Basil; and also Stephen, saying: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
For by this verse we testify: first, that we received our soul at birth, not from father or mother, but from God alone, and therefore we return to Him the same, as a creature that is properly His; second, that we believe the soul does not perish at death, but survives and is immortal, and returns to God, who created and will judge it; third, that we believe in the resurrection of the flesh: for when dying we commend our soul to God, so that He may preserve it as a deposit and restore it to our body at the resurrection; fourth, that in our final agony, the most fierce struggle we undergo with the devil at death, we implore God's help, so that by surrendering our soul to Him we may overcome the devil and triumph in God. Hence it is the opinion of many that the devil, assigned to each person, is permitted to appear in horrible form to the dying.
AND SAYING THIS, HE EXPIRED. — The Syriac renders: He said this, and finished — namely, His life. The Arabic: and when He had said this, He delivered His spirit into the hands of the Father, as He had said. This was therefore a certain sign that He was the Son of God the Father whom He had invoked, and that the Father had heard the cry of His Son and received His spirit. For when He had said: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit," only then did He permit death to approach Him. Euthymius says, on chapter XXVII of Matthew, that since He knew with certainty that the Father would safely keep His spirit delivered into His hands, as a deposit, and would return it to Him on the third day at the resurrection — therefore, certain in this hope, joyful and eager, He delivered His spirit to the Father.