The Faithful Have Heaven Now

23 November 2025   Luke 23:35-43 

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

“Today you will be with me in paradise.”  Luke 23:43   

  It appears that the amount of time spent being faithful that qualifies you for heaven can be measured in just minutes.

The “Good Thief” knew almost nothing about Jesus. He knew that Jesus was not a criminal, and had spoken of a kingdom, one that even the cross could not keep Him from. He suspected Jesus was headed for that kingdom, but had no confidence that he himself was, hence his request: “Remember me.”

But that was enough.

“Today you will be with me in paradise.”

The Good Thief was a newlywed, but the saints have been dancing for a really long time, and are thrilled when anyone decides to join the dance. It is the dance that is paradise, and it gets better the longer you’re dancing.

Some no doubt think that the Good Thief’s reward was not only wildly disproportionate, but not in the best interest of heaven. If you can spend your entire life as an enemy of the faith and the faithful, and at the ultimate moment find Jesus, and thereby receive the same reward as the holiest saint, won’t some people, maybe a great many people, shrug and say, “What’s the point?”

  Why should we deny ourselves for our whole lives, turn the other cheek our whole lives, place mother and father, and family, and friends second to the kingdom our whole lives if all it takes is a moment’s faithfulness to receive the same heaven that the Good Thief got?

First of all, the Good Thief didn’t get the same reward. All the people who have been faithful for a really long time started receiving heaven a really long time ago. They have been receiving the very life of Christ, perhaps daily, for decades. They have spent all those years in Jesus’ friendship, and been transformed by that experience. They have experienced massive growth in holiness, wisdom, and charity. They have received, perhaps daily, all the gifts of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (cf. Galatians 5:22-23). They have received and been blessings – heaven working in them, heaven working through them. So, those who find Jesus at the ultimate moments of life are not receiving the same reward – they are only just beginning.

For another thing, those who have been receiving heaven for years really want people to receive what they have been receiving, even if it is at the last moments of life. They yearn for it and rejoice in it more than those who are receiving it late are able to rejoice. The people who have been receiving heaven for a long time know more than the rookies do how very valuable a gift they have already received, a gift the rookies are only now receiving; and their joy is richer and deeper by far than the joy of the Good Thief because of that knowledge. Those who resent the convert who joins up with his last breaths are missing the point in the same way that the brother of the Prodigal Son was missing the point. The older brother didn’t realize he had heaven already, had had it for all the years that his kid brother was running away from it and winding up in a pigsty (see Luke 15:11-32).

Old married people don’t resent newlyweds for getting married because they would never want to be newlyweds again. They have so much more love, wisdom and joy because of how long they have been married. Sometimes at wedding receptions all the married couples are invited to the dance floor, and as they dance couples are dismissed, starting with those who have been married the shortest time, until the only ones left are those who have been married 40 or 50 years, or more. As the older couples dance slowly, all the witnesses share quiet smiles and warm applause that need no interpretation. When the guests see couples who have been together for so many years that the distinctions between the two seem to have blurred, they know without any assistance that they are witnessing something holy, a microcosm of heaven.

The Good Thief was a newlywed, but the saints have been dancing for a really long time, and are thrilled when anyone decides to join the dance. It is the dance that is paradise, and it gets better the longer you’re dancing.