Every good Christian has heard the biblical account of the Good Thief, the bandit who, along with a cohort, were both crucified with Christ, and every good Protestant will quickly use the story of the Good Thief in order to demonstrate holes in Catholic theology and dogma. The Protestant will usually start out by asking a Catholic the following question:
Protestant: "Is it true that you Catholics believe that baptism saves you?"
Catholic: "Yes, we do believe it does."
Protestant: "Don't you Catholics also believe that your works can get you into heaven?"
Catholic: "While works do help, it is God's Grace that merits the eternal reward."
Protestant: "Then how is it that the thief that was crucified along with Christ was, according to Luke 23:42-43, going to be in Paradise with Jesus if he never was baptized nor did he do any good works as a thief?"
Here we see an attack at two basic dogmas of the Catholic Church, the Sacrament of Baptism is called into question as well as the concept of Justification, that is, how are we justified as righteous and holy enough to truly be called the sons and daughters of God? While the subject of Justification deserves its own post, and I WON'T be going in to that in this post, the bigger subject is the following: How can a Catholic respond to this accusation?
The reason why I bring this topic up is because yesterday was the feast day of Saint Dismas, b.k.a., "The Good Thief." While his name is never stated in the bible, the apocryphal 4th century work entitled The Gospel of Nicodemus, states in the 10th chapter that the name of the penitent thief was "Dysmas" and the non-penitent malefactor was named "Gestas." What is mentioned in Scripture, however, is what we will be looking at.
In Luke 23:39-43 we read the following:
Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us." The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man had done nothing criminal." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." The replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
Hanging there on the cross, he finally saw himself as a sinner, so he was able to admonish the other thief as an evildoer. He also saw that, as a sinner, he needed healing so he confessed his sin and - with his heart stirring toward righteousness - he bore witness to the false conviction of an innocent man, that being, Jesus. And lastly, he realized who really was next to him, that right there in his agony stood none other than God Himself.
This closer examination reveals that the Good Thief did 3 things, that is, he did 3 works:
#1: The Good Thief rebuked a sinner, namely the other thief.
#2: The Good Thief gave a confession.
#3: The Good Thief acknowledged Christ as the Messiah.
What we need to realize is that, much like St. Peter, it wasn't his human heart that realized the truth of Christ but it was through the work of God the Father. Essentially, it was the Grace of God that first provoked the Good Thief as he anguished and united his cross with that of Jesus. Filled with this grace, as well as a new faith in God, he was awakened; this all led the Good Thief, Dismas, to put his new found faith into action and into works.
This is an excellent example of the much larger Catholic teaching on Justification which essentially states that God freely gives you Grace, which in turn leads you to have faith and, after you have faith in the one and only God, it is up to you to put that faith into action. After all, can a person who is filled with the grace of God and has faith in Him simply lock themselves up in a room and expect to be a good Christian? Or, is a person who has been blessed by His grace and has fervent fealty to Him supposed to go out and evangelize and proclaim His message? It is only in this Catholic understanding that James 2:14-17 can make any sense.
As for the Good Thief not being baptized, CCC# 1259-1260 state explicitly the Catholic belief in a Baptism of Desire, therefore, had the Good Thief of had the opportunity to have been baptized, it is almost certain that he would have.
Lastly, as a personal thought, I would like to state my personal opinion about the Good Thief. For me, it means that it is never too late to come to know who God is and what he wants you to do for him in your life. For Dismas, this meant the he would be the archetype for such a belief but, for us, it can mean much more. And indeed it does mean much more, for unlike the Good Thief, we already know who Jesus is and what he did and to not take that gift of knowledge and put it to use in our own lives is truly wasteful and insulting to God.
To think, if we only had half of the faith that the Good Thief had as he hung next to Christ...what miracles we could achieve! Saint Dismas, pray for us!
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