From the Taizé Community and the Focolare Movement.

Bible texts with commentary

These Bible meditations are meant as a way of seeking God in silence and prayer in the midst of our daily life. During the course of a day, take a moment to read the Bible passage with the short commentary and to reflect on the questions which follow. Afterwards, a small group of 3 to 10 people can meet to share what they have discovered and perhaps for a time of prayer.

November 2014

Luke 23:39-43: Liberated at the Cross

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43)

Two criminals are crucified next to Jesus. Despite their suffering and their exhaustion, these two men cannot help but look at him, just like the people (v. 35) and the friends of Jesus (v. 49) do. Jesus on the cross remains a challenge; no one around him can remain indifferent.

The leaders and the soldiers see there a reason to mock him (vv. 35-36). One of the criminals insults Jesus. Why doesn’t Jesus save him, if he has the power to do so? That man asks Jesus to use what he has received from God for his well-being, to make his life easier. And also to accomplish quickly his mission to save others: if he is the Messiah, why doesn’t he help those two crucified men at the end of their life, as he helped so many sick people? If he is the Messiah, why doesn’t he save these two poor dying men, in this way following his Father, who “is good to the ungrateful and the wicked” (Luke 6:35)? “Save us,” asks the criminal on the cross.

The other criminal rebukes the first one. He speaks of a “fear of God” that leads him to recognize his own guilt and Jesus’ innocence. A fear that, far from paralyzing him, opens up for him a hope. At the cross, he finds the courage to think of the future and the strength to pray to Jesus, asking him not to forget him in his kingdom. But his prayer is humble; it does not demand anything. It is an honest prayer; his words show his sincerity: he does not hide the evil he has done. And it is a prayer full of trust, for he knows that Jesus will come as king, even if before him he only sees a crucified man about to die. This second criminal has no illusions about his own abilities; he needs Jesus to remember him in order to support him and take care of him. He knows that Jesus’ remembering will be enough to save him. He too asks to be saved.

Jesus does not answer the first criminal. Behind his request, apparently legitimate, is hidden in reality the voice of the tempter (see Luke 4:9). Jesus does not allow himself to be drawn into this kind of provocation. When his friend Peter told him that he should not take the way of the cross, Jesus had replied with harsh and clear words: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.” (Matthew 16:23)

To the second criminal, who shows great faith, Jesus offers his fellowship and promises the fullness of life: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” A formal promise, with the seal of his authority: “Truly I tell you.” These words of Jesus are surprising. On the cross, Jesus opens his arms to forgive someone who says he deserves capital punishment for his crimes. And this criminal may be the first person to be with Jesus in paradise. Jesus’ love always surprises us.

In each of us there are many different voices that try to express themselves. Among them there are the cries of these two criminals. Following the first voice leads to an attitude of accusation, to withdrawal into ourselves and to distancing ourselves from God and from others. Listening to the second voice and giving it precedence can help us to open our eyes in order better to accept what we are, to recognize God’s presence where we did not expect to find it and to ask him to support us. It is an attitude that liberates us.

 What helps me to discern the traps that can be hidden in the voices around me? Where can I find the courage not to remain fixed on them?

 Have I already had the experience of feeling liberated before the cross? Does the criminal’s prayer help me to find inner peace?

‘For with you is the fountain of life’ (Psalm 36:9)

… This Word of Scripture tells us something so important and vital that it can be an instrument of reconciliation and communion.

First of all it tells us that there is only one source of life, God. It is from God, from his creative love, that the universe is born and he makes it the home of humankind.

It is God who gives us life with all its gifts. The Psalmist knows the harshness and dryness of the desert and what it means to have a spring of water with all the life that flourishes around it. He could find no better image to sing of creation that springs like a river from the heart of God.

And so a hymn of praise and gratitude wells up from the human heart. This is the first step to take, the first teaching to grasp from the words of the Psalm: to praise and thank God for his work, for the wonders of the cosmos and for human beings fully alive who are his glory and who alone in creation can to say to him:

‘For with you is the fountain of life.’

But it was not enough for the Father’s love to pronounce the Word through whom all things were made. He wanted the Word himself to take on our flesh. God, the one true God, became man in Jesus and brought to earth the spring of life.

The source of every good, of every being and of every happiness came to dwell among us, so that we could have it, so to speak, within hand’s reach. ‘I came,’ says Jesus, ‘that they may have life, and have it abundantly’ (Jn 10:10). He has filled with himself every bit of time and space in our existence. He wanted to stay with us always, so we could recognize him and love him in the most varied guises.

Sometimes we find ourselves thinking, ‘It must have been amazing to live at the time of Jesus!’ Well, his love has invented a way of remaining with us, not simply in one small corner of Palestine, but in all places of the earth. He makes himself present in the Eucharist according to his promise. And there we can go for nourishment to feed and renew our life.

‘For with you is the fountain of life.’

Another source where we can draw the living water of the presence of God is our brother, our sister. Each neighbour who passes by, if we love him or her, especially any in need, cannot be thought of as someone to whom we do good, but as someone who does good to us, because they give us God. In fact, by loving Jesus in our neighbours (I was hungry … I was thirsty … I was a stranger … I was in prison [see Mt 25: 31-40]) we receive in exchange his love and life because he himself, who is in our brothers and sisters, is its source.

Another wellspring rich with water is the presence of God within us. He always speaks to us and it is up to us to listen to his voice, which is our conscience. The more effort we put into loving God and our neighbour, the louder this voice becomes and drowns out all the others. But there is a privileged moment when, as at no other time, we can draw on his presence within us. It is when we pray and try to go into depth in a direct relationship with the one who dwells in the depths of our soul. It is like a deep stream of water that never runs dry, that is always available to us and that can quench our thirst at any time. All we have to do is to shut out for a moment everything else from our soul and recollect ourselves, and we will find this spring, even in the midst of the driest desert. And we do this to the point of finding that union with him where we are aware that we are no longer alone but together, the two of us: he in me and I in him. 

And yet, through his gift, we are one like water and the spring, the flower and its seed….

The Word of the Psalm reminds us that God alone is the source of life and therefore the source of full communion, peace and joy. The more we drink from this source and live on the living water that is his Word, the more we will come close to one another and live like brothers and sisters. Then the words that follow in this Psalm will come true: ‘in your light we see light,’ the light that humanity awaits.

Chiara Lubich

 Adapted from the version first published in January 2002