once received it. For how can one alms diminish that inexhaustible
treasure? How could our tender Lord, whose property is always to
have mercy, have refused his request? Indeed He gave him more than
he asked. Yet how could the thief escape the glow of the fire which
was burning so near him? Truly this was the fire, which the Father
had sent down from heaven to earth, which had long smouldered, but
now, kindled anew, and fed by the wood of the Cross, and sprinkled
with the oil of mercy, and fanned, as it were, by the reproaches and
blasphemies of the Jews, sent up its flames to heaven, by which that
thief was quite kindled and set on fire, and his love became as
strong as death, so that he said: "I indeed suffer no grievous
penalty, for it is less than I deserve; but that this innocent One,
who has done no wrong, should be so tortured, contrary to justice
and righteousness, this, truly, adds grievous sorrow to my sorrow."
O splendid faith of this thief! He contemned all the punishment that
might be inflicted on him: he feared not the rage of the people, who
were barking like mad dogs against Jesus: he cared not for the chief
priests: he feared not the executioners with their weapons and
instruments of torture; but in the presence of them all, with a
fearless heart he confessed that Christ was the true Son of God, and
Lord of the whole world: and at the same time he confounded the Jews
by confessing that He had done nothing amiss, and therefore that
they had crucified Him unjustly. O wondrous faith! O mighty
constancy! O amazing love of this poor thief, love that cast out all
fear! He was indeed well drunken with that new wine which in the
wine-press of the Cross had been pressed out of that sweet cluster,
Jesus Christ, and therefore he confessed Christ without shame before
all the people. At the very beginning of the Passion, the apostles
and disciples had forsaken Christ and fled; even St Peter,
frightened by the voice of one maidservant, had denied Christ. But