Christus dicit, quod, si ille latro supra proximo dictus communionem altaris sumere voluerit, habeat ante contricionem de commissis cum voluntate ea emendandi et non amplius peccandi sed in bonis persistendi. Docet eciam alia remedia, quibus possit se Deo et angelis et sanctis et proximis reconciliare. Que si non fecerit, grauiter punietur.
The Mother's Plea for the Thief
Mary intercedes for a repentant thief, and Christ agrees to offer him the grace of his Body and presence.
Mary said, "Blessed are you, my Son, King of glory and Lord of the angels!" I ask you again on behalf of the thief." The Son replied, "Blessed are you, dearest Mother!" Just as your milk entered my human body and strengthened all my limbs, so your words enter and delight my heart; for every petition of yours is made with discernment, and every desire is directed toward mercy. Therefore, for the sake of your love, I will show mercy to this thief. The Mother answered, "Then give him, my dearest Son, what is most precious to me: your Body and your grace, for this thief is hungry and empty of all good." Therefore, give grace so that this wicked hunger may be extinguished, this weakness strengthened, and the will—which has until now been sluggish toward your love—may be set on fire! The Son replied: "Just as a child who is deprived of food quickly dies in the body, so this person, who has been nourished by the devil from childhood, won't be able to come back to life unless he is fed by my food."
Conditions for Restoration
Christ outlines the requirements for the thief's return, emphasizing contrition, amendment of life, and defense of the faith.
Therefore, if he desires to receive my Body, and if he longs to be refreshed by the sweetness of its fruit, let him come to me with these three virtues: namely, with true contrition for his sins, with the will to amend what he has done wrong, and with the will to commit no more evil and to persist in what is good. As for the prayers of those who are asking on his behalf, I answer you that the thief must do what I am about to say if he is seeking salvation. First, because he dared to resist the King of Glory, he must now, to make amends for his sins, defend the faith of my holy Church and be prepared to lay down his life for its protection, even to the point of death. Just as he once worked with all his strength for worldly honor and the benefit of an earthly master, he must now work to see that my faith is increased, that the enemies of the Church's faith are brought low, and that he draws everyone he can to me through both word and example—just as he previously drew them away when he worked for the world.1 I tell you for certain that if he does nothing more than strap on his helmet for my honor and take up his shield with the intention of standing for the holy faith, it will be counted to him as a work, should he be called at that very moment. Even if enemies draw near, no one can harm him. Therefore, let him work boldly, because he has a powerful Lord once he has me; let him work courageously, because he'll be given a precious reward—namely, eternal life.
Works of Reparation
Christ instructs the thief on how to make amends for his past offenses through sacrifice, restitution, and humility.
Because he offended the saints and angels and deprived souls of their bodies, he should have a Mass said for all the saints every day for a full year, wherever he chooses, by giving an offering to the celebrating priest, so that through this sacrifice the offended saints and angels may be appeased and turn their eyes toward him. For they are appeased by such an offering when my Body—which is a royal sacrifice—is received and offered with charity and humility. Furthermore, because he had plundered the goods of others and had done injury to widows and orphans, he must humbly return everything he knows he knowingly holds unjustly, while asking those he injured to show him mercy and forgive him. And because he won't be able to make restitution to everyone he has wronged, he should have an altar built at his own expense in some church that seems most suitable to him, where one Mass may be celebrated daily for those he has harmed, until the end of the world. To ensure this remains firm and stable, he should donate enough from his income to the altar so that a chaplain, celebrating there perpetually, can support himself from it. Furthermore, because he was so far from humility, he must now humble himself as much as he can and ask those he offended for peace and reconciliation, in whatever way he can most fittingly do so.
The Path of Humility and Final Warning
Christ teaches the thief how to respond to criticism with humility and warns of the consequences of rejecting this path of salvation.
Furthermore, whenever you hear your own sins and vices—the ones you've committed—being criticized or praised by others, don't defend them presumptuously, and don't take pleasure or pride in them; instead, think humbly and say: 'Truly, I took too much pleasure in the sin that did me no good at all.' I went too far in my presumption, and if I had wanted to, I could easily have avoided it. Therefore, brothers, pray to the Lord that He may now grant me the spirit to turn back from such things and to be able to courageously make amends for the sins I've committed. Because he has offended in many ways by indulging his flesh, let him temper his body with reasonable restraint. But if he hears these words of mine and puts them into practice, he'll find salvation and eternal life. But if he doesn't, I will demand an accounting for his sins down to the last penny, and he'll suffer a more bitter punishment because I've made these things known to him, which he otherwise wouldn't have known.✦
Read the original Latin
Maria loquebatur: "Benedictus sis tu, fili mi, rex glorie et dominus angelorum! Rogo te iterum pro latrone." Respondit Filius: "Benedicta sis tu, carissima mater!
Sicut lac tuum in corpus humanitatis mee intrauit et omnia membra mea confortauit, sic verba tua intrant et delectant cor meum, quia omnis peticio tua cum discrecione est et omnis voluntas ad misericordiam. Ideo faciam propter caritatem tuam misericordiam cum latrone."
Respondit mater: "Da ergo ei, fili carissime, hoc, quod michi carissimum est, scilicet corpus tuum et graciam tuam, quia latro iste esuriens est et vacuus a bono.
Ideo da graciam, vt extinguatur esuries praua, roboretur infirmitas, accendatur voluntas ad bona, que hactenus torpuit a tua caritate!"
Respondit Filius: "Sicut puer, cui subtrahitur cibus, cito moritur in corpore, sic iste, qui a puericia sua a dyabolo nutritus fuit, non poterit reuiuiscere, nisi pascatur cibo meo.
Ideo, si corpus meum desiderat sumere, si fructus eius dulcedine refici affectat, cum hiis tribus virtutibus accedat ad me, scilicet cum contricione vera commissorum, cum voluntate emendandi admissa, cum voluntate non amplius faciendi mala et in bonis perseuerandi.
Ad preces vero eorum, qui pro eo rogant, respondeo tibi, quod ista, que dicam, facienda sunt latroni, si salutem querit.
Primo, quia ausus fuit resistere regi glorie, ideo nunc propter emendacionem delictorum debet fidem sancte Ecclesie mee defendere et vitam suam pro eius tuicione paratam habere vsque ad mortem,
vt, sicut prius laborauit totis viribus pro honore mundi et commodo domini temporalis, sic nunc laboret, vt fides mea augeatur et inimici fidei Ecclesie deprimantur, et omnes trahat, quos poterit trahere, ad me verbo et exemplo, sicut prius subtraxit, cum pro mundo laborauit.
Pro certo dico sibi, quod, si non plus fecerit, quam quod ligauerit galeam suam pro honore meo et clipeum in brachium posuerit hac intencione, vt stet pro fide sancta, reputabitur ei pro opere, si in illo puncto vocatus fuerit.
Quod si eciam hostes appropinquauerint, nullus ei nocere potest. Ideo laboret audacter, quia potentem habet dominum, cum me habuerit; laboret viriliter, quia preciosum ei dabitur stipendium, scilicet vita sempiterna.
Pro eo autem, quod sanctos et angelos offenderat et corpora animabus priuauerat, faciat dici omni die vnam missam de sanctis omnibus per vnum integrum annum, vbi sibi videbitur, dando presbitero celebranti mercedem, vt per hoc sacrificium sancti et angeli offensi placari queant et ad eum oculos suos conuertere.
Per talem enim placantur oblacionem, quando corpus meum, quod regale est sacrificium, ex caritate et humilitate sumitur et offertur.
Deinde, quia bona aliorum diripuerat, viduis et orphanis fecerat iniuriam, ideo omnia, que scit se scienter habere iniuste, reddere debet humiliter rogando iniuriatos, vt ei misericorditer indulgeant.
Et quia non omnibus poterit satisfacere, quibus iniuriatus est, ideo in aliqua ecclesia, vbi sibi conueniencius videbitur, de propriis sumptibus construi faciat vnum altare, in quo vsque in finem mundi vna missa cottidie pro hiis, quibus intulerat dampnum, celebretur.
Et vt istud firmum et stabile permaneat, tantum de redditibus dabit ad altare, quod vnus capellanus perpetuo celebrans inde possit se sustentare.
Preterea, quia ab eo longe fuit humilitas, ideo debet se humiliare, in quantum potest, et eos, quos offenderat, ad pacem et concordiam rogare, prout conueniencius poterit fieri.
Necnon et cum aliquando peccata et vicia sua, que commiserat, reprehendi aut laudari ab aliquibus audierit, non defendat ea presumptuose nec delectando glorietur in eis, sed cogitet humiliter et dicat:
'Vere nimis delectabat me peccatum, quod ad nichil michi profuit. Nimis in presumpcione excessi, et si voluissem, bene potuissem cauisse.
Ideo rogate, fratres, Dominum, vt det nunc michi spiritum, quo resipiscam a talibus et possim commissa peccata viriliter emendare!'
Pro eo vero, quod in carne sua excedendo multipliciter offendit, racionabili temperancia temperet corpus suum. Si autem audierit verba mea hec et compleuerit ea opere, tunc salus erit ei et vita perpetua.
Sin autem, vsque ad nouissimum quadrantem exigam peccata eius et amariorem penam habebit, quia ista sibi dici feci, quam aliter habuisset."
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.5.26 — Truly I tell you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the very last penny.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'subtraxit' here functions as the inverse of 'trahat' (to draw/attract); it implies drawing people away from God or toward worldly ends, contrasting with the new mission of drawing them to Christ.
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