I have written about St. Dismas before. He keeps dropping into my life and did again recently. I mentioned in another post that Chaplain Emil Kapaun would pray to Dismas when seeking to steal food for his fellow prisoners of war. I came across Dismas again when reading about Fr. Ed Dowling. Fr. Dowling became a spiritual mentor to Bill W., the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. As Fr. Dowling proceeded through his training to become a Jesuit, he was called to select an additional name. He chose Dismas.

I first learned of Dismas through a movie. In the early 1960s, I watched a film titled The Hoodlum Priest, the story of Fr. Charles Dismas Clark SJ of St. Louis. The film portrays the story of Fr. Clark’s establishment of the Dismas House movement to assist those who had been in prison.

In the film, Fr. Clark tells a young woman the story of St. Dismas, also known as the Good Thief. Dismas has stayed with me ever since.

The story of Dismas appears only in the Gospel of St. Luke. He is not identified by name.  In the story he is one of two criminals crucified with Jesus. The other unnamed criminal starts nagging at Jesus, demanding that He do something! Dismas intervenes, in essence putting the other criminal in his place by telling him that they both deserved what they were getting but that Jesus did not. He then turns to Jesus and says “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus gives him the memorable promise “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Here is a man who has to have been utterly broken, saying he deserves to be crucified, a tortuous and humiliating way to die. Tradition says he was a thief. It may be that he was guilty of other crimes. Like many of us, he must have been consumed with self-hatred and bitterness. Yet something about the Man hanging next to him broke through all that and opened a place of healing and hope.

Here is a man at rock bottom yet he recognizes Jesus for who He is. Dismas doesn’t ask for forgiveness but only to be remembered. Dismas may be the only person in Scripture other than Jesus Himself that we know made it to Heaven. Amidst all the great saints of the Gospels, Dismas is the only recipient of such a guarantee.

Have you ever been there? Broken and on the edge of despair? Perhaps you faced failure. Loss of a relationship. Loss of a job. Perhaps like me you were caught up in addiction, finding fake hope in the bottle or pill. Perhaps like Dismas you were able to find a way out that was based on genuine hope.

Unlike other Wise Guides, Dismas leaves us only with his words spoken at the time of his execution. He did not write a book. He left no letters. What we know about him is minimal.

In Fr. Ed Dowling’s journey, he struggled with doubt and the dark night of the soul. Fr. Kapaun suffered martyrdom in Korea. Yet both saintly men were drawn to this Good Thief as am I. Dismas is there with me as I struggle with doubts or other aspects of the dark night that are part of any journey of recovery from addiction. I welcome hi whenever he drops back into my life.