CNA body of workers, Feb 16, 2021 / 12:39 am MT (CNA).- EWTN host Raymond Arroyo is releasing a brand new little ones's ebook recounting the legend of The respectable Thief, one of the guys crucified alongside Jesus on first rate Friday.
"The Thief Who Stole Heaven," written with the aid of Arroyo and illustrated by Randy Gallegos, is decided to be launched March 9.
Arroyo is the creator of several infants's books, together with the "Will Wilder" event sequence and, most recently, "The Spider Who Saved Christmas," launched right through fall 2020.
His newest ebook concerns the life of a person often talked about because the respectable Thief and frequent in Christian subculture by means of the name Dismas, which in Greek skill "sunset" or "demise."
within the Gospel of Luke, the evangelist information the phrases of both guys crucified on both side of Jesus on Golgotha.
one of the most criminals ridicules Jesus and urges Him to keep himself and them; whereas the different recognizes Jesus' innocence, and asks Jesus to "remember me for those who come into your kingdom," to which Jesus replies, "definitely, I say to you, these days you might be with me in paradise."
although the Bible doesn't provide any particulars of The first rate Thief's life, Arroyo researched extrabiblical Christian sources for expertise perception into who The respectable Thief became.
The identify "Dismas" seems to had been first attributed to The first rate Thief in the fourth-century apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, Arroyo discovered.
"among the many writings of the saints and Church Fathers, I found a path of legends and rich insights into the character of the 'decent thief'—a lot of which I used to inform my version of his story," Arroyo wrote within the e-book's afterword.
for example, the Arabic "Gospel of the Infancy"— which isn't authorized as a part of the Bible— however records Joseph, Mary, and Jesus encountering Dismas all the way through their flight from Bethlehem to Egypt.
a couple of saints, comparable to St. John Chrysostom, referred to Dismas as a brutal robber and murderer. In Arroyo's e-book, Dismas is given a tragic backstory that leads him to a lifetime of crime, robbing and murdering travelers on the street.
but when Dismas encounters Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus, he is moved to display the family unit mercy.
"the road Dismas speaks to the baby Jesus in my story is taken from St. Augustine," Arroyo cited.
"The saint wrote that the thief told the newborn, 'O most blessed of infants, if ever a time should still come once I should crave Thy mercy, bear in mind me and neglect now not what has handed this present day.'"
Jesus later suggests Dismas mercy as they hold on their crosses and Dismas realizes Jesus is an identical child he encountered years in the past.
"The arc of this story is what first drew my attention: how the long shadow of grace can suddenly ambush even the foremost of sinners," Arroyo wrote.
"[I]t changed into Dismas, a murderer and a thief, who understood and affirmed the divinity of Christ two days earlier than the leisure of the area caught on."
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