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The Lay Cistercian Review · Easter Season 2026

Saint Dismas and the First Easter

John Pestian Lay Cistercian of Gethsemani · Cincinnati, OH

The first Christians did not begin with theology. They started with an announcement. They used the Greek word kerygma for it, a proclamation made by a herald when something decisive had taken place. The apostles did not explain an idea. They were announcing what God had done.

Jesus Christ had died.
He had been buried.
And God had raised Him.

Saint Paul later preserved the form of that earliest proclamation in words he himself had received: “I delivered to you what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day.”¹

Everything in the life of the Church grows from that announcement. The Cross and the Resurrection stand at the center of the Gospel that the apostles carried into the world.²

We often think of the kerygma beginning after Easter, when the apostles began preaching openly. Yet the Gospel itself shows something quieter and more surprising. Before the apostles proclaim the Resurrection to the crowds, the promise of that victory appears already on Calvary.

It appears in a brief exchange between the crucified Christ and the man tradition remembers as Saint Dismas.

The Moment on the Cross

Luke tells the scene with great simplicity. Two criminals are crucified beside Jesus. One joins the mockery of the crowd. The other speaks with unexpected clarity.

“We are receiving the due reward of our deeds,” he says, “but this man has done nothing wrong.” (Luke 23:41)

In other words, he recognizes two truths at once. He sees his own guilt and sees the innocence of Christ.

Then he turns toward Jesus and says something even more striking:

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Luke 23:42)

The moment is extraordinary. Jesus is dying. The disciples have fled. The Kingdom He preached appears to have vanished beneath Roman power.

Yet the thief speaks as though that kingdom still lies ahead.

Without seeing the Resurrection, he entrusts his future to the crucified Lord.

Dismas and the Seven Last Words

Christian tradition gathers the final words of Christ from the Cross into what are called the Seven Last Words, drawn from the four Gospels and long prayed during Holy Week. They begin with “Father, forgive them” and end with “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

The thief appears between the first and second of these words.

Christ first prays:

“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

Immediately afterward, the thief turns toward Him and asks to be remembered. Christ answers with the second word from the Cross:

“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

The order is striking. Christ prays for mercy, and the first visible recipient of that mercy appears at once.

The promise of Paradise is spoken first to the man who recognizes his need for it.

The First Response to the Cross

In this exchange, something essential about the Gospel is revealed.

Christ prays to the Father for our forgiveness.
A sinner responds in humility.
Mercy is given.

The whole movement of redemption appears in a single moment.

The thief does not argue for himself. He does not attempt to repair his past. He simply asks to be remembered. Yet Christ answers with a promise far greater than the man dared to ask.

“Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

The Cross, which appears to be the place of defeat, becomes the place where life first opens.

Why This Belongs to Easter

The conversation takes place on Good Friday, yet its meaning reaches beyond the sorrow of that day.

Lent prepares the heart through repentance. The Cross reveals the cost of redemption. But the promise spoken to the thief already belongs to the joy of Easter.

Christ does not say “You will someday enter Paradise.” He says,

“Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

The promise points toward the victory that will soon be revealed in the Resurrection.

The Church celebrates Easter not as a single day, but as a season of fifty days stretching from Easter Sunday to Pentecost. During this time, the Church reflects on the unfolding of the Paschal Mystery, the triumph of life over death.

The exchange between Christ and the thief already belongs to that mystery. Before the Resurrection is proclaimed to the world, the first promise of its power is spoken beside the Cross.

There is something fitting about where this moment takes place. The thief does not meet Christ in a synagogue or along the roads of Galilee. He meets Him in suffering. Both men hang on crosses. One bears the weight of his crimes; the other bears the weight of the world. Yet it is there that the thief discovers hope. Looking upon the wounded Christ, he sees not only suffering, but a kingdom hidden within it. The Cross becomes the place where mercy first appears.

Conclusion

Within the Seven Last Words of Christ, the place of Dismas is quiet but profound.

Christ speaks of forgiveness: “Father, forgive them.”
A sinner turns to Him.
Paradise is promised.

In that moment, the Gospel appears not as a sermon, but as an encounter. What the apostles will soon proclaim to the world is first spoken to a dying man beside the Cross.

The thief does not see the empty tomb. He hears no preaching of the Resurrection. Yet he believes that the crucified Jesus will reign.

And from that act of faith comes the first promise of Easter spoken from the Cross:

“Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Before the stone is rolled away from the tomb, the promise of the Resurrection is already spoken from the Cross.