Mtr Mary Trainor

Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.

Dear friend,

My ailing mother was living with me when I started attending a nearby Episcopal Church.

Oddly enough, she resented the time I gave to church. I say “oddly” because, for most of my life, she wished I could “find a church” and settle in there. By the time I did, her world was upended, and her needs had multiplied.

Like many family stories, this one is layered and complicated—way more than a single reflection can capture. But I share this one here because it involves scripture selected for today.

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Our Daily Office readings include a familiar passage from Luke: Three men, condemned to die. Two are guilty as charged, one is innocent. Vastly different in life, yet on their respective crosses they share a common destiny.

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On a particular Sunday I got home from church, turning right to go up the stairs to my room. From the family room below, I heard my mother: “Come down here when you can, I need to ask you something.”

I imagined she wanted to know why I was so late getting home. Or why did I spend so much time at church. But as I rounded the corner into the family room, I noticed how distressed she seemed. This was something different.

When I sat beside her she asked: “You know that story from the Bible about Jesus and the two thieves on crosses?” I said I did.

“And you know how Jesus told the repentant thief that he would be in Paradise that very day with Jesus?” I said I did.

“Do you think that’s true—about being in Paradise,” she asked, an urgent mix of hope and fear in her eyes.

In the years since, after seminary, after ordination, after pastoring two churches for nearly fifteen years. Right up to now—I have never experienced a more gut-wrenching question than hers on that day long ago.

How did I respond, you ask. How would you?

Mtr Mary