Which comes first: the Belief or the Teaching ?
November 23, 2025 Today ’ s Gospel narrates a story that we have all heard many times, about the two others who were crucified with Jesus. And while we all praise the good robber for standing up for Jesus, perhaps we need to reflect more deeply on his response. Here was a person who hardly knew Jesus, though he may have probably heard of him. His only first hand experience of Jesus was a man who was crucified on a cross completely void of any power. Yet, unlike the disciples - who just could not understand what Jesus being the new promised Messiah or King really meant, who right till the end were found jostling among themselves as to who would be the greatest among themselves in Jesus' kingdom (Luke 9 :46, Mark 9 : 34 ) , and who expected Jesus to be this powerful Messiah who would bring all things under his feet, - this criminal on the cross, who sees Jesus completely without power, unable to come down from the cross, still recognizes and...
