Origen on the Penitent Thief

quem non gravi solvit metu

latrónis absolútio?

The Paschal hymn Hic est dies verus Dei centers our attention on the penitent thief as a sign of both the power of Christ’s death and of his resurrection:

            quem non gravi solvit metu

latrónis absolútio?

            Opus stupent et ángeli,

pœnam vidéntes córporis

Christóque adhæréntem reum

vitam beátam cárpere

Quid hoc potest sublímius,

ut culpa quærat grátiam,

metúmque solvat cáritas

reddátque mors vitam novam?

Steven Cartwright’s essay ‘Origen’s Interpretation of Romans’  in A Companion to St. Paul in the Middle Ages (Series Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition, Volume: 39 Editor: Steven Cartwright) explains the hymn’s interest in the thief. This text was well-known in the Middle Ages and well-respected and as we would expect, much disliked by Luther.

In his Commentary on Romans Origen looks for examples of justification by grace alone and finds two: the sinful woman in Luke 7 and the good thief in  Luke 23:42. Origen comments:

In the Gospels nothing else is recorded about his good works, but for the sake of this faith alone, Jesus said to him: ‘truly I say to you: today you will be with me in paradise. . . . through faith this thief was justified without works of the law.

Origen views this as an exception to the rule, because the thief had no time to perform good works. But, while Scripture sometimes describes sinners who are justified by faith alone, normally after receiving baptismal grace, good works and merit are necessary.

“Interestingly Origen chooses to exemplify the necessity of mortification by returning to the example of the thief on the cross. . . he had been planted together in the likeness of Christ’s death and of his resurrection, and for that reason deserved paradise since he had been joined to the tree of life.”

The thief was ‘a plant worthy of paradise which was joined to  the tree of life’. The thief is an example of how faith and works cooperate.