Gospel (Lk 23,33.39-43) - When they arrived at the place called Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on the right and the other on the left. One of the criminals hanging on the cross insulted him: «Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us! The other instead rebuked him saying: «Have you no fear of God, you who are condemned to the same punishment? We, rightly so, because we receive what we deserved for our actions; but he did nothing wrong." And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He answered him: "Truly I say to you: today with me you will be in paradise."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

The apostle Paul invites us to contemplate the future reserved for the children of God: "You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit who makes adopted children... And if we are children we are also heirs", he writes to the Romans. And he adds: "I believe in fact that the sufferings of the present time are not comparable to the future glory that will be revealed in us." Today's memory opens up to our eyes a glimpse of this "future glory". For us who are still on earth, this glory must come; for the dead who believed in the Lord it is already revealed. They live on that high mountain where the Lord has prepared a banquet for all peoples. And on that mountain, the veil "that covers the face", that is, the indifference that makes us turn in on ourselves, has been torn: their eyes contemplate the face of God. None of them shed tears of sadness anymore, as he writes the Apocalypse. And if there are tears in the sky, they are those of a sweet and tender emotion without end. Today, with the eyes of our hearts, we think of our loved ones in the very heart of God, the "place" that we already inhabit but which will open up in its unimaginable fullness when we see God "face to face".
Of course, there is a separation between them and us. But also a strong union. It is not visible to the eyes of the body, but it is no less real for this. Communion with our deceased is revealed to us by the unfathomable mystery of God's love that gathers everyone and supports everyone. This love of God is the substance of life. Everything passes, even faith and hope. Only love remains. This is what the Lord Jesus tells us in today's Gospel passage. The only thing that matters in life is love; the only thing that remains of everything we have said and done, thought and planned, is love. And love is always great; although it manifests itself in small gestures such as a glass of water, a piece of bread, a visit, a word of comfort, a hand shaking another. And blessed will we be if we follow the words of this Gospel. At the end of our days we will hear ourselves say: "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world", and our joy will be full.