the crucified orator 694 THE SECOND WORD OF THE CRUCIFIED ORATOR “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with [M]e in Paradise.” (Lk 23:43) Heaven Is Attained by Penance. Joseph, the son of Jacob the Patriarch, was particularly beloved by his father. For that reason, as well as on account of divine favors he received, he was hated by his brothers, and sold by them to the Ishmaelites, who carried him into Egypt. There, through the wickedness of the infamous wife of Potiphar, the leader of Pharaoh’s army, he was thrown into prison. There were with him two others, namely: the chief cupbearer and the prefect of the royal bakers. To the first of them, after having heard the account of his dream, he predicted the certain release. Thereupon Joseph asked the cupbearer not to forget his prophet when he would be restored to his former honor. “But remember me,” he said, “when it is well with you, and do me the kindness, I beg you, to make mention of me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews; and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into a dungeon” (Gen 40:14-15). It would seem that these words should be firmly impressed upon [the cupbearer’s] soul, imbued with such consolation and obliged by such entreaties. It might have been so, if not for the even more prosperous fate that resulted from the restoration of his [former] honor that completely erased them. “Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him” (Gen 40:23). This is not how our Redeemer acted, when He met by chance the two companions of His punishment on the Cross, both of whom were thieves. As soon as He heard one of them pleading: “Jesus, remember me when [Y]ou come into [Y]our kingdom” (Lk 23:42) [NAB], He immediately promised him, using the formula
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