Grace is one of those things that seems so wonderful when given to us and yet can often seem so scandalous when we see others receive it. In today’s gospel story, the criminal on the cross asks Jesus to remember him when Jesus comes into his kingdom, and Jesus tells him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” But the thing is, that criminal was on the cross because he had done something terrible, something worthy of death. The criminal himself said so! So for a person like that to receive grace, to receive paradise, at the very end of his life? Scandalous! And yet all of grace is, and this is specifically why we need the cross and the grace given to us through it.