Basic Catholic Apologetics-Salvation of the Thief on the Cross

Thee has been a lot of ink spilt over the drama of the Thief on the Cross. Lot of stuff is going on here. However Catholics have to confront arguments others do not. Usually it revolves around Sacraments. The line usually is "See the Thief was not baptized so what about that!!!" Also an interesting purgatory issue comes at times.

The Canterbury Tales has a good post on this subject called Salvation of the Thief on the Cross. It is a good read. Basically what he has as point two is what is important:
even so, the Catholic Church teaches that God has bound himself to the sacraments, but He Himself is not bound by the sacraments. In other words, God can do what he wants. He can save people in extraordinary ways.

However we now enter the world where people want to lay down the big EITHER/OR. In others words look it is just faith and all these sacraments are pretty much just symbols SEE!!

Well lot so ink as I said has been spent on this subject too by Catholic Apologist. See for instance
The Thief on the Cross (Are Sacraments Unnecessary?) Good short read there. Also see this short entry Of Necessity and Wetness .