Confusing Bible verses

[Serafina17]

I came across this question the other day, and it has got me stumped. It seems to be a contradiction, except I know it’s not.

Luke 23:43
“Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.’” (to the good thief)

John 20:17
“Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.’” (to Mary Magdalene)

Is there any answer to this other than that the ‘time’ is different ‘up there’ than on Earth?
Are ‘paradise’ and ‘heaven’ interchangable? What does the Church teach about when the gates of Heaven were opened? At the death of Jesus, or when He ascended into Heaven? The latter would make help these two verses make sense together…

Any help/thoughts?

 

[Serafina17]

Sorry, I didn’t see the other thread on this discussion.

 

[erikd]

St. Luke 23:43

Catholic Commentary by Fr. Haydock:

I say to thee: This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise; i.e. in a place of rest with the souls of the just. The construction is not, I say to thee this day, &c., but, thou shalt be with me this day in the paradise. Wi. — In paradise. That is, in the happy state of rest, joy and peace everlasting. Christ was pleased by a special privilege, to reward the faith and confession of the penitent thief with a full discharge of all his sins, both as to the guilt and punishment, and to introduce him, immediately after death, into the happy society of the saints, whose limbo (that is, the place of their confinement) was now made a paradise by our Lord’s going thither. Ch.
veritasbible.com/drb/compare/haydock/Luke_23:43

St. John 20:17

Catholic Commentary by Fr. Haydock

I will not leave you again; be not in a hurry to touch me; you shall all have this pleasure. I will remain with you some time, before my ascension. Announce my resurrection to my apostles. You shall see me again. This is the interpretation most modern commentators put upon this place. Others suppose, that Magdalene imagined he was risen from the dead to live with men as before, like Lazarus. He addresses these words to her to disabuse her of this notion. Calmet.
veritasbible.com/drb/compare/haydock/John_20:17

The paradise Christ referred to while on the Cross, was the “happy society of the saints” who would follow Christ to heaven. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

To live in heaven is “to be with Christ.” The elect live “in Christ,” but they retain, or rather find, their true identity, their own name.
For life is to be with Christ; where Christ is, there is life, there is the kingdom.

Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraph 1025
scborromeo.org/ccc/p123a12.htm#II