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Well, metmom, the good, penitent thief on the cross did a number of things. (None of those things saved him, of course -- his salvation came from the salvific work of God on the cross next to him.) However, his brief, nascent faith life on his own cross was by no means a dead faith, as his faith was definitely coupled with works.
For example, while hanging on his cross, the good thief preached one of the shortest but most poignant, memorable, public sermons ever preached -- one that the Holy Spirit obviously saw worthy of inclusion in the Holy Scriptures, and which has been endlessly repeated (especially during Holy Week) and heard by millions of people over the centuries (including you metmom) -- even more people than the number of people who have heard Billy Graham's sermons over the years -- when he said this brief sermon to his fellow thief on the other cross in his eloquent defense of Jesus:
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And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, "If thou be Christ, save thyself and us".
But the other answering rebuked him, saying, "Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?"
"And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss."
And he said unto Jesus, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom".
Luke 23:39-42
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A careful reading of his words will show that within that same brief sermon, the good thief also confessed his own guilt to the Lord, and composed the "lyrics" to this very famous Christian chant/hymn:
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"Jesus Remember Me"
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My final point this evening will be that it is much better to approach fellow Christians with kindness and Christian compassion, rather than with a spirit of vitriolic bitterness and vituperous anti-Catholic rancor.
One has to acknowledge their need for God.
Scripture, however, is replete with examples of people who were saved by faith and Scripture says so.
If you want to call that a work, in order to justify doing other works, have at it.
But that is not a work as the rest of what people demand we do. And if you are then depending on those works to be made righteous before God, it isn't happening because righteousness is imputed to the believer upon confession, not earned by the believer by doing works the rest of his life.
Romans 3:19-20 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Galatians 2:15-21 15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Ephesians 2:4-10 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Catholics as a whole, seem to singularly not get that works don't count toward our salvation in any way. The reason? So that no man can boast before God.
And I've read and heard plenty of Catholics boasting about all the works they do and condemning others for not doing them. I've been the target of it myself so I do know what I'm taking about.
Yet Scripture says that all our RIGHTEOUSNESS is like filthy rags before God. We cannot do good enough works to satisfy God and those works do not erase sin because without the shedding of blood, there is NO forgiveness.
The only way to have the slate wiped clean is through being forgiven.