NOTE: EVERY YEAR I UPHOLD THE ANCIENT TRADITION OF MEDITATING UPON THE 7 LAST WORDS. AS A RESULT, I PULL FROM PREVIOUS HOMILIES, EVEN THOUGH I TRY TO MAKE IT NEW. MY ULTIMATE GOAL IS TO MAKE A GOOD MEDITATION UPON THE 7 LAST WORDS. IT IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS
When someone is dying, more
often than not, they are careful, they are cautious and deliberate with their
final words here on earth. And, in the case of Jesus, each word He spoke was
even more important because each word He uttered became more difficult than the
one before it. He could barely breathe, so each breath He took was a feat, and,
given His pain, each word had to be deliberate;
it had to be necessary it had to be important.
In fact, that is why Jesus’ dying words have been so thoroughly scrutinized, debated and, even sometimes, misinterpreted, because in each of those weighted words, He leaves us an instruction, a request and a powerful testimony of what it means to imitate Him. Given this, there is an ancient tradition, that for the past two years I have upheld, of meditating and reflecting on Jesus’ final words here on earth, what we call His Seven Last Words.
And, it begins, as it did at the dawn of creation in the Garden, and there something happens that, physically, many doctors have said is a distinct possibility, His sweat turns to blood. It is a rare occurrence, to be sure, but it is believed that it only happens when someone is suffering from extreme anguish and incredible stress, a physical reaction to intense psychological and emotional agony.
Therefore, even before the physical pain and torment Jesus was about to endure, it had already begun the night before, in this Garden.
Given this, it is said, that the skin becomes tender, so that to even touch the skin amplifies the pain and it is felt throughout the entire body. What that means then is that the scourging, the crowning of thorns, the dragging of the cross was not just grueling and torturous; it far exceeded any pain we could possibly imagine or fathom.
This was only made worse when they laid Him upon the Cross, stretch out His arms, and one by one nail His hands and His feet, and, His response could have been anything, He could have asked the Father to strike everyone dead, He could have asked the Father for the very world to end at that moment, but He didn’t, He pleaded for mercy, but not mercy from His accusers or executioners, mercy from His Father for all of them: “Father,” He says, “forgive them, for they know what they do.”
Then mounted on a cross, next to two criminals, condemned of the same crimes, one asks for forgiveness, the other curses Him with the crowd. The man who asks for mercy, knows what he has done, knows that his punishment is just and he also knows that Jesus does not deserve His. Yet, this thief knows something that no one else knows, He knows who Jesus truly is, He knows the power that Jesus has, that is why he makes a simple request: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And, Jesus’ reply is just as simple: “Amen. I say to you, this day, you will be with me in paradise.”
As Jesus hangs upon the cross, He looks down and sees both His mother and His beloved disciple, St. John, two people whom He cared deeply about in this world, yet, what He says to both seems almost impersonal and generic, calling His own mother, “woman,” and His beloved disciple “son.”
Yet, these are important words otherwise He would never have spoken them, and, indeed, they are, because it is here, at the very foot of the Cross, where Mary becomes our mother, those generic words are not generic at all, but, rather, universal, so that “woman” reminds us of Eve, the mother of all living, the one who failed, whereas, Mary, the New Eve, becomes the new mother of all living. This, too, is why St. John is referred to as son, because he represents all of us. So, that Jesus’ greatest gift before He dies is His greatest love, His mother: “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother!”
The anguish of the cross is starting to take its toll, physically Jesus is close to death, and spiritually He had to have felt the same. While what He cries points to the fulfillment of the prophecies, what He feels in the depths of His soul must have been even more painful than all His physical suffering. For here is Jesus, in His humanity, with the weight of our sin, physically weighing Him down, while spiritually those sins are literally rending apart His very soul. That is why from the greatest depths of His humanity, from its very core, He could not help but cry out with the Psalmist: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus has been hanging on the cross for a while now, the sun beating down upon Him, His wounds still bleeding, if crucifixion did not kill you by asphyxiation, you would die by dehydration, so, indeed, He was thirsty. But, His thirst was not just physical, His thirst was for something much more, in fact, it was the reason He was on the cross in the first place, because His thirst was for our redemption, His thirst was for our conversion. It is the same thirst that He demanded of the Samaritan woman, so that everyone who drinks of His life giving water will never thirst again. “Aware that everything was now finished, St. John says, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.”
Jesus’ death draws near, He knows it, He expects it, it is only a matter of time. With the little breath that He has left, He says three powerful words: Words of triumph over evil, words of completion, words that express that what He has come for and to do has finally been fulfilled that His hour has, at last, come: “It is finished.”
In this confidence, with His final breath, He shouts out 8 agonizing words, words of abandonment and words of resignation, so that bowing His head He could leave us our final lesson, a lesson in dying, dying to the world and dying to our selves: “Father, He says, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Seven words that have transformed the entire world, seven words that have converted thousands, moved men and women to tears, the seven last and dying words of Jesus Christ. He who gave His life for our love, for our salvation and for our sins, so that His cross was not emptied of meaning, but, became a lasting instruction, a living testimony, not just a symbol of suffering, but, indeed, the very shape of our hearts.
Add a comment