JESUS' SEVEN LAST WORDS - THE FIRST FOUR

Fr Billy Swan

I remember the weeks and days before my Father died in November 2011. As his strength gradually ebbed away and as he became weaker, he said less and less. But on the occasions when he did speak, we listened with as much attentiveness as we could and to this day, we remember some of the last words he spoke. Every sentence was full of meaning, no word was wasted as he spoke to us from the sacred space he was in: between life and death and on the threshold between this world and the next.

For Jesus’ disciples, it was the same. As he entered his passion and died on the cross, Jesus was also in that sacred space, standing between us and the Father, between life and death as he spoke to us from that holy place. These were his last and most beautiful words that summed up what his whole life was about: a life totally committed to the Father and to us whom he loved. These are his ‘seven last words’. Let us listen to them again.

‘FATHER, FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING’

‘Now they were also leading out two others, criminals, to be executed with him. When they reached the place called The Skull, there they crucified him and the two criminals, one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing' (Luke 23:34)

To understand how great is his forgiveness we first pause to consider how great was the wrong done to him. They had unjustly condemned him to death; they had scourged him and lacerated his body; they had crowned him with thorns, mocked him, spat at him. Now as they nailed him to the cross he begged his Father to forgive them. Here with the cross, we see humanity at its worst: man’s inhumanity to man, the cruelty that we inflict on each other and that we see all too often. But as humanity descended to its worst, God’s power is seen at its best with his forgiveness: that despite everything, he is prepared to forgive, to make excuses for us so that we might be pardoned: ‘they do not know what they do’. Here is a divine generosity that is prepared to go much further to relieve us of the burden of guilt, to excuse and to understand. It would seem the soldiers were in fact, fully aware of what they were doing. Their actions are to be condemned and they must be held responsible. Yet Jesus loved those soldiers as he loves us and forgives while ignoring questions that we ask. We insist that someone must be accountable, someone is to blame, someone must pay. But for our Lord, he prays: ‘they do not know what they are doing’. Here is forgiveness that the world has never know that flows from the strength of his love for us: the love of a God who will look for every reason to forgive and to understand.

Is there a message from God that could possibly be more welcome than the gift of his forgiveness? Were there ever words so sweet for those weighed down by guilt and sin? For all of us, there are always the memories of foolishness and weakness from the past that come back to trouble us. But when they do, let us listen to the gentle voice within us: ‘Father, forgive them’. The soldiers had not asked for forgiveness and yet Jesus asks it for them. How much more then will it be given to us who ask for it? We must never doubt that we can be forgiven when we ask for mercy. Forgiveness is a beautiful part of God’s nature and is the faithful companion of our sorrow. Jesus only asks us for this: that he looks into our hearts and finds sorrow there for any wrong that we have done, for in the words of the Psalm: ‘a humble contrite heart O Lord you will not spurn’.

Lord Jesus, your dying wish for my forgiveness reveals the depth of your love. Deepen my belief in your love and give me the faith to know that I am forgiven and healed by your passion.

‘TRULY I SAY TO YOU, TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE’

‘One of the criminals hanging there abused him: ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us as well’. But the other spoke up and rebuked him. ‘Have you no fear of God at all?’ he said. ‘You got the same sentence as he did, but in our case we deserved it, we are paying for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong’. Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom’. He answered him: ‘Truly I say to you, this day you will be with me in paradise’ (Luke 23:39-43).

This is one of my favourite passages from the whole New Testament. As he was dying, Jesus offers forgiveness to a thief in a measure beyond what he could have hoped for. The exchange between Jesus and the thief on the cross speaks of an encounter between Jesus and a repentant, broken sinner. It speaks of great hope and a great mercy that is offered to all, especially to those who need it most, right until we take our last breath. After Jesus was conceived, an angel appeared to Joseph who assured him that the child born to Mary must be called ‘Jesus’ because ‘he is the one who is to save his people from their sins’ (Matt. 1:21). Jesus’ name reveals his mission: to save us from sin. Here as he was dying, his mission continued right up to the very end when he saved the good thief from his sins and promised him paradise that very day.

We notice the difference between what the good thief asks for and what he receives. As a condemned man, he asks Jesus simply to remember him in his kingdom. He knew he had done wrong, he acknowledged his guilt and expressed his sorrow. He would soon die but before he did, he turned in hope to the one who was innocent and asked Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom. Nothing could have prepared him for the words that followed. Not only did Jesus promise him that he would be remembered but that he was forgiven - totally and completely, there and then. But that was not all. Jesus went further to promise him paradise that very day. What divine generosity, what abundant and reckless outpouring of forgiveness that goes beyond what we could possible hope for! But this is how it always is with God. The measure of his gifts are not the same as ours. We give to one another in proportion to what is asked. Not so with God. Once we are sincere in our sorrow and faith then God’s response always exceeds what we hope for. Sorrow for sin is never too late; wrongdoing never so great that forgiveness will be refused. We must never despair or give up hope because of what Jesus offers the good thief. The Lord wants us more than we ever wanted him, or ever could.

There are two moving reflections on the encounter between Jesus and the good thief that I conclude with here. The first was in a funeral homily I heard of a person who had died by suicide. In his words of consolation, the priest was commenting on this Gospel encounter between Jesus and the good thief. The priest explained: ‘If the good Lord was this merciful with a thief and a robber, how much more merciful he will be to this young man who has died’.

The second reflection is by an ancient author who wrote an imaginary dialogue between Jesus and the good thief on the cross. The author questions the thief as to how he could have recognised the Lord in his agony when so many others remained blind to him. To which the thief replies: ‘At a certain moment, in my pain and isolation, I found Jesus looking at me and in that look of mercy and compassion, I understood everything’.

Merciful Father, may I never doubt your love for me. Like the good thief, in your Son Jesus, may I see my own need for mercy and recognise your abundant goodness in giving it to me and to all. In moments of torment, may I turn to you Lord Jesus and find in you a compassionate friend who gives me more than I ask and who looks at me with a gaze full of love in which I understand everything.

‘WOMAN BEHOLD THY SON; SON BEHOLD THY MOTHER’

‘Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold thy son’. Then to the disciple he said: ‘Behold your mother’. And from that hour the disciple took her into his home’ (John 19:25-27).

When a person receives the terrible news that they are terminally ill, one of their first priorities is to make arrangements so that those they love and are about to leave behind, are cared for. It is a wonderful witness to love: thinking about others and not themselves. Here with Jesus, we see the same love that he shows so poignantly when he looks down from the cross and seeing his mother and the disciple he loved, entrusts one to the other’s care. Throughout his Gospel, St John consistently refers to the ‘beloved disciple’ who is present at the most significant moments of Jesus’ life. He or she is not given a name but merely called ‘the beloved disciple’. Some scholars of Scripture believe that this person is John himself. However, the majority believe that ‘the beloved disciple’ is none other than you and me or anyone who reads the Gospel and who takes Jesus’ word to heart. If this is true then it is you and I that Jesus entrusts to Mary’s care and it is she who is entrusted to our love too.

If we are entrusted to Mary’s care then she becomes our mother as Jesus asked her to be: ‘Woman behold your son or daughter’. What this means is that each of us have a special place in Mary’s heart. She knows each one of us by name and loves us like only a mother can. For Mary, we were entrusted to her by her Son Jesus so therefore nothing is more important to her than helping us know and love her Son as she came to know and love him with her whole heart. She teaches us how to know him, how to trust him and gently tells us every day: ‘Do whatever he tells you’.

She is also entrusted to our care. She is Jesus’ dying gift to us. The Gospel text tells us that when the Lord said to the beloved disciple: ‘Son behold your mother’, the disciple took Mary into his home. In Biblical times, this was a huge act of trust as Mary would have been considered one of his family from that moment. But that is who Mary is for us: she is one of our family. Taking her into our home is a way of saying that she becomes part of our inner lives, daily lives and is taken into our hearts. Along the path of life, she urges us to persevere in faith as she did and to never lose sight of the promises that God has made to us: ‘Blessed is she who believed that the promises made to her by the Lord would be fulfilled’ (Luke 1:45). From the moment she said ‘yes’ to the angel at the Annunciation, we are told that the angel left her. From then on, the light and clarity of that apparition left her and she was left to trust God as she followed her Son on his way to the cross. As our companion in following her Son Jesus, she urges us not to lose faith but to trust as she did and to rejoice with her in God our Savior.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for the gift of your mother as you died. Give us the grace to welcome her into our lives and our hearts. May we always turn to her as a mother and friend. With her help, may each of us know you better and learn how to love you more. Amen.

‘O GOD MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?’

‘When the sixth hour came there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani’ which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mark 15: 33-34).

Jesus is now entering his final agony. Bruised, scourged, his hands and feet ripped through with nails and fastened to a cross: the physical pain must have been beyond what anyone could bear. And yet, these words of the Lord that he cried out in agony are not words of physical pain but of mental anguish. Jesus, as he hung on the cross, was lonely. He felt abandoned by God who had been the rock of his whole life. Now, there was darkness and fear as silence reigned when the prayers of his heart received no answer. Then, in solidarity with all of those who would know such torment, Jesus cried out in the words of the Psalm ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Here is the prayer that conveys the depths of sadness, the anguish of the soul of Christ- forsaken, forgotten even by God himself. But what kind of Savior could Jesus be if he had never gone through this pain? How could he then have spoken to those who know what it is like to feel abandoned by God? God did not come to bring an end to suffering nor to explain it. He came to fill it with his presence. In his love, Jesus endured all this suffering in order to reach the lost and most abandoned so that he might offer them the same hope that led him to Easter Sunday that seemed an eternity away from this dark moment.

Also for us, when all is darkness and emptiness and God seems far away, we must not despair because no matter how far we travel down the road of intense suffering, we will find him there with us and before us: Jesus Christ, crucified and forsaken who seeks only our trusting in him, even when that trust is hard to give. But give it, and the emptiness will be filled, inner wounds healed and peace achieved.

Lord Jesus Christ, because of your agony on the cross, I believe that you understand all my troubles and sorrows. I believe that even in my darkest hour, you are there with me even if I cannot feel your presence. By your passion on the cross you entered into the heart of darkness, evil and sin. By your resurrection, your transformed the darkness into light, evil into mercy and sin into grace and blessing. Come Lord Jesus into my heart and shine your light; come into our Church and come into our world. Be with all those in agony of mind or body and help them to hope beyond their pain and so reach your infinite love. Amen.