The Seven Last Words
Good Friday 2007

We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise Thee.
Because by Thy holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the World.

Once again, we come before the cross. It is a lonely place where we are never alone. It us a painful place in which we find peace. Here the glory of God is seen in the frailty of man. And perhaps it is also the place where the self-empting of God is able to fill up the greatest desires of the soul.

Actually the words spoken from cross do exactly that. Wounded by sin, human nature finds itself in a tailspin. The constant revolutions in its mad dash of existence create the holes that only God can fill. And no sooner are we filled then we are empty again. We are like a cup with a large, gaping hole. These needs, these desires are real. So is the grace that satisfies them. And here, at the foot of the cross, is where that happens.

THE FIRST WORD 

Luke 23:33-34 -- When they came to the place called "The Skull," they nailed Jesus to the cross there, and the two criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Jesus said, "Forgive them, Father! They know not what they do."

I am struck by something we do. When we are in an argument, and especially when we lose one, we tell each other that ‘there is something you need to know.’ We feel that if they do, they will understand which somehow makes us right. It’s the same manipulative devise of the person who apologizes that ‘you took it the wrong way.’ And what scares me most, is that this how good people behave. There seems to be a need for justification and forgiveness. Common to religion and superstition alike, forgiveness is key to the human journey.

Think, if you will, of how essential this is to friendship or that most sacred bond of friendship, marriage. As bad as relationships can be with some one who has never made a mistake, it can never compare with some one who cannot forgive.

We’ve been told from the start that ‘knowledge is power’. When we have knowledge, we assume we have this elusive power. And if the human being has an innate need for breaking the bonds of guilt, the power of knowledge should do the trick. That is why we feel the party we offended ‘needs to know’ and if they do, the offence will be lessened. Even when we are in the process of offending, we whine that we just don’t understand why things are not working out. It is how we can say to the wrong-doer that they should have known better.

Jesus is the wisdom of God who saves us from thinking that knowledge will absolve us.

As they were driving in the nails, they were merely doing their brutal job in an equally brutal world. They knew what they needed to know and followed orders. The individuals concerned actually did nothing illegal or wrong. They did not even feel that Jesus had to understand that. And in the middle of this, a word of absolution is spoken. But these words were spoken not to the rationalizing efforts of flawed human beings; they are spoken to needs of human beings to be forgiven.

The Sacrifice of Calvary was offered for the pardon for sins. The rationalizing was left to Jesus, not the sinner. It is as if Jesus anticipated that mechanism and silenced it. Humanity stands mute before the Voice of God. The need is there before the words are formed to express it.

But like our flailing excuses, forgiveness has to be accepted. Like Christ accepting the cross, we have take on what we would rather not. We have to die a little by admitting what human nature tells us we need. No, it is not entirely our fault but it is still something damaging that is our inheritance. And in our pride, we imagine we are above all that. We imagine that because God understands, God forgives. We tell ourselves that we are pretty good which the world should see as close to perfect. Like an over-protective parent defending their little brat, the world needs to understand our potential and God has to ‘be reasonable.’ And anything short of that is unpleasant or – the mortal sin of modern life – inconvenient.

Well, the cross is inconvenient, but only by being near it can we hear this first word of mercy. This first word of absolution is heard by those who are raising it high on the hill.

Forgive them because they need to be.

And those near the cross silently – and gratefully – hear that they are.





THE SECOND WORD

Luke 23:39-43 -- One of the criminals hanging there threw insults at him: "Aren't you the messiah? Save yourself and us!" The other one, however, rebuked him, saying: "Don't you fear God? Here we are all under the same sentence. Ours, however, is only right, for we are getting what we deserve for what we did; but he has done no wrong." And he said to Jesus, "Remember me, Jesus, when you come as King!"  Jesus said to him, "I tell you this: Today you will be with me in Paradise."

As we approach yet another holiday, families around the world will engage in their rightful consideration of where each family member is going in life. Successes and failures will be measured against the passing of time. And how well we measure up will be held against the mystical standard of expectations.

No wonder so many hate the big family gatherings. While a normal part of communal existence, the question bespeaks a second need deep in the soul. The agent at the counter asks it. The guy at the gas station asks it. The parent always asks it: Where are you going?

Human beings expect to be mobile. We expect the day to begin and to end. We start a project in order to finish it. It’s who we are. Freedom is a right to do just that. Regardless of situation, we can see ourselves out of it. If we are poor, we see ourselves rich. If we are wealthy, we dread poverty. And with willpower, we act to assure it as best we can. We may be wrong, but we are sincere.

The Good Thief was both. He had done wrong and was paying the price. And he was sincere in his assessment of it. His regret and his hope were brought together in his desire. And the second word from the cross became his goal and his assurance. Paradise may not have been his destination but it was his goal. His cross was his reward and his revelation.

The mobile human heart is heading in a direction. We are neither random nor stationary. Our intellect and will move us and there is a certain wisdom from on high that guides us. Could there be any greater proof of that than the Second Word from the cross? Here at the lowest and worst possible moment of life comes the best and greatest possible sign. By character witness of the worst kind, the goal of life is established at the cross.

At the height of teen-aged angst or post-adolescent idealism, it is popular to question if there really is a point to it all. We think some one intelligent who constantly ponders the meaning of life. We hail the dying person a hero who is convinced they will prevail. And yet, through life, through generations, people still search for the goal. From a distance, we are constantly re-inventing the wheel.

But up close and personal, it is quite different. We can easily tell a creature from another planet why we exist and how we exist. In the mirror we have another story. Our fragile souls need to know what does not yet fall within our grasp. We fear that what we have perceived thus far is not accurate. Regardless of the wisdom from those we esteem, we find way to redefine what has been written on the human heart. We even cry out to the God who made us that He remember us.

The second word says that the we are best directed when we know, love and serve God in this life and can look to a happiness with Him forever in heaven. And this word from the cross calls out that we have been made for God and we will not rest until we do so beside His cross.

For all who seek Paradise, it is here by this tree of paradise and nowhere else.

Just ask a thief.
THE THIRD WORD

John 19:25-27 -- Standing close to Jesus' cross were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so he said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

Over the years, I believe that modern life has created a strange paradox. Never have we had more opportunities to communicate with each other. Never have we had less of a desire to do so. We talk at each other more and speak with each other less. And the more opportunities we create are inversely proportional to what we have to say. And this proportion grows each year because we have a need for each other. Technology can create the illusion that we are islands silently selecting terms of communication. Behavior can reinforce that 3-D fantasy. But our need for both communication and community are proven by our distress at the lack of both.

Could there be a more heart-warming icon of this need fulfilled than this third scene from the cross? The one who gave the Child His first experience of community now insures her own. She who once communicated a protective love now hears loving words protecting her when He is gone. Nothing less could have been used than a simple and actual expression like this. This could never have happened over email or been texted. Not even a phone call or a letter could have the same effect. Except for rare situations and reasons, human beings are not okay with long-distance relationships or occasional friendships. It is clear from the beginning that God gave us each other for each other.

From His cross, the Word incarnate spoke to real need we all have. He sanctified that desire to be anything but isolated and commanded a charity to insure it. He didn’t construct a framework for progressive dialogical encounters. He didn’t facilitate a system for growth in interpersonal actualization. He said one thing: behold.

Look at your need. Examine your life that does not fulfill that need. Put your actions under a microscope and see why you self-destructively exclude others. But also behold those who do fill your life. See those who connect you with the world. But don’t look at this as if it were a web of entangling alliances that are constructed by fate or chance. See those in your life as a graced love. See yourself as that same gift to others. And take each other into your souls because He who hung upon the cross alone does not desire us to be.

The only communication system that works on Calvary is the only one our lonely souls can comprehend. Love is a call to the cross even as we call out to each other. Breaking our selfish isolation is a small death. We see the need of another to not be alone even as we feel our own loneliness so sharply. Beholding the need in another often means overlooking ours. Just look at a parent. This is not a matter of networking or affirming. This is a matter of love we find in this example from the cross.

So do not fear your loneliness or the need for others you find within. Do not be distressed by the truth you were not created to be a solitary island of existence. But never let that true need blind you from seeing that same need in others.

The grace of this word to see each other is more than a command to sacrifice for each other’s cure to being alone. The grace and great reward is known by those who do behold another and find in that charity a fulfillment that forms the community of the New Jerusalem.

We must go outside the walls of the old Jerusalem to hear the word how together to build the New.
THE FOURTH WORD

Mark 15: 33-34 -- And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Elo-i, elo-i, lama sabach-thani?" which means, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Dramatics aside, we have a fear of being forsaken. Whether a child in those terrifying moments separated in the store or some one lost in the labyrinth of the Brooklyn subway, we all suffer from separation anxiety. Sure, we grow up and learn that the end of the world is not imminent even if we can’t exactly see where the rest of the world is! But if our natural fear of being forsaken can be so strong, can’t we say that in the supernatural sphere it must be something else indeed!

We consider what it means to be forsaken by God. Look at our images. I think of the condemned sinner in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. We hear of those who survived the Holocaust confident that God abandoned them. We see sinners convinced that God would never pardon them. There is something so radically wrong with any situation when God has forsaken some one that we call it evil and horrible. From devils to vampires, monsters and mass murderers, this is an abandonment that goes straight to the soul.

The 4th Word from the cross is the most difficult. Some say Jesus was beginning Psalm 22 which ends on a hopeful note. Others leave it as it is. There seems to be confusion even around the cross as St. Mark records. But that makes sense, doesn’t it?

It’s a complex situation. A loyal God gives up. A faithful God is unreliable. A Father abandons the Son. The human soul has trouble seeing it any other way. “You say God has not abandoned me? Prove it!” Throw in some of the slings and arrows of this valley of tears and the argument shuts down. It appears incontrovertible that God is capable and in fact does abandon His own creation. And nothing speaks to a fear than proof of it.

Was Christ in that forsaken place? Did God abandon Himself? Clearly God didn’t nor did God abandon God. But we are dealing here with the Incarnation. He was like us in all things but sin. If He was, who is truly confused with this fear? Who is uncomfortable with that fear lurking in the human soul? In older prayer books, doubting God was listed as a sin. Imagine where this would rank on that list! Thomas the Apostle would not fare well in that examination!

No, this is deeper than the intellect and the will. This is hell itself. And don’t we say in the Apostle’s Creed that He descended into hell? Once in royal David’s city a Baby was born to live our life – and not just the nice parts. In this word the Incarnation reaches its living depths. There is no fear more dark, more powerful than being forsaken by God. Divine neglect renders everything pointless and insipid. Dead or alive is the same. Good and bad are no different.

But this, as real as we perceive it, is nothing more than a fear. Still, the grace of this word is a comfort. That Jesus stared into this dark illusion does not remove it. It is not a moral issue of right and wrong. It is something we face but not alone. This is something our God knows and because He does, we can stare into that void securely holding His hand.

THE FIFTH WORD

John 19:28 -- After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), "I thirst."

Mother Theresa was so moved by this 5th Word, she placed it next to the crucifix in all her chapels. She, as so many saints before her, saw this as the desire of God for His wandering children. We can see, from Holy Scripture, the longing of the heart for God. And we see something a little les ethereal that these: we see what are called basic human needs. At this moment of deprivation, Jesus calls out a need. Who is speaking to? What does He expect? Who is listening?

Theoretical religion cannot handle this. It excludes such base things as needs. It is far more interested in systems of thought and adherence to principles. It reminds me of the bus driver who drove right by several crowded bus stops during rush hour in order to keep to the schedule. It is a religion of laws and doctrines that may be good and true, but thoroughly lifeless.

Let’s go back to the image of Mother Theresa. She prophetically held, spoke and preached the orthodox Gospel of the Church. She held to the standards of the most rigorous theology you can imagine. But she did so while holding a sick child or a dying man. She laughed with popes and beggars. She saw need and answered, she saw lies and spoke the truth. I remember one non-Catholic organization wanted a headliner for some gathering and secured her. This was a rather ‘progressive’ group and one of her messages was on the evil of abortion. This is not exactly preaching to the choir! The review of the event contained a remark that while they were glad she appeared, they apologized for this intrusion to their theories while acknowledging their ‘openness’ to those who may be famous but ‘abrasive’ in their beliefs – that’s a quote!

Imagine if they had booked Jesus Christ! Or St. Paul? No, theory divorced from truth is nothing more than intellectual fascism. It was the number one criticism Jesus leveled against the Pharisees. And it is one we should hold up to our own lives as we hear this plaintive word of pain.

Our neglect of basic needs of those around us is rationalized away. We can go to secular virtues of self-reliance and communal structures of government assistance. But in the end, we are left with the hard truth that we do not want to deal with this. At the cross, the need screams out to us. And doing so, we hear an echo in our own souls of our own need.

In today’s world many live precariously from paycheck to paycheck. So many are steps away from destitution. We fear it and rightly so. Chance and sloth are our weakest points. We are not comfortable with our own needs and find the struggle to meet them a real cross. And that is a very good and a very holy thing. Meeting our needs with the possible generosity we have is a call to holiness. A parent is sanctified in meeting the needs of a child. Our vocation – since the Garden of Eden – is to work. Serving each other’s needs is serving God Himself.

And those needs never end - at least in this life. They go beyond the physical but never exclude them. They are the basic needs of being human. And the Incarnate Lord counted Himself among those who share this. Failing to hear them, is failing to hear the voice of God. Neglecting them is neglecting the worship of God. Despising them is pure sacrilege.

No, we cannot nor are we expected to meet the needs of the entire world. But if we are not near the cross, we cannot hear the call of God to us. We have to be realistic but we also have to be there. Jesus gave voice to charity and graced us with the will to respond.

There is no theory here. There are no grateful peasants meekly extending their hands. There is the brutal situation of want. We are left with an answer only we can – by God’s providence – accept.

A friend of mine asked his son what he wanted for his birthday. He quietly looked up after a moment of thought and asked, “Anything?” His father quickly said, “yes.” The boy responded, “I’d like peace in the world.” My friend said, “let’s start small.” The boys said, “okay, how ‘bout a new baseball glove?”

Can we hear the echo of “I thirst” in this?

At the foot of the cross, if we listen carefully, we most certainly can.




THE SIXTH WORD

John 19:29-30 -- A bowl was there, full of cheap wine mixed with vinegar, so a sponge was soaked in it, put on hyssop and lifted up to his lips. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, "It is finished."

“Wrap it up!” Oh, if I could have a dollar every time I said or thought that listening in class or in church! Bring it in, come to a conclusion, sit down. The child may ask ‘are we there yet?’ but the adult asks ‘are we done yet?’ We have limits and expect others to have them as well. We’re usually willing to see it through as long as it ends.

Chronic is not a status we like. Things that repeat too often and remain unresolved are not our most treasured things. In ourselves or others, this lack of resolution is a lesser trait. And when that involves any discomfort or even suffering, we are ready, willing and able to do what we can to end it. We live in a society that stands ready with the needle in the name of charity. Any excess or pill is available to those who can’t accept the ordinary.

But should we not aim for success? Don’t we want to teach each other that higher goals should be our aim and we should work to achieve them? Yes, we should. But life often throws things in our way that have no resolution, no end in sight. They are usually difficult, unfair, and tedious. The can degenerate and degridate. They are, in a word, a cross. A family member who is sick, a friend who cannot make a good choice, a value that repeatedly brings harm - these are the cross of the chronic, the crucifix of the repeat offender.

And in that cross, in that chronic and persistent situation, we find completion in this word from the cross.

When we cannot stop it and never be finished with it, we will not find peace. Our repeated stupidity and that of others prevents a tranquility of soul. We artificially provide it with opiates and quick pleasures but can never silence the demand of something we cannot control. Imagine instead a resignation. Jesus is that completion. He says that it is finished and all is complete. Effort is spent and action is now immobile. There is nothing more.

Oh how we so often make the mistake of thinking this is passive. We do not let our fields lay fallow and suffer soil exhaustion. We cannot stop working and have a heart attack. Despite the obvious reality that it is over, we do not stop and so we suffer the consequences. Even at rock bottom, we’re still digging.

Yet in resignation, in this weakest place, we hear the voice of God. In the cross is our completion because it is there in the will of God, that we find peace. The need to bring it to completion is brought out in the example of the Savior who did. It does not happen elsewhere and looking away takes us farther from the goal.

Take it to the cross and stay there. Take all the loose ends and repeated dead ends to the foot of Calvary. You’re not giving up; you’re giving over. You’re saying ‘Jesus take the wheel’ with your hands still on it.

At the cross, we are beginning to finish.

THE SEVENTH WORD

Luke 23:46 -- Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last.

There is a last human need we consider today. It goes to the center of everything we use and every one we know. It is the glue of society and the cement of order. It is the matter of trust. Jeremiah once said, “cursed is he who trusts in human beings.” So that leaves us with God and He is worthy of trust.

Oh really? Do we actually believe that? How can we trust a God who put us in that situation? Can I trust my reliance on God when I so clearly cannot trust myself?

Confidence is not an easy thing. We use it like a tool. We weild it like a sword. Bestowed on the worthy, we withhold it from those who are not. What Christ did at the end was not like that. His was not a choice to trust because He finally decided to. Nor was there a desperation born of a lack of options. The final message of the cross is a trust that has little to doing with a reason for confidence.

We can prove why and in what we trust based on solid evaluation and reasonable intuition. Taking a risk is not exactly trust. Usually, it’s just being dumb. This divinely patterned trust is actively resigned, not desperately passive. It is not the trust urged on the money. It is a decision based upon a desire to trust in the only reason to do so.

That’s right. Human beings need to trust. We commit to each other because we need to. We demand it from others and even God Himself. This is the reason we have a covenant with God and not simply a contract. And the cross is both the proof and the reason.

When others disappoint and betray, when agreements are shattered and treaties broken, we feel violated. Apostasy is religious infidelity. Looking fondly at death-bed conversions may give us hope but are not a program for trust. In the countless and small violations and occasions of trust in God, we grow strong in our faith, in our trust. This final act of trust we see patterned on the cross tells us that this is born of a life lived in trust and not just a last-ditch effort before death.


Trusting our needs and those of others to God can happen only on Golgotha. They are real and the honest Christian finds traces of them throughout their virtues and vices. Without fear or anxiety, they present themselves as a means of sanctification when they are reflected in the crucified humanity of the Son of God. Only being near to the cross can show this. Only in close range can the soul hear the words that satisfy the lonely, guilty, needy, and flawed heart of fallen human nature.

And being beside that tree is Paradise for those who one stood beside another tree in that same garden.