Lent 2023: Seven Last Words from the Cross

  ‘Into your hands I commend my spirit’. [Luke 23.46]   These words from Psalm31.5 are used daily in the service of Compline, whereas we come to the end of the day we commend out spirit to God, entrusting ourselves to his care. At the end Jesus does the same. There is nothing more for Jesus to do, his earthly work and ministry is completed, now he enters into the silence of the Sabbath rest.   But Christ’s sabbath rest is far from peaceful, as he enters into death, so he descends into Hell there to harrow it, to bring to light the souls of the righteous. So to it is for us a time not of silence but of preparation, as we prepare for the glory of Easter Sunday and the singing of the words ‘The Light of Christ’ as the newly lit Paschal Candle is brought into the dark and silent church. Note on Palm Sunday's Passion reading. At Mass on this Sunday (Palm Sunday) we will read St Matthew's narrative of Christ's Passion. As part of this reading we hear the Jewish crowd cr

For the sake of space (I am preparing a separate series of reflections for Holy Week), and because these two words come as part of the same sequence in St John’s Passion, I have decided to link them both together in this week’s reflection.   Fifth Word:  ‘I thirst’ , John 19.28. ‘After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfil the scripture),  ‘I am thirsty.’  A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.  When Jesus had received the wine, he said,  ‘It is finished.’  Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. [John 19.28-30]   As humans we are made up of water (biologically speaking about 90% of us is made up of water). We need water to live, much more so than food. We can last for a while without food, by only for a little while without water. Yet thirst isn’t just about the desire for the quenching of thirst, we can hunger and thirst for things like

 Fourth Word: ' At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani? That is to say My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ [Mark 15.34 & Matt.27.46]   ‘Die Harder’  by David Mach One of the most shocking things I have ever heard in Church was the sound of an aged mother screaming for her deceased son at his funeral. ‘ My Colin, my Colin’ she cried, and refused to be comforted by those around her. That Colin had been Dean of Southwark Cathedral, an Rowing Purple, and an outspoken member of the Church meant little, this was her baby, and he had been taken from her.   On the Cross Jesus cries out to the heavens ‘my God, my God why have you forsaken me’ . Of all the seven words Christ speaks from the Cross, this is the most human and the most relatable. It is a cry that each of us will make at some point in our lives, whether literally, or like Colin’s m other, we find ourselves calling out in desolation at a situation we find ourselves i

In this Third Word from the Cross Jesus entrusts his mother into the care of the beloved disciple, and the beloved disciple into the care of his mother: S]tanding near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the [beloved] disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.’ [John 19.25-27]   When I was a student at University, I had a fridge magnet that said ‘Call your mother, she worries’. No matter how old we get, our parents hold a particular significance for us and power over us. The fridge magnet reminded me of this care that my mother had, despite the fact that I had left home, and in some sense her direct responsibility.   When Jesus places each in the care of the other, this is more than just an act of care for two individu