Lent 2023: Seven Last Words from the Cross

  ‘[Following his trial a] great number of the people followed [Jesus], and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.  29 For the days are surely coming when they will say, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.”’  [Luke 23.27-29]   I’m just another woman in a city filled with people. People don’t even know my name, they call me Veronica from the Latin ‘Vera Icon’ (true image), but I am not bothered, at least they remember me. They also call me Berenike, but I prefer Veronica, it has a nice ring to it.   I was like the other women you’d find on the street corners in Jerusalem, women of negotiable affection we’ve been called. (We’ve been called much more beside!) Though before I became one of those I’d been suffering from haemorrhaging since...

  Monday: Rufus and Alexander, the sons of Simon of Cyrene ‘After mocking [Jesus, the soldiers] stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him. They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull).  [Mark 15.20-22]   We were there of course; the whole family was, it was the trip of a lifetime for us, a chance to see the Holy City. (We were of Jewish heritage, though we’d long moved to the Greek provinces, and then the Imperia Capital Rome, as my father’s family’s business had grown.) But in that moment everything changed as he was dragged out of the crowd to carry the Messiahs cross.   Of course, we followed dad, or Simon was you’ll know him. He knew where we were staying, had the money in his belt, we’d have been lo...

From a sermon by St Gregory Nazianzen: 'We are soon going to share in the Passover, and although we still do so only in a symbolic way, the symbolism already has more clarity than it possessed in former times because, under the law, the Passover was, if I may dare to say so, only a symbol of a symbol. Before long, however, when the Word drinks the new wine with us in the kingdom of his Father, we shall be keeping the Passover in a yet more perfect way, and with deeper understanding. He will then reveal to us and make clear what he has so far only partially disclosed. For this wine, so familiar to us now, is eternally new.      'It is for us to learn what this drinking is, and for him to teach us. He has to communicate this knowledge to his disciples, because teaching is food, even for the teacher.      'So let us take our part in the Passover prescribed by the law, not in a literal way, but according to the teaching of the Gospel; not in an imperfect way, b...

  ‘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 ...

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...

 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 f...

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 ca...