We know who Jesus is.  He is the Son of the Living God, and the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.  Every thing that Jesus said was important.  Today, we heard His last sermon.  He mounted His pulpit, the Cross, for the last time, and preached Seven Last Words, or Seven Last Expressions, as found in the four Gospels.  Not only is it important but the words that Jesus gave us, these Last Seven Words, were given at great effort and suffering on His part.  I think we are all aware of what crucifixion is, and how terrible it is, and how the victim really dies of asphyxiation.  It is difficult to breathe.  In order to inhale, Jesus would have to push Himself up somehow, with the little strength He had left.  Because, when we talk, we exhale.  Certainly, every word He said was said with great pain, and great suffering. We had better listen to what He has to tell us very carefully.

The Seven Last Words of Jesus Christ.

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 
Jesus said those words when the executioners began to fasten Him to the cross.  When they threw Him down on the ground, on the cross, and stretched out His arms, those arms that had been held in prayer for so many years to the Father, grabbed His hands, hands that healed and touched, and drive those 7- or 9-inch nails through His wrists to affix Him to the cross.  In the midst of that pain, and torture, He said, “Father, forgive them.”  Not only that, but He actually acts as though He is their lawyer.  He pleads their defense, “They don’t know what they are doing.”  Now, we are all hurt in life’s course, also.  Those words should mean a lot to us, because if we are to follow Christ, we are to do what He did.  We are to forgive each other, especially when someone hurts us.  Jesus showed absolute love, and mercy, to the final moments of His life.

You know, it’s not easy to forgive each other.  You all know that.  I’ve often said this, and everyone laughs, but it’s true.  I’ve shared it with my brother priest, Father Joshua.  We priests have the easy life.  You married people have a tough life.

Several months ago, there is a couple in our parish…They are always happy.  A young couple, well about 40, and that is very young.  I said to them, “You two really love each other, don’t you?”  He looked at me and said, “Father, we’ve been married 18 or 20 years, and we’ve never had a fight.”  I said, “Well, what planet do you live on?”  There are stories like that, and if you happen to be a couple like that, WOW!  There aren’t many of you!  The fact of the matter is, to live with someone you love…  By the way, we don’t fight with people we don’t love very often, do we?  Think about that.  Frankly, no one should ever be able to hurt you unless they love you, and that should be a requirement to be hurt.  If they don’t love you, and you don’t love them, and know them, then well…

It’s hard to forgive.  In fact, it is impossible … without Christ.  I’ve often said to couples in the midst of some conflict, “Someone here has to play the Christ.  Someone has to say, ‘I forgive you,’ and move on.”

We just heard in the scriptures that He is the “source of salvation to all who obey Him.”  We obey Him by forgiving each other.

He said,
“Today you will be with me in paradise,”
to the good thief, Dismas we believe his name was.  You know the story; Jesus was crucified between two thieves, two criminals, revolutionaries.  There are several accounts of what their crimes were.  However, one of them said, “Hey, why don’t you save us if you’re the Messiah.  Save yourself as well.”  He mocked Jesus.  The other guy said, “Why don’t you shut up?  This man has done nothing wrong.”  Then he looked at Jesus and said, “Lord, remember me when you come into Your kingdom.”  That was the first confession.  That was the last prayer of that thief, and it might have been his first.  It was the only prayer he ever needed.  “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”  Jesus said, “This day you will be with me in paradise.”  That’s mercy.

I was talking about Baptism to someone recently, and they said, “Well, wouldn’t it be a good idea to be baptized right before you die because it removes all sin?”  I said, “Yeah, but then you can’t participate with the family in the years leading up to that glorious day.  Not only that, you might not plan it as well as you think.”  Constantine, the first Catholic emperor, or Christian emperor of Rome, waited until his death to be baptized for that reason.  In the 4^th Century, confession, the sacrament that was clearly instituted by Christ, had not yet been fully discovered and used. Constantine didn’t want to take any chances.  Today we have the luxury of this sacrament.  Many of you, more and more of you are using it all the time, for God’s glory, and your salvation.

God’s mercy is His justice, and His justice is His mercy.  They are inseparable.  It should be that way with us.  We shouldn’t separate the justice from the mercy because they should be the same thing.  However, we tend to demand a pound of flesh, an eye for an eye - all sayings from the Old Testament.

That is a very beautiful story about the thief.  “This day you will be with me in paradise.”  Bishop Fulton Sheen, the great preacher, said, “A dying man asked a dying man for eternal life.  A man without possessions asked a poor man for the kingdom.  A thief at the door of death asked to steal paradise.”  And he did.

“Woman, behold thy son.  Son, behold thy mother.” 
I have said this, and I think this may have been Jesus’ greater pain, the greatest pain on the day of His death, His crucifixion, that He watched His mother watch Him die.  If we got things right, parents are supposed to die first, children later.  Those of you who have lost a child know the pain that Our Lady knows.  I used to pray that my mom would die before me.  One time, she said, “What are you praying for?”  And I said, “Praying you die first, mom,” because I was afraid if something happened to me, that she couldn’t take it.  You know what I mean?  I am sure Jesus felt the same way about His mom, His beloved mother.  He in His agony, watched her.  I think that hurt Him more than the nails and the crowns, and the whips and the spit, and all the rest of it.  Seeing the pain that woman had to endure.

He called her “woman.”  He said, “Woman, behold thy son.”  Then He looked at the beloved disciple, perhaps John, and said, “Behold thy mother.”  The first female was called “woman.”  The Bible, in Genesis, tells us it means, “The mother of all the living.”  Therefore, at the foot of the cross, Jesus re-commissions His mother.  He says, “You are the mother of all the living.  You are his mother,” and he, of course, is the every man, he is the every disciple.  So, she is commissioned as Mother of the Church, as your mother.  She is the mother of two children:  Jesus and you.  She holds you in her arms, face to face, Jesus and you, through Mary.  That’s why we love Mary, because she loves us.  That’s why we listen to Mary, because, “If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 
I read an article just yesterday, that said this is not despair, because He is praying, He is asking, He is talking to God, and in despair, one doesn’t.  One turns one’s back.  Its not despair.  But it’s as close to despair as He could have come.  The reason is, at that moment, the Bible tells us that Jesus became sin.  You know that passage.  It is shocking, isn’t it?  It says, in the scriptures, “He became sin,” because He took on all the sin of the world.  Every sin that ever has been committed, was committed, and that ever will be committed, He took on, this moment of His Passion, took on all our garbage, took it on Himself.  He became sin.  God can’t stand sin.  And so, at that moment, this moment when Jesus Christ became sin, He was as far away from God as any human person has ever been from God.  He is human, Jesus.  He was at the opposite pole of possibilities.  X to the what power?  You know.  That’s your job out there, I don’t know what that means.  That place where He was when He said this prayer was dark, and scary, and fearful, and ugly.  We used to say, “He descended into Hell, and on the third day rose again.”  Better, “He descended into Sheol,” the place of the dead to the Hebrews.  That is where He met Adam, and said, “How ya’ doin?  I’ve come to take you home.”  That is where He met all those who had died before Him.  “I come to take you home.”

Jesus was our scapegoat.  The Jews understood.  You know the term scapegoat and you understand it.  It is a religious term.  Once a year, as a symbol of their sins, the Jews would take two goats.  The priest would lay his hands on one goat, symbolizing all of the sins of the people for the past year (I think this is Yom Kippur.)  He put all the sins on that goat, and then chased that goat out into the desert, where the devil lives.  The other goat was used as a sacrifice.  They ate that goat.  That’s where the term “scapegoat” comes from.  We put all our stuff on that goat, once a year.  That is what we did to Jesus.  But that was no goat.  It is the Son of God.

Jesus Christ was as far away from the Father as any human person has ever been.  Don’t you ever say you are beyond redemption or if you ever hear someone suggest that they are, get on their case like white on rice.  Because, someone was farther away from the Father than them, Jesus Christ.

Remember the old “Way of the Cross”?  It said this, “You, too, someday, may feel the loneliness of the Lord on the Cross.  If so, seek the support of Him who died and rose again.  Find yourself a shelter in the wounds of His hands and His feet and His side.  And your willingness to start again will revive you, and you will take up your journey again with greater determination and effectiveness.”

“I thirst.” 
He, who created the waters on the second day, said, “I thirst.”  He longed for a drop of water.  However, He really was speaking metaphorically.  He wasn’t thirsting for water.  Of course, he was thirsty.  But He was thirsting for the love of those who were killing him, just as He thirsted for the love of the Samaritan woman at the well.  Remember, He told her the similar “I thirst.”  She said, “Well, drink some water.”  He was thirsting not for water but for her faith.  That is what He thirsts for.  This is the Son of God, you know, who is perfect, who is complete but has chosen to become incomplete, without your faith in Him, your love for Him.  It is more than important to Him.  He gave everything for what He asks of you in return – your faith.  That means you live according to His way, obey His commandments, and you love Him.  Take that personally.  Jesus Christ thirsts for you.

“It is finished.”
That was not a word of surrender; it was a statement of triumph, it was a “mission accomplished.”  He came to be poured out, as Father Joshua told us last night on Holy Thursday.  He poured Himself out for us, completely, drained.  Like a candle that’s consumed in its mission, He was drained of life, so that we might live.  He accepted this death.  He was born for it.  If He had not died, you could not live.  It was the end of His mission.  Yet, we duck death, and make believe that somehow we are going to live to be 300 or 400.  It’s the silliest thing in the world to listen to how we talk about death, which we should look forward to as Christians.  For, it’s our last day here and our first day there.  Although, for me, there is some time in between the two.  I’ve got some ….  You know what I mean.  It’s good to be healthy, we want to be healthy, and we don’t certainly want to die today.  But we need to say, “I want to die!  Someday.”  Here we are saying, “We believe in you, God!”  Yet, when the moment of death comes, we’re scratching and we’re holding on, and we’re, “No!  Don’t take me!”  That doesn’t make sense.  Have you ever seen a high school senior that’s so sad because he doesn’t want to leave Los Alamos High School?  “But I love it here!  I want to stay in high school.”  Have you ever seen a college student regret that tomorrow he graduates?  It doesn’t work that way.  They have finished the course and they are looking forward to the reward, to the next step.  To the extent that we fear death, and deny it, to that extent we don’t believe Jesus’ promise.

Finally,
“Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit.”
I’ve been a priest for 15 years.  Not a long time, I was ordained later in life.  I have been at the bedside of a number of people, I want to say 3 or 4, who said those words, “Into Your hands I commend my spirit,” and died shortly thereafter.  That’s the goal, our goal, to be able to say those words.  Jesus said that with ultimate trust, perfect trust and loyalty to the Father.  He knew where He was going.  Not long before, He said, “Why have You forsaken Me?”  Now He knew where He was, and where He was going.
 
Trust in God’s mercy and love.  I guess you do, because you are here today.  We trust in His mercy, and we trust in His love.  It is my prayer, and your prayer, I know, that at the moment of your death and my death, those words might be on our lips, “Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit.”