Homily
for April 6, 2006
Liturgical Year C - Cycle I
Good Friday
By Fr. John Carney Topic: The Seven Last
Words of Jesus Christ Our Savior
+ + +
1. "Father,
forgive them for they know not what they do."Lk.
23: 34 2."Today you will be with
me in paradise."Lk.
23: 43
3."Woman, behold your son.Son, behold your mother."Jn.
19: 26-7
4."My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me?"Mk.
15: 34
(Mt. 27: 46)
5."I thirst."Jn.
19: 28. 6."It is finished."Jn
19: 30
7."Father, into your
hands I commend my spirit."Lk.
23:46
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On Good
Friday, in most parishes, it is appropriate that the priest preaches on
what is known as ‘The Seven Last Words of Jesus Christ,’ actually the
‘Seven Last Sayings.’ They are not all found in John’s Gospel that we
just heard. We can find some in Matthew and others in Luke. These are
seven last words, or seven last sayings, that are obviously very
important. Jesus said them with great difficulty, hanging from a cross,
when he could hardly breathe. The Gospel refers to the fact that “Their
legs were broken,” and that was so they would die. Their legs gave them
the ability to support themselves so that they could breathe but with
broken legs, they could not breathe. Jesus had already died. He said
these words, his last sermon if you will, from the pulpit of the cross.
They are very important words for us.
"Father, forgive them for they know not
what they do."
We hear
these words in Luke’s Gospel. Imagine that setting, the setting in
which he said these words. “Forgive them.” He had just been falsely
accused, arrested, betrayed, mocked, humiliated, and tortured terribly.
His response to that is “Forgive them.” He even goes on to defend them,
“For they know not what they do.” He becomes a lawyer on the cross for
the accused, you and me. We need to remember this lesson that he
teaches us from the cross because we have difficulty in forgiving even
the smallest, most petty offenses against us. More and more, I hear the
word devastated. “Father, I’m devastated.” They are devastated by the
silliest, smallest, most insignificant affront to their pride. People
today speak of sensitivity as if there is not enough of it. Many people
suffer from too much of it. They are too sensitive about every silly,
little thing and it brings them to tears. You often wonder what they
will do when the hard days comes.
Jesus does not teach us this way. He teaches us to forgive those who
hurt us, even while they are hurting us. It is not impossible. St.
Stephen did it using the same words as he was stoned to death, the
first martyr of the Church, the Deacon Stephen. He was stoned in the
presence of Paul, whom at that time was known as Saul. Stephen said,
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Many centuries later, St. Thomas More, the saint that we revere here at
IHM and one that we have a beautiful building named after, said the
same thing. He was Henry VIII‘s chancellor. Henry, because he would not
get, could not get his way with the Pope, demanded that all the bishops
and priests in the realm take an oath of supremacy to him and
acknowledge him as the head of the Church of England. Thomas refused.
He was beheaded and his head taken and hung from a bridge in London,
but as he died, he said, “Father, forgive them.”
Just last September, a 66-year-old Italian nun, Leonella Sgorbati was
killed in Somalia where she worked at the S.O.S. hospital trying to
help the poor who had no medical help. She was gunned down because some
terrorist took offense at something the Pope said. He went out and
killed himself a Catholic. As she lay dying from an assassin’s bullet,
her last words in Italian “Io perdono. Io perdono.” Forgive. “I
forgive, I forgive.” It is not impossible what Jesus asks of us. Today,
we are reminded that forgiveness comes with the deal of discipleship.
“Today you will be with me in paradise.”
These
are beautiful words that bring tears to our eyes. They are spoken from
the cross to the good thief. I think his name was Dimas or Dismas. I
like to think of that story. The other thief said, “If you are the Son
of God, why don’t you save yourself and save us too.” He is mocking
Christ. The good thief said, “Leave him alone. Get off his case. This
man has done nothing. I mean, we deserve the punishment we’re
receiving. He’s done nothing.” Then he looked at Jesus and said, “Lord
remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus looked at him, can
you imagine how difficult that was, and He said, “Today you will be
with me in paradise.” I think that was the first confession and the
good thief received absolution and forgiveness. He confesses his guilt.
We are guilty also. Why can’t we deserve death? That was the thief’s
last prayer. Maybe, it was his first prayer.
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen said that a dying man asked a dying man for
eternal life. A man without possessions asked a poor man for a kingdom.
A thief at the door of death asked to steal paradise …. and he got away
with it. It makes the Ocean’s 11 caper look like nothing. I have often
visited someone who is dying. Many of them have been away from the
Church and away from Christ for many years, sometimes decades. If I can
slip in there, sometimes it’s a wife or a brother who says, “Father,
get in there.” Sometimes, the person dying can’t speak. If they are
really lucky, they can’t speak. I ask them, I say, “Would you like to
have your confession heard now that you can’t speak. Just nod.” Mmmm.
(Nods head.) “Are you sorry for all the sins of your life.” Mmmmm.
(Nodding head vigorously.) I can almost hear Jesus say, “Today you will
be with me in paradise.” Many times, I have imposed the Apostolic
Blessing of the Church, known as the Apostolic Pardon now.
“Through the holy mysteries of our redemption, may almighty God release
you from all punishments in this life and in the life to come. May He
open to you the gates of paradise and welcome you to everlasting joy.”
Don’t let anyone you love die without that. Jesus never placed a limit
on his mercy and neither should we. Jesus loves every one of us six
billion humans walking this planet today with the same fierce love that
he loved that thief. He offers each one of us the same deal. Take the
deal.
“Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your
mother."
He
calls Mary woman because woman in Genesis is the name of the first
woman. Mary is the new Eve. She makes up for Eve’s “No,” with her
“Yes.” Mary was at that cross. I think that was Jesus’ greatest pain.
When my mother was alive, I would pray every day, and I told her this
once and she didn’t understand it correctly. I would pray every day
that she would die first. She didn’t like that but she, of course, had
prayed that herself. What I meant was, in my imagination, the worst
thing that could ever happen to my mother would be for her to see me
dead. You know what I mean? I prayed that would not happen. Many of you
have lost a child. There is no greater cross, no heavier cross you will
ever have to bear than that. Mary bore that cross. However, I think
Jesus suffered even more at watching her watch him. She was there,
Mary. He says, “Woman, behold thy Son.” Then He says, “Behold thy
mother.” We think that was John. We’re not sure. I think the reason he
didn’t call him John, if that was the case, is because he wanted to
address the every man, the every Christian, the every disciple and say
to you “Behold your Mother.” This is important and the timing of it is
very important. At that moment, Mary became the Mother of the Church.
She became your Mother. It says, “The disciple took her into his
house,” as we are to take her into our house.
Our late Holy Father John Paul II said, “Know that in difficult times
which everyone experiences, you are not alone. Like John, at the foot
of the cross, Jesus also gives his Mother to you so that she will
comfort you with her tenderness.” It is good that we are here this
afternoon at Immaculate Heart of Mary church. She gathers us once more
at the foot of her Son’s cross.
"My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
This is
from Matthew’s Gospel. I hope you have the chance before you go to
sleep tonight to read Psalm 22. It is fascinating. This is a psalm of
David, written many centuries before Christ. Read Psalm 22 and you will
read the passion narrative that occurred centuries later. Jesus
fulfilled all these prophecies. You heard the first reading as Morrie
read it today from Isaiah, the suffering servant. That is the Hebrew
Scriptures written centuries before Christ. How perfectly he fulfilled
those prophecies. I often think, to an unbeliever, they must at least
admire the great ingenuity of the Gospel writers who put this together.
In fact, it would be impossible for them to have done that without them
merely transcribing or writing what they had witnessed."My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"
Who is saying that but the Son of God himself, who took on humanity and
who is about to die in his humanity. Yes, Jesus Christ truly died at
that moment.
However, those are not words of despair. The one who despairs does not
talk to God. The one who talks to God is not despairing. At that
moment, Jesus was as far away from the Father as any human person has
ever been throughout history. He was in darkness and fear. The reason
he was that far away from the Father was that the Scriptures tell us,
Jesus became sin. He became sin. It says that in the Bible, as
shocking. If it wasn’t in the Scriptures, it would be blasphemy. The
Son of God became sin because He took on our sins. God hates sin. At
that moment Jesus became sin, every sin that ever had been committed or
ever would be committed, He took on. Then He died and He descended into
hell where He left that sin. Then on the third day, ascended into
heaven, free and clean of sin and we with Him, if we are baptized into
Christ Jesus. Jesus became our scapegoat.
You know an ancient Jewish ritual’s once a year and even today, pious
Jews celebrate a tradition of the scapegoat. A very small number of
Jews celebrate this today but in Jesus’ time, it was the common
celebration. The Day of Atonement, when the high priest would take two
goats and he would lay his hands on one goat and chase that goat out
into the east where the devil lived. The high priest this was symbolic
that the high priest put all the sins of humanity or of the Jews for
the last year on the goat. That is where the term scapegoat comes from.
The high priest chased the goat out into the desert. The good goat they
killed and ate... The scapegoat is not all bad. Jesus became our
scapegoat but not symbolically. He became the scapegoat in reality. He
really did take on all the sins of humanity. Knowing this, we know that
no human person at any moment is beyond the pale. No one has ever been
deeper into sin than Jesus was at that moment. We need to take that
message to places where people need to hear it. You have already heard
it. That is what you are doing here. You are lucky. There are people
out there that haven’t heard it. They think that they are beyond the
pale; that they have sinned too much; that they cannot be saved. Tell
them that Jesus was in a darker place than they are.
"I thirst."
This is
from John’s gospel. Certainly, He was thirsty. He must have had an
unquenchable human thirst. How ironic that He who formed the waters on
the Creation at the second day, lacked for water. Of course, it is more
a poetic statement. He had a great spiritual thirst. A thirst for the
world to purify it and to make it beautiful and to save every soul in
the world. Some religions, some Christian religions are very wrong in
there understanding of the world. They think the world is evil. It’s
life a minefield to be negotiated, you know, so we can get to heaven.
We have to hunker down and hide and get through this life. That is not
Christian at all. The world is beautiful. It’s broken, it’s filled with
sin and it’s the job of the disciples that Jesus sent out, and that’s
us, to clean it up and to fix it and to restore it to what it was
intended to be, the face of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we do not hate the
world. We love the world as Jesus did. We thirst with Jesus for the
world for every soul in the world. Like the woman at the well, He said
to her, “I thirst. Give me some water.” He thirsted for her faith and
He thirsts for your faith as well.
“It
is finished”
Also,
from John’s Gospel. That is not a word of surrender but a word of
triumph. In other words, mission accomplished. What the Father has
given me to do I have done. The cross that He gave me to carry, I have
carried. The suffering he proposed for me to endure, I have endured. It
is done. It is accomplished. I hope we can say those words when our
lives end and that we don’t give up until that final day. We don’t
through in the towel. Like Jesus we say, “Father, if it be thy will,
let this cup pass from me.” The first thing anyone does when the doctor
say you have cancer is say, “Let this cup pass from me.” But not thy
will, not my will but rather thy will be done. Jesus accepted death as
a certitude and knew it has no power, ultimately. As John Donne would
say, “Death be not proud.” You are nothing death. You’ve been
conquered. I’m not afraid of you. I’ll pass through you to eternal life.
And finally,
“Father
into your hands I commend my spirit”
from
the Gospel of St. Luke. He finally at the end gives the Father His
spirit. He gave everything away. Fulton J. Sheen said, “His garments
are consigned to His executioners, His blood to the earth, His body to
the grave, His Mother to John, and His soul to His heavenly Father. He
entrusted all He had left to His Father in heaven.” What loyalty and
what trust. Trust is God’s mercy and love. Trust in God’s mercy and
love.
By the way, that was “Into your hands I commend my spirit” was a prayer
Jewish children said at their bed at night. Now I lay me down to sleep,
they said, “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” I hope we say that
prayer every night. May these be your last words tonight. May they be
the last words you ever speak in your life. “Father into your hands I
commend my spirit.”
