From
the beginning of the Lenten Season, the Gospels have shown us a merciful Jesus;
a Jesus that asks us and constantly challenges us to forgive.
“Pray for those who persecute you; forgive those who do you harm”
– now, nailed to the Cross, Jesus becomes the living example of what he has
been asking us to do. It’s not
that Jesus himself could not forgive us, being God he had the power to forgive,
but at the same time he is a man who gives us the human example we are to
follow.
From
the beginning of creation, God has always searched for the sinner.
God always calls – he never tires of calling and always holds on to the
hope that man will repent. He offers his unconditional mercy to anyone who seeks
repentance and true interior conversion. Throughout
his public life, Jesus feels more at home with sinners.
He searches for them, speaks to them, eats with them and forgives them.
Now, nailed to the Cross, he asks the Father to forgive them for their
ignorance. However, Jesus says: “because
they know not what they do”. We
need to make clear that Jesus does not ask that all be excused.
Surely many condemned him out of ignorance and Jesus pleads to the Father
for these. Soon, when the light of
the resurrection shines upon them, they will experience pain for what they have
done and will cry out for forgiveness. But
others knew Jesus all too well and still denied him.
They were witness to the wonders he performed; they saw the light that
shone from the face of Christ, yet they closed their eyes to keep from seeing. For these, the ones who consciously denied him, ignorance is
no excuse. Who do I identify with?
II.
“I assure you: today you will be with me in Paradise”
Two
criminals – one unites his voice to those who condemn the only one that can
save them – the other becomes witness to the truth. The “good thief’s” confession before Pilate results in
punishment and torture, but his confession about the truth of Jesus results in
his salvation. Next to him, he sees
innocence condemned along with guilt; he proclaims the dignity of a King, now
stained by the crimes of the world. The
repentant sinner accepted the truth, but the truth could not change the hardened
sinner because his heart was closed.
The
criminal was nailed to the cross and only his heart and mouth were free from
torture. Through divine
inspiration, he offers to Christ all that he has free; his heart believed in
Christ and his mouth proclaimed salvation.
He believed that Jesus would reign even though he watched Jesus die along
with him. He never lost hope that
Christ would give him his Kingdom.
God’s
grace goes beyond man’s prayer, and Jesus gives much more than what this new
convert has asked for. The “good
thief” only asks that Jesus remember him, yet Jesus responds by saying: "Today
you will be with me in Paradise”. Being with Christ is life, and where Christ is, so too is the
Kingdom. Jesus gives us what
one-day Adam scorned, Paradise stolen now by the “good thief”.
III.
“Woman, behold your son, son behold your Mother”
Such
a great love, that even in his greatest anguish – in his greatest moment of
susceptibility – Jesus honors his mother.
He has nothing else to give. He’s
given everything for his Father’s Kingdom, and all that remains is his mother.
He gives us Mary; he makes his testament, not of money but of eternal
life. A testament not written with ink, but with the Spirit of the
Living God.
Mary
never abandons her son. Even when
the apostles hide in fear, Mary stands firm.
Through her tearful eyes she contemplates the wounds of her son and sees
in him the salvation of the world. How
ironic that the so called “weaker sex” is here by far the strongest – all
of the apostles, all men, scatter from fear, yet Mary remains standing at the
foot of the Cross. The evangelists
place other women at the scene of the crucifixion, but Jesus speaks only to his
mother.
Jesus
gives his mother to his beloved disciple. What
a great honor! He does not console
John with words, instead he consoles him by placing under his care the Mother
who’s womb bore the light of the world and who will soon give this light to
all the world.
What
can this mean, that God abandon Christ? To
feel abandoned by God is to feel the human weakness in the face of death.
Yet Jesus has already declared that he reigns in Paradise, and therefore
he is God. But God has exposed him to the power of those who persecute
him; he has withdrawn his protection, but never was the bond between human and
divine broken.
Jesus
calls out to the Father when he sees the darkness that falls over the earth, the
darkness of sin that envelopes all of humanity, making us blind to the salvation
that shines in Christ. What great
pain you must feel my Lord, only your love is greater than your pain.
To
the fountain of living water is given vinegar; to sweetness is given bitterness;
forgiveness flogged and justification is condemned.
He who did not know sin took upon himself my sins and suffered the
punishment that I justly deserved, and felt the abandonment that was meant for
me, because he submitted himself to the death that I and all merited, so that we
would not feel abandoned but rather feel only God’s unending love.
V.
“I thirst”
The
God-man suffered all these insults for our sins. Recalling the words of the Psalm: “I was thirsty and
they gave me vinegar to drink, that is why I thirst”. God is telling us that we have not given all that we can.
He wants for us to give ourselves entirely – to give our hearts.
We who should be the good fruit of the vine have only given bitterness
– we have not been good wine, instead we have become like vinegar.
Christ
is the fountain of life, but we do not drink from him.
Instead, we fill ourselves from the cup of wickedness in order to quench
the thirst of our vices and lust. When
we drink from this cup we give thirst to the only one who can quench our true
thirst in life. Jesus says: “I
Thirst” because he thirsts for justice; he thirsts that we live in love;
that we reconcile with one another. He
thirsts that we come to know the Father. Christ’s
thirst will only be quenched when we give our hearts over to his will.
May
your mercy o Lord come over us; for this you have been born and for this you
have given yourself. You have
fulfilled the will of the Father and that is why you suffer the ultimate
consequence of love. Your death
brings an end to the old. In the
beginning you were with the Father when he created the world.
When Adam sinned, you dreamed of our redemption.
You chose a people through whom you would bless all nations, but they
could not be faithful to you, and for this reason you spoke to them through the
prophets and announced to them the moment of salvation.
The sacrifices that Israel offered to you were a sign of your future
sacrifice on the Cross.
Through
your sacrifice you bring fulfillment to the promises that were made to Abraham
because through your Cross, all of creation is blessed.
With your death you bring death to the man of old and in you is born a
new creation. There is no longer
Jew or gentile because we are all one in you.
You have found the lost sheep and brought it to you.
You have destroyed death and by virtue of your blood have sealed the new
covenant with mankind so that the gates of paradise may be opened to him.
There is nothing more to do – It is finished.
(Reading from the Prophet Isaiah 53:2-12)