To My Readers: This week, my guest poster John Gregory, does a masterful job in showing the theological import to be drawn from the last statements of Our Lord Jesus Christ as He was dying on the Cross. A very interesting read! Feel free to comment as usual. If you have any comments or questions for me, I will respond as always, but it may take me a bit longer to do so this week.
God bless you all, my dear readers---Introibo
The Seven Last Words Of Jesus
By John Gregory
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Luke 23: 34
Jesus, as soon as He had been crucified, prayed to His Father for the Jews and the soldiers who were crucifying Him, saying, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. It is clear from Luke that this occurred before His garments were divided. This the first of the seven memorable words which Christ spoke upon the cross; after so many and such great sorrows, insults, mockeries, as though forgetting them, concerned only about the salvation of His torturers, He shoots up to heaven this fiery word from a breast that is a furnace glowing with charity, praying for their forgiveness. And He was heard for His reverence (cf. Hebrews 5: 7) For many of them repented on Pentecost at Peter’s preaching and were converted to Christ (Acts 2). Christ Himself taught us to pray for our persecutors, to do good to those who do us wrong, and to overcome evil with good. Saint Stephen imitated His example, when he was being stoned, and prayed upon his knees (Acts 7: 59): Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, like a swan uttering its swan song, he fell asleep in the Lord.
For they know not what they do. They know not that I am Christ, the Son of God, for if they knew they would not dare to commit this monstrous sacrilege, the murder of God. They know not that I am the Savior of the world and their Redeemer, know not that I am dying for their salvation. “So does the gentleness and tenderness of Christ triumph over the impiousness and malice of the Jews,” says Saint Cyprian.
The flint is the hieroglyphic [emblem] of love for one’s enemies, and has this motto, “Fire comes from flint, but not without a blow.” Flint is a hard stone, from which sparks are struck. It is so-called in Latin (silex) either because fire “leaps” (saliat) from it, or else because it “silently” contains fire within it, which is awakened by rubbing it. Therefore, flint is popularly called a “living stone,” as distinguished from other stones, which are said to be “dead.” The flint here is Christ, who is the cornerstone. For Christ poured forth on the cross the latent fire of His Godhead and His boundless charity, but yet not without a blow, for it was while struck by His persecutors that He prayed for them so ardently. He Himself had said before, I am come to cast fire on the earth, And what will I, but that it be kindled? (Luke 12: 49) Let the Christian, then, imitate Christ, and make himself a flint, which is full of fire itself, and ignites others; and when he is wrongfully struck by iron and steel, let him shoot forth sparks of divine love, as Christ did.
Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise. Luke 23: 43
That is, in a place of pleasure where thou mayest be in beatitude and enjoy the beatific vision of God. Meaning: Today I will make thee forever happy; today I will make thee a king reigning in the kingdom of glory with Me. This is what Saint Cyril of Jerusalem seems to mean, as well as Saint Chrysostom, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, and Saint Augustine, who explains in paradise to mean in heaven, that is, in celestial beatitude. It is certain that Christ on the day on which He died, did not go up to heaven with the thief, but went down into the limbo of the fathers (hence Saint Augustine and Maldonatus take paradise here to mean Abraham’s bosom), and there imparted to them the vison of His divinity and thus made them blest, and, therefore, changed the order of things; for He, then, made limbo to be paradise, and the lower parts the upper, so that hell should be heaven. For where Christ is, there is paradise; where the vison and beatitude of God is, there is heaven.
Now Euthymius and other Greeks deny that the souls of the saints see God and are blessed before the day of judgment, and by paradise these authors understand an earthly place, to which Henock was carried; but this cannot be true. For it is of the faith that Christ shortly after His death went down to the netherworld, that is, the limbo of the fathers, but He did not go into any earthly paradise. Besides, it is uncertain whether, after the Deluge, there be any earthly paradise remaining. But supposing that there be such, it is the happy and joyful habitation, not of souls, but of bodies only. Hence it is plain from this passage, against the Greeks, and against Calvin and the other innovators, that the souls of the saints, when thoroughly purged from sin, do not sleep till the day of judgment, but immediately behold God, and are beatified by that vision of Him.
Morally, note here the liberality of Christ, who exceeds our prayers and vows. The thief had asked Christ only to remember him when He came into His kingdom and Christ promised him the kingdom on that same day, that he might reign in it with Him as a king. “This day,” says Eusebius of Emissa, “as if He would say, O my faithful companion and one only witness of so great a triumph, dost thou think that I need to be so earnestly entreated to remember thee? This day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” And further on, “Christ, when placed upon the gibbet as an arbiter between the two condemned, rejected him who denied, and received the one who confessed; on the latter He bestows a kingdom, the former He consigns to hell. Let us then believe that He will judge in majesty, whom we see exercising judgment already on the cross.” This is that most sweet answer of Christ to the thief, which Saint Fulgentius calls “the testament of Christ, written with the pen of the cross.”
Lastly, tradition says that the name of this blessed thief was Dismas, for some chapels are found which were built in the name of this Saint Dismas, the Robber. In the Martyrology he is enrolled in the “Catalogue of the Saints” at the 25th day of March, for on that day he seems to have suffered, and consequently Christ on the same day. For in it we read, “At Jerusalem, the commena priorioration (previous comments) of the holy thief who upon the cross confessed Christ and merited to hear from Him: This day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.”
Women, behold thy son. And to John, Behold thy Mother. (John 19: 26-27)
Christ pierced his mother’s heart with the dart both of love and sorrow, for He meant: As thou seest, Mother, I am dying on the cross. From now on I shall not be able to be with thee, to attend to thee, to provide for thee, and assist thee as I have hitherto done. In my place, I assign John to be thy son; that is, a man in the place of God, a disciple for a master, and adopted son instead of thine own by nature; in order that he, as a virgin, and most beloved by thee as the Virgin Mother of God, may bestow on thee all the solace, and all the devotion, which both thy dignity and thy advancing age demand, and which the zeal and charity of John promises and assures to thee. Christ therefore teaches here that children should care for their parents even to the last, says Theophylact, citing Saint Chrysostom.
Listen to Saint Augustine: “Here is a passage of moral teaching. By His example our good teacher instructed His own, that pious children should take care of their parents; as if that wood on which His limbs were fastened when He was dying, were also the chair of the teacher.” For as Cyril says, “We ought to learn from Him, and through Him, first of all, that parents must not be neglected, even when intolerable sufferings are hanging over us.” But marvel, with Theophylact, at “how, upon the cross, He does everything calmly; caring for His mother, fulfilling prophecies, opening paradise to the thief; whereas before He was crucified, He labored, sweated, and was anxious.” For as Euthymius says, “in the one case the weakness of nature was seen, in the other His great power of endurance.” Christ commends His mother to John, whom at the same time He put in His own place as her son, so that thus He might both bestow such a son upon His mother and also entrust such a mother to John. Saint Cyprian, or whoever is the author of the Treatise on the Passion of Christ, gives the reasons why he did this. First, to provide for His mother, who was now growing old, the care and kind offices of a son. As if He said, “I am thy son, O Mother, and because I am dying. I cannot care for thee anymore; therefore I consign and hand thee over to John”
Secondly, that He might commend a Virgin to a virgin. “The pure is entrusted to the pure,” says Theophylact. Thus Nonnus paraphrases it: “He said, Woman, O thou loving Mother of virginity, behold thy virgin son; and on the other hand He said to His disciple, O thou lover of virginity, behold a Virgin who is thy parent, without giving thee birth.” And Saint Ambrose says, “But with whom should the Virgin dwell, rather than with him, whom she knew to be the heir of her Son, and the guardian of her chastity?” And in this matter Jesus, as a Son anxious about His mother’s purity, wished that her continuance in this state of maternal virginity should be fully confirmed. As Saint Ambrose writes, “that no one should sully her with the reproach that her purity had been defiled.”
Thirdly, to show that Joseph was not His father, He set him aside and put John in his place. Hear the same [Pseudo]-Cyprian: “Thou carefully providest for her who was Blessed among women, the protection of an Apostle, and Thou deliverest the care of the Virgin to a virgin disciple, in order that Joseph might be no longer burdened with the charge of so great a mystery, but that John should bear it. For reason now demanded that he should no longer be regarded as her husband, nor be counted the father of Christ, who had hitherto held the place of father and husband.” He then meets a tacit objection. “Joseph would have had good reason to object to this arrangement of Christ, when Mary was commended to someone else, had he regarded himself as a husband in the flesh. But because the mystery of that union was spiritual, Joseph calmly allowed John to be preferred to himself in this office, for he judged him to be more worthy than himself, and more especially because the Master’s choice had so ordered it.”
Note that this author (whether it was Cyprian or someone else) is of the opinion that this Joseph lived to see Christ’s passion. Most commentators think otherwise, and with greater probability. For no mention whatever is made of him; indeed, Christ seems to have commended His mother to the care of John precisely because Joseph had died. For had he been alive, Christ would certainly have committed His mother, Joseph’s dearest spouse, to his care, as He had done at His incarnation and nativity, since He had experience of his fidelity and diligence during the flight into Egypt and at other times.
The fourth reason why Christ commended His mother to John, of all the Apostles, was that John alone, with HIs mother, stood by Him fearlessly and steadfastly at His crucifixion, even unto His death, amidst all the insolence and reviling of the Jews. He therefore merited to be adopted by Jesus as His brother, and to replace Him as the son of the Virgin Mother. Moreover, Christ commended, in the person of John, the rest of the Apostles, indeed, all the faithful, to His mother, especially those who are chaste and virgins, and closely follow Christ upon His Cross, and thus become most beloved friends and intimates of Christ and His mother, just as Saint John was, who accordingly was called by [Pseudo]-Cyprian “Christ’s chamberlain."
Whom he loved. To whom He showed greater external signs of love, because he was younger than the other Apostles, more modest and chaste, being a virgin, and loving Jesus more than did the rest. Therefore, when the others fled, he alone stood by the cross with the Mother of Christ, as I noted earlier.
Woman, behold thy son. Christ calls her woman, not mother, lest by calling her mother He inflict greater sorrow upon her soul. “Lest,” as the Baptist of Nantua poetically puts it, “that loved name should wound the mother’s heart.” Secondly, so as not to rouse against her the scribes and Pharisees who were present. Thirdly, to show that He had put off all human affections towards His parents. Fourthly, because, advancing towards death and heaven, He renounced all human relationships of this life, and wished to teach that they should be renounced.
Fifthly, to arouse His mother’s courage and strength of mind to bear all these things with fortitude, and to remind her of that resolute woman, about whom Solomon had foretold, Who shall find a valiant woman? (Proverbs 31: 10). For the Blessed Virgin suffered for a longer time than Christ. His suffering ceased at His death, while the suffering and compassion of the Blessed Virgin did not cease, but increased. For she received the dead body of Christ when it was taken down from the cross, thus reviving her grief; and then for the three days He lay in the tomb, His sufferings on the cross, which she had witnessed close at hand, remained vividly impressed on her imagination, and tormented it, till Christ rose again, and removed them all by the consolations and glory of His appearing. Again, the Blessed Virgin was left behind by Christ, in order to be the mother of the Apostles and the faithful, to gather the fallen, to comfort the afflicted, to support the stumbling, to advise the doubtful and the anxious, and to guide, instruct and inspire them in everything.
Hence, she immediately gathered the Apostles who had dispersed when Christ was captured. She uplifted Peter, who was downcast on account of his denial of Christ, with the hope of forgiveness, and she assured all who were troubled by Christ’s death through her faith in the resurrection of Christ which would soon come to pass. Then, when the leaders of the Jews imprisoned, scourged and killed the Apostles, she vividly experienced all these persecutions as though they were inflicted upon her, but she overcame them by her lofty spirit, and taught the Apostles by her word and example to overcome them.
Christ, foreseeing all these things, said, Women, as if to say: O Mother, be henceforth that valiant and courageous woman, so that thou mayest be, in My place, the foundation, rock, and pillar of My Church, that thou mayest support it with thy strength and mayest drive away and scatter all the storms of temptations that rage against her by thine assistance, counsel and prayers, not only now, but in all centuries to come, until the end of the world. That is why she is called in the Litanies and constantly invoked by the faithful and the entire Church as: “Comforter of the afflicted, Refuge of sinners, Health of the sick, Tower of David, Ark of the Covenant, Help of Christians, Morning Star, Gate of Heaven, Mother most admirable, Virgin of virgins, Queen of Apostles, of Martyrs, of Confessors, and of All Saints.”
Listen to Saint Bernard. “Let him cease to speak about thy mercy, O Blessed Virgin, if anyone should remember that thou have failed him when he called on thee in his necessities. . . . Who, therefore, can search out the length and breadth, the height and depth of thy mercy, O Blessed Lady? For its length comes to the aid of all who call upon it, until the last day. Its breadth shall fill the world, so that all the earth may be full of thy mercy also. So too its height reaches that of the heavenly city, and its depth has obtained redemption for those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. For through thee heaven has been filled, the underworld emptied, the ruins of the heavenly Jerusalem have been restored. To this summit of mercy, our misery has recourse with the utmost solicitude.”
The same author writes: “(O Virgin Mary,) upon thy lips [i.e. intercession], depends the consolation of the afflicted, the redemption of captives, the liberation of the condemned, and lastly, the health of all the sons of Adam, of thy whole race.” The same author writes: “To her (the Blessed Virgin), as though to an intermediary, to the ark of God, to the cause of things, to the transaction of the ages, all look: those who dwell in heaven, those in the underworld, our predecessors, and we ourselves today, and those who follow and our descendants’ offspring, and those who shall be born of them. Those who are in heaven [look to her] that they may be restored: those in the underworld, that they may be snatched away; our predecessors, that the prophets might be proved faithful; those who came after, that they may be glorified. Because of this all generations call thee blessed, O Mother of God, Lady and Mistress of the world, Queen of heaven. For in thee the angels shall find happiness, the just—grace, and sinners—forgiveness eternally. Rightly do the eyes of all creatures look to thee, because in thee, and through thee, and from thee, O kind hand of the Almighty, He has recreated whatever He created.”
For as he says in his third sermon on the Missus est: “Within Blessed Mary the fullness of Divinity dwelt bodily, that is, theanthropos, (God-Man), as Saint Dionysius says, from whom proceeded theandric actions, that is, actions of the God-man, whereby He reconciled men to God. The same author writes, “Hail, Mary, full of grace: because thou art pleasing [grata] to God and angels and men. To men, by thy fruitfulness, to the angels by thy virginity, to God by thy humility.” Bernard writs in his Sermon on Blessed Mary: “Eve was the thorn, which pricked even her own husband unto death, and imposed upon her posterity the sting of sin; Mary was the rose. In wounding, Eve was the thorn; Mary was the rose by soothing the passions of all. Eve was the thorn in inflicting death upon all; Mary was the rose by restoring to all a salutary lot.”
Verse 27. After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. Meaning Love her, attend to her, help her, as thy mother. And, on the other hand, have recourse to her, as thy mother in every difficulty, temptation, persecution, and affliction. She will cherish thee with motherly affection, will foster, console and protect thee, and ask help for thee from her Son. Moreover, these words of Christ are not mere ineffectual spoken words, like those of men: but as the words of God, they are real and efficacious and bring about that which they declare. And accordingly, they impressed Saint John a filial affection and spirit towards the Blessed Virgin, as though she were his mother. Theophylact exclaims, “How wonderful! How doth He honor His disciple, in making him His brother? How good is it (to stand by the cross), and to abide close to Christ in His sufferings!” And Chrysostom: “What honor does He confer on His disciple! For when He was about to depart, He left the care of His mother to His disciple. For when it was natural for her to sorrow as His mother, and to seek protection, He most fitly commends her to His beloved disciple, to whom He says, Behold thy mother! That so they might be bound together in love.”
Behold thy mother. And the mother also of thy fellow-Apostles, and of the other faithful, who are represented here in the person of John. Accordingly, all the faithful should fly to her with full confidence and love, as Saint Bernard teaches, whose words I have already cited. She is the true Eve of the faithful, i.e., the mother of the living. Thus all who are wise and the saints of every age have had recourse to her.
Listen to Saint Augustine: “Behold thy mother. Take care of her, He says, I commend her to thee, take her as thy mother. When He said these few words, these two beloved ones ceased not to shed tears; both of these martyrs were silent and could not speak for excessive grief; these two virgins heard Christ speaking, and saw Him gradually dying: they wept bitterly, who sorrowed bitterly, for the sword of Christ’s sorrow pierced through both their hearts.”
And (i.e., therefore, namely because Jesus had ordered it) from that hour, the disciple took her to his own. So it should be read with the Greek and Latin codices (in sua); the Syriac and Arabic versions have to himself. Some read in suam, into his own house. Hence Nonnus paraphrases: “The disciple had within his house, as his blessed companion, her who was a Virgin in giving birth.” For children usually welcome elderly parents into their home and feed them; and those whom we take into our care, we take into our house also. Listen to Bede’s interpretation: Another reading has in suam, meaning “unto (as) his mother”, as some maintain; but more fittingly, it is implied, “into his care” [in suam curam]. As Saint Augustine says, “He took her to his own, not into his own lands, which he owned as property, but into those kind offices, which he undertook to dispense.” Therefore all of these interpretations come to the same thing. Hence Saint John, upon departing for Ephesus, took the Blessed Virgin there with him. Hence the Council of Ephesus, in chapter 26 of the Synodical Epistle, says that the Blessed Virgin and Saint John for a time lived in the city of Ephesus.
This, then, was Christ’s last will and testament, of which Saint John was the executor. “He executed His testament on the cross,” says Saint Ambrose, “and John witnessed to it, a fitting witness for so great a testator.”
Gather from this also that Joseph, the spouse of the Virgin, had already died. As Saint Ambrose says, “The wife would not be divorced from her husband, but she who veiled the mystery under the guise of marriage, now, when this mystery was finished, no longer had need of wedlock.” And Epiphanius speaks thus: “Now the gospel says, And from that day he took her to his own,” meaning into his own house. “But if she had a husband, or a home or children of her own, she would have retired to them, and not to a stranger. See then how poor the Blessed Virgin was, and how devoted to poverty.
Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani? My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?
(Matthew 27: 46; Mark 15: 34)
Christ quotes Psalm 21: 1, which in Hebrew reads azabtani; but because the Jews, in returning from Babylon, changed their Hebrew language and introduced Syriac, Christ instead of the Hebrew azabtani, after the Syriac manner of His people said Sabacthani. The modern Syriac versions have elmonosbactoni. Thus it is clear that with the passage of time the Syriac language has changed appreciably, just as Latin, Italian, French, German, and other languages have changed.
Moreover Christ, continually prayed on the cross and offered Himself wholly to God as a victim for the salvation of mankind. But as His death was drawing near, He recited Psalm 21, as mentioned, which speaks throughout of Christ’s passion, to show that He was the very person treated in that psalm, namely the Messias, so that the scribes and Jews might investigate and learn that the reason why He refused to descend from the cross or be delivered was that He had to die on the cross by the Father’s decree for the salvation of men. For in that psalm David foretold that this would happen.
Calvin says impiously, therefore that these were the words of Christ in despair, that He was obliged to experience the full wrath of God which our sins deserve, and consequently the sufferings of the damned, of which despair is one. But this blasphemy refutes itself. For if Christ despaired on the cross, then he sinned most grievously. He, therefore, did not satisfy, but rather inflamed, the wrath of God. And how can it be said that Christ ever despaired, when He said shortly afterwards as He died, Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit, as Luke 23: 46 relates.
Christ, therefore, does not cry out as being forsaken by the Godhead and hypostatic union of the Word, nor even by the grace and friendship of God, but only because the Father did not rescue Him from instant death, nor soothe or diminish by any consolation His cruel sufferings in the flesh and the inferior part of the soul, but permitted Him to endure unmitigated sorrows and torments. And all this was to show how bitter this death on the cross was to Him, this wrenching of the soul from the body by such great pains, and such a violent separation of parts so intimately united, as He prayed in the garden while agonizing and sweating blood: Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Thus Saint Jerome, Saint Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius and other fathers; nor do Saint Hilary and Saint Ambrose mean anything else in saying, “The man cried aloud when dying at being separated from the Godhead.” For they mean not a separation of essence and of the hypostatical union, but of support, help, and consolation.
For the Faith teaches us that at Christ’s death His soul was separated from His body, yet His Divinity remained as before, hypostatically united to both His soul and His body. Besides this, Christ complained here of His desertion, because the Godhead helped Him in no other way but by sustaining Him in His torments, and by prolonging His life for additional, more horrible sufferings, indeed by increasing Christ’s pain at seeing Himself, though in union with the Godhead, enduring such atrocious indignities. Thus Laurentius Justiniani.
Symbolically, first, Christ here asks the reason why He was thus forsaken by the Father on the cross. ”My Father, what have I done that I should die on this cross? What sin, what evildoing have I committed? I am most innocent, the holy of holies.” Then the reply is given in Psalm 21: 2. Christ answers His own question. Far from my salvation are the words of my sins, meaning thereby, “The sins of men, which the Father hath put on Me to be loosed and expiated, these are depriving Me of health and life, and bring Me to the death of the cross.”
Second, some authors cited by Theophylact think that Christ here is speaking not of His own desertion and reprobation, but of that of His people, the Jews. As if to say, “Why, O Father, dost Thou desert Me, that is, My nation, My people, the Jews, who are related to Me according to the flesh, and disown them?”
Third, Origen thinks Christ is complaining of the small number of those who will be saved, and the multitude of those who will be damned, in whom the fruit of His passion and death comes to nought. As though He said: “Why, O Lord, forsakest Thou Me, that is, My kinsmen in the flesh, for whom I am dying? Why savest Thou a few of them and rejectest the many? For in so doing Thou forsakest Me; for Thou makest the fruit of My suffering a slight, abandoned and wretched thing.”
Tropologically, Cyprian thinks that Christ spoke thus in order that we should inquire into the reasons why the Father abandoned Him. “You, Lord,” he says, “are not deliberating about death, nor arguing about reproaches; but You want it to be understood what the cause of death is, and what is the gain, so that by a recognition of both these things, sin and grace might appear. And how much weight each thing has, let the effect of these things prove, since there could be no remedy for the original death except in Christ’s death, nor could any offering reconcile the banished and the damned to God, except the singular Sacrifice of this Blood.” And after a few lines: “Our Lord was forsaken that we should not be forsaken; that we should be set free from our sins and eternal death; He was abandoned to manifest His love to us; to display to us His righteousness and compassion; to draw our love towards Him; lastly, to set before us an example of patience. The way to heaven is open, but it is arduous and difficult. He wished to precede us with His wondrous example, that the way might not terrify us, but that the stupendous example of God in suffering might urge us on,” so that in whatever tribulation, we might say with Paul (Romans 8: 35), confidently and exultantly, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? . . .In all these things we overcome, because of him that hath loved us.
This, then, was Christ’s fourth word on the cross, consolation to all who are desolate and afflicted. He consoled in this way Saint Peter, martyr of the Order of Saint Dominic. He was visited by Saint Cecilia, Saint Agnes and Saint Catherine, and while he spoke with them in his cell, he was heard by passers-by and accused of bringing women into his cell; thus he was falsely accused and condemned to a long, hard penance. Kneeling before the crucifix, the saint complained to Christ, saying, “Lord, Thou knowest my innocence; why then doest Thou say nothing when I keep silence; why dost Thou not defend me, abandoning me so long in this infamy?” Christ replied, “And I, O Peter? What wrong had I done to be crucified for thee on this cross? Learn from Me to practice patience in whatever may befall you, for all thy sufferings cannot equal Mine.” Hearing this, the saint was so strengthened and cheered, that he wished to endure still further suffering; indeed, he would not have exchanged his ignominious trials for the scepters and crowns of kings. Therefore, Christ at length established his innocence, and turned all his disgrace into glory.
I thirst. (John 19: 28)
Afterwards, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said: I thirst. Afterwards, that is, after about three hours. For He commended His mother to John before the darkness, at the beginning of the crucifixion; but at the end, shortly before He died, He said, I thirst, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled, And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink (Psalm 68: 22). As if to say: So that I might suffer this further torment of being offered the vinegar, I cry out that I thirst. As Saint Augustine says, “You have not yet done this. Give Me that which you are yourselves,” that is, full of acidity and bitterness; give Me vinegar, therefore, and not wine.
Christ thirsted, because He had neither eaten nor drunk anything since His supper the night before; moreover, He had poured forth all the moisture and blood in His body, by His scourging and crucifixion; also because His most bitter pains also caused Him great thirst. For as Cyril remarks, “Sorrows stir up the natural heat within, dry up moisture as its deepest source, and burn the entrails of the sorrowful one with fiery heat.”
Hence, the jaws are dried up and parched with thirst. At that moment, then, the words of the Psalmist (21: 16) were fulfilled in Christ: My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue hath cleaved to my jaws. The Chancellor of Louvain, when he was dying forty years ago, said in my presence, that he never fully understood those words, as he did from experience, when he was himself suffering from a similar dryness and thirst, and from it reckoned how great the thirst and dryness of Christ had been. Mystically, Christ thirsted for the salvation of souls. See Bellarmine on The Seven Words of Christ on the Cross. “God thirsteth to be thirsted for,” says Nazianzen, in order that we may insatiably love and desire Him, and say with the Psalmist, My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?” (Psalm 41: 3).
It is consummated. (John 19: 30)
Jesus therefore, when he had taken the vinegar, said: It is consummated. And bowing his head, he gave up the ghost. All the sufferings, and all the mysteries are consummated, which the Father decreed from all eternity that I should suffer and carry out, which He ordered Me to suffer and carry out from My very birth, and which He willed, moreover, that the prophets should foretell concerning Me. There remains only the final issue of death, so that I may complete My course of suffering, and by My death expiate the penalty of death, which Adam incurred by sin, and thus restore mankind to life. I therefore embrace death, and commend My spirit into the hands of My Father.
Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit. (Luke 23: 46)
The Arabic has I place; Tertulliam has depono, i.e., I deposit for safekeeping”; for this is the meaning of paratithemi whence paratheke, meaning “a deposit”. The Hebrew word hiphkid has the same meaning, which the Vulgate renders as commendo, meaning as a deposit, that you might keep it safe for me, and return it at the proper time. Saint Athanasius, toward the beginning of his book on the Human Nature of Christ, remarks, “When Christ said on the cross, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit, He deposits all men with the Father in His spirit and commends them to Him, to be restored to life, by Christ Himself and through Him; for we are members, and those many members are one body, which is the Church. He commends, therefore, all who are in Him to God.” Christ, therefore, according to Saint Athanasius, calls men His soul and spirit. What then ought we not to do to win and save souls, that we may keep for Christ, as it were, His soul and spirit? Thus, Saint Paul in his Epistle to Philemon calls Onesimus, his “bowels” (viscera).
“He gave His soul into the hands of His Father,” says Saint Cyril, that by this and through this, as a beginning, we might have certain hope of this, firmly believing that we shall be in the hands of God after our death.” So too Victor Antiochus on Mark, “This commendation of Christ turned out for the good of our souls, which, when freed from the bodies previously inhabited by them, He gave by these words, as a kind of deposit, into the hands of the living God.” And Euthymius: “The Lord did this for us, so that the souls of the just would not henceforth go down into hell, but should rather ascend to God.” Christ is citing Psalm 30: 6, in which David, afflicted and in danger of death, speaks as much in his own person as in that of Christ and says, Into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Hence the Church uses the same psalm and verse every day, and sings it during Compline at night, to teach us, when we go to sleep, to commend our souls to God, because at night we run many risks of sudden death from catarrh, suffocation, apoplexy, etc. The dying use the same verse, as did Saint Nicholas, Saint Louis of France, and Saint Basil, and this in the presence of the angels who were bringing him away, as Saint Gregory Nazianzen testifies.
Saint Stephen also cried, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. By this psalm verse we testify: 1. That at our birth we received our souls, not from our father and mother, but from God alone; and that we, therefore, give Him back the same, as His own creatures. 2. That we believe that the soul does not perish at death, but survives and is immortal, and returns to God who created it and will judge it. 3. That we believe in the resurrection of the flesh. For in death we commend our souls to God that He may keep them, as a deposit, and restore them again at the resurrection to our bodies. 4. That in our final and bitter struggle (in agone) which we undergo with the devil, we implore the assistance of God at death, so that by commending our souls to Him, we may vanquish and triumph over the devil. Hence it is the opinion of many that each of us has his own devil as an adversary, who appears to the dying in some terrible form, and tempts them to despair and to other sins, as he appeared to Saint Martha and others, but not to all. Saint Ephrem seems to think this in his sermon on those who sleep in Christ; likewise, Saint Chrysostom and others whom our own Lorinus cites at Ecclesiastes 8: 8.
Many think the same of Christ. Hence Eusebius understands Christ’s words in Psalm 21: 13, Fat bulls have besieged me, to refer to the devils whom Christ saw on the cross, gaping and mocking Him as a criminal and wicked, and insulting Him for His crucifixion and impending death. Habacuc 3: 5 seems to support this idea; The devil shall go forth before his feet. Also, what Christ says in John 14: 30, The prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not anything. Christ lays down His spirit, therefore, in the hands of God, certain that no one can snatch it from them. For God is a most faithful and mighty protector (depositarius). So, Saint Jerome on Psalm 30: 6, Into Thy hands I commend my spirit. “That is,” he says, “into Thy power I commend my soul. This example the Church received from Christ. Saint Stephen, too, Followed it. The saints also pray this when they depart from the body, as it says (in 1 Peter 4: 19) [They] commend their souls in good deeds to the faithful Creator. Our Lord said this, while nailed to the cross: that He would commend His spirit into the Father’s hands, to receive it again when the Father raised Him.”
Symbolically, Didymus in his Catena on Psalm 30 says that the spirit is three-fold: 1. Our thoughts. 2. Our soul. 3. Our conscience. These three we ought to commend to God.
And saying this, he gave up the ghost. Syriac, He said this, and ended (His life, that is). Arabic, And when he had said this, he gave up his spirit (into the Father’s hands, as He had said). This, therefore, was a certain sign that He was the Son of God the Father, who was called upon by Him, and that the Father heard the cry of the Son and received His soul. For when He had said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit, then, at last, He allowed death to come to Him, says Euthymius, commenting on chapter 27 of Matthew, inasmuch as He knew with certainty that the Father would keep securely His spirit, which He placed in His hands as a deposit, and would give it back to Him in the resurrection on the third day. Assured in this hope, glad and ready, He gave up His spirit to the Father. (All the above is taken from the Lapide commentary)
One of the many things we can learn from the last three hours of Our Lord’s life is to use our words sparingly and efficaciously. Sparingly, because the sins of the tongue are frequent and are oftentimes mortally sinful. Saint James teaches us that the tongue “defileth the whole body, and inflameth the wheel of our nativity, being set on fire by hell”. Our Lord warns us that we will have to render an account for every idle word. Every, idle, word! How often do we speak scandalous nonsense, gossip, detraction as being in the know about others, and their faults, and the reason for their faults! What percentage of our words are not something negative about someone else? How often do we speak negatively about priests? Too ridged. Too lenient. Causing needless division amongst the laity, as we opine expertly on the “rashness, “stubbornness” and “disobedience” of current and past priests who know far more about doctrine, canon law, and the liturgy than we do. This helps no one. Not the lay people who become embittered about priests they heretofore had no issue with. Not the priests, who are put in repeated positions of rolling their eyes and thinking negatively about laypeople who persistently parent their Fathers by putting them in their place.
Conclusion
Let Bishop Pivarunas, Bishop Sanborn and Father Jenkins, discuss among themselves about which liturgy to use, the plausibility of the Thesis, and sacramental theology regarding the consecration of bishops. For this speaks to the second part of what we learn from Our Lord’s last three hours, (the first being the use of our words sparingly) that is to use our words efficaciously — i.e. — for the salvation of souls. The clergy have to render a strict account for souls, this includes those who tell souls where they can and cannot attend valid Masses.
God will take care of them if they are culpable for their anomalies, they are already fully aware of the thoughts of the pontificating people. If the lay people must correct the clergy, let them do so humbly and present it as their opinion, which is what it is, no matter how sure they are of that opinion, and be quick to ask the Father to forgive them rather than judge them harshly, publicly and scandalously. Let us stand by the cross with our priests, silently, prayerfully, charitably knowing they thirst for souls and often feel abandoned by man and God, putting forth so much effort with seemingly so little result. Let us take our Lady as our own, knowing she would not blab all over the internet telling the clergy what is wrong with them, but at most would talk with them privately, humbly and respectfully, and would pray for them that they get the grace to think of God first, their sheep second, and themselves last.
In essentials unity; in non-essentials, liberty, in all things, charity.
Omnia pro Jesu per Mariam!
