Seventh Word on Cross

THE SEVENTH WORD
Father! Into Thy hands I commend My spirit!

BLESSED ANNE CATHERINE EMMERICH
The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

The hour of our Lord was at last come; His death-struggle had commenced; a cold sweat overspread every limb. Jesus then, raising His head, cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit!”  These words, which He uttered in a clear and thrilling tone, resounded through Heaven and earth; and a moment after, He bowed down His head and gave up the ghost. I saw His soul, under the appearance of a bright meteor, penetrate the earth at the foot of the Cross.

John and the holy women fell prostrate on the ground. The centurion Abenadar had kept his eyes steadfastly fixed on the disfigured countenance of Our Lord, and was perfectly overwhelmed by all that had taken place. When our Lord pronounced His last words, before expiring, in a loud tone, the earth trembled, and the rock of Calvary burst asunder, forming a deep chasm between the Cross of our Lord and that of Gesmas. The voice of God—that solemn and terrible voice—had re-echoed through the whole universe; it had broken the solemn silence which then pervaded all nature. All was accomplished.

The soul of our Lord had left His body: His last cry had filled every breast with terror. The convulsed earth had paid homage to its Creator: the sword of grief had pierced the hearts of those who loved Him. This moment was the moment of grace for Abenadar; his horse trembled under him; his heart was touched; it was rent like the hard rock; he threw his lance to a distance, struck his breast, and cried out: “Blessed be the Most High God, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; indeed this Man was the Son of God!”  His words convinced many among the soldiers, who followed his example, and were likewise converted.

Abenadar became from this moment a new man; he adored the true God, and would no longer serve his enemies. He gave both his horse and his lance to a subaltern of the name of Longinus, who, having addressed a few words to the soldiers, mounted his horse, and took the command upon himself. Abenadar then left Calvary, and went through the Valley of Gihon to the caves in the Valley of Hinnom, where the disciples were hidden, announced the death of our Lord to them, and then went to the town, in order to see Pilate. No sooner had Abenadar rendered public testimony of his belief in the divinity of Jesus, than a large number of soldiers followed his example, as did also some of the bystanders, and even a few Pharisees. Many struck their breasts, wept, and returned home, while others rent their garments, and cast dust on their heads, and all were filled with horror and fear. John arose; and some of the holy women who were at a short distance came up to the Blessed Virgin, and led her away from the foot of the Cross.

When Jesus, the Lord of life and death, gave up His soul into the hands of His Father, and allowed death to take possession of His body, this sacred body trembled and turned lividly white; the countless wounds which were covered with congealed blood appeared like dark marks; His cheeks became more sunken, His nose more pointed, and His eyes, which were obscured with blood, remained but half open. He raised His weary head, which was still crowned with thorns, for a moment, and then dropped it again in agony of pain; while His parched and torn lips, only partially closed, showed His bloody and swollen tongue. At the moment of death His hands, which were at one time contracted round the nails, opened and returned to their natural size, as did also His arms; His body became stiff, and the whole weight was thrown upon the feet, His knees bent, and His feet twisted a little on one side.

What words can, alas, express the deep grief of the Blessed Virgin? Her eyes closed, a death-like tint overspread her countenance; unable to stand, she fell to the ground, but was soon lifted up, and supported by John, Magdalen, and the others. She looked once more upon her beloved Son—that Son whom she had conceived by the Holy Ghost, the flesh of her flesh, the bone of her bone, the heart of her heart—hanging on a cross between two thieves; crucified, dishonoured, condemned by those whom He came on earth to save; and well might she at this moment be termed “the Queen of Martyrs.”

The sun still looked dim and suffused with mist; and during the time of the earthquake the air was close and oppressive, but by degrees it became more clear and fresh. It was about three o'clock when Jesus expired.

VENERABLE MARY OF AGREDA
The Mystical City of God

At the pronouncing of the seventh word: “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit!” (Luke 23:46), the mighty Queen and Mother concurred with the will of her Son Jesus and united with His command that Lucifer and all demons depart to the infernal depths. In virtue of these decrees of the supreme King and of the Queen, the evil spirits were routed from Calvary and precipitated to deepest Hell more violently and suddenly than a flash of light through the riven clouds.

Christ our Savior, as the triumphant Conqueror having vanquished the great enemy, now yielded up His spirit to the Father and permitted death to approach by inclining His head (John 19:30). By this permission He also vanquished death, which had been equally deceived in Him with the demons. For death could not attack men, or had any jurisdiction of them, except through the first sin, of which it was a punishment. On this account the Apostle says that the weapon or the sting of death is sin, which opens up the wounds by which death enters into the world of humanity (Romans 5,:12); and, as our Savior paid the debt of sin, which He could not commit, therefore, when death took away His life without the shadow of justice, it lost the power which it had over the other sons of Adam (1 Corinthians 15:55).

Thenceforward, neither death nor the devil could attack men, unless they, failing to avail themselves of the victory of Christ, should again subject themselves of their own free will. If our first Father, Adam, had not sinned and we ourselves in him, we would not suffer the punishment of death, but merely pass over to the happiness of the eternal fatherland. But sin has made us its subjects and slaves of the devil. He avails himself of death to deprive us first of the grace, the blessings and the friendship of God. Thereby he also prevents us from reaching eternal life and we remain in the slavery of sin and the devil, subject to his tyrannous power (1 John 3:8).

Our Savior Christ despoiled the demon of all these advantages and, in dying without sin and satisfying for our own, merited that our death should be a death of the body only, and not of the soul; that it should have power to take away our temporal life, but not our eternal; the natural, not the spiritual; and that it should thenceforward be merely the portal to the eternal happiness, if we ourselves did not renounce that blessing. Thus the Lord satisfied for the chastisements due to the first sin, at the same time furnishing us a means of offering a compensation in our own name by accepting our natural and bodily death for the love of God. Christ absorbed death (1 Corinthians 15:51) and offered His own as a bait for deceiving death (Osee 13:14). By His Death He put an end of its power, overcame it, and was the Death of death itself.

MEDITATION

Father, Into Your Hands I Commend My Spirit
When Adam had been driven from the Garden of Paradise, and the penalty of labor imposed upon him, he went out in quest of the bread he was to earn by the sweat of his brow. In the course of that search, he stumbled upon the limp form of his son Abel, picked him up, carried him upon his shoulders, and laid him on the lap of Eve. They spoke to him, but Abel did not answer. He had never been so silent before. They lifted his hand, but it fell back limp; it had never acted that way before. They looked into his eyes—cold, glassy, mysteriously elusive; they had never been so unresponsive before.

They wondered, and as they wondered, their wonder grew. Then they remembered: "From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die."  It was the first death in the world. Centuries whirled around into space, and the new Abel, Christ, is now put to death by His jealous brethren of the race of Cain. The life that came out from the boundless deep now prepares to return home.

His sixth word was a cry of retrospect: "All is now fulfilled. I have finished the work My Father gave Me."  His seventh and last word is one of prospect: "Into Your hands I commend My Spirit."  The sixth word was meant for the world; the seventh word was meant for God His Father. The sixth word was a farewell to earth; the seventh His entrance into Heaven. Just as those great planets, only after a long time, complete their orbit and return again to their starting-point, as if to salute Him who sent them on their way, so He who had come from Heaven had finished His work and completed His orbit, now goes back to the Father to salute Him who sent Him out on the great work of the world's redemption: "Father, into Your hands I commend My Spirit."

Prodigal Return
The Prodigal Son is returning to His Father's house, for is not Christ the Prodigal? Thirty-three years before He had left His Father's eternal mansion and went off into the foreign country of this world. Then He began spending Himself and being spent; dispensing with an infinite prodigality the divine riches of power and wisdom and bestowing with a heavenly generosity the divine gifts of pardon and mercy. In this last hour His whole substance is wasted among sinners, for He is giving the last drop of His Precious Blood for the redemption of the world. There is nothing to feed upon except the husks of human sneers and the vinegar and gall of bitter human ingratitude. He now prepares to take the road back to His Father's house, and when yet some distance away He sees the face of His Heavenly Father. He breaks out into the last and perfect prayer from the pulpit of the Cross: "Father, into Your hands I commend My Spirit."

Birth and Death
All the while Mary is standing at the foot of the Cross. In a short time the new Abel, slain by His brethren, will be taken down from the gibbet of salvation and laid in the lap of the new Eve. It will be the death of Death! But when the tragic moment comes it may seem to the tear-dimmed eyes of Mary that Bethlehem has come back.

The thorn-crowned head which had nowhere to lay itself in death, except on the pillow of the Cross, may, through Mary's clouded vision, seem the head which she drew to her breast at Bethlehem. Those eyes at whose fading even the sun and moon were darkened were to her the eyes that glanced up from a crib of straw. The helpless feet riveted with nails once more seem to her the baby feet at which were cast gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The lips now parched and crimsoned with blood seem the ruddy lips that once at Bethlehem nourished themselves on the Eucharist of her body. The hands that can hold nothing but a wound, seem once more the baby hands that were not quite long enough to touch the huge heads of the cattle. The embrace at the foot of the Cross seems the embrace at the side of the crib. In that sad hour of death which always makes one think of birth, Mary may feel that Bethlehem has come back again. In Bethlehem, He was born to die; on Calvary He dies to be born in Heaven. The same is true for us! We are born to die, and we die to be born in Heaven. Our death is our birthday!

Leaving Things to God
It was about 3:00 in the afternoon when Jesus said His last word and died. It had been a long time since the night before, when He had left the Upper Room to go to the Garden of Gethsemani. There had been about eighteen hours of uninterrupted stress and strain, agony of mind and pain of body. He had had no sleep the night before. The time after being apprehended in the Garden had been spent in going from court to court and being put on trial. He had gone from Annas to Caiphas, to Pilate, to Herod, and back to Pilate.

In between these trips, the soldiers had amused themselves by mocking Him, putting Him on a stump and placing a reed in His hand, as though He were king, then striking Him with the reed, spitting on Him, bending the knee before Him. Later in the morning, after He had been scourged, they had actually interwoven a crown of thorns and placed it on His head, again in derision of His claimed kingship. Then there had been the frenzied shouting, the overflowing of passion and hatred. It would have required nerves of steel not to be affected by all this clamor, especially when directed at oneself.

Beyond all this, moreover, was the heavy sorrow of knowing that these people, His own countrymen, had had every chance of knowing better. They had seen miracles and had heard the most convincing preaching. They had blinded themselves deliberately, even after the pagan judge, Pilate, had said that the man being tried was innocent.

Finally, Jesus had taken on His shoulder theheavy cross and had walked up the hill to Calvary, just outside the city wall. There He had been stripped of His garments and nailed with three large nails to the Cross. It does not take great imagination to realize the terrible pain of this nailing and the increased pain when He was raised on the Cross, attached by nails. There was no anesthetic, no pain-dulling "shot." He bore the raw pain without benefit even of the usual drink of wine and myrrh.

Crucifixion was considered even by the ancients, who were much rougher people than most of us are, as the most cruel form of death. The loss of blood and the suffering would cause a fever, and this in turn would make the whole body ache and induce a great thirst. Worst of all was the constant grinding of the nails against the median nerves of His hands. The pain in Jesus' feet would also have been severe with the iron nail pressing against the plantar nerves like 'red hot pokers,' similar to that suffered by the median nerve injuries during nailing of the hands.

This, then, was the suffering which Our Lord endured for three hours. And all this came at the end of a long night without sleep, a night of being dragged back and forth, falsely accused, mocked, browbeaten. It came after the scourging and crowning with thorns.

Interior Suffering
Besides this pain of the body, there was the deep anguish of Our Lord in thinking about the loss of many souls who would not profit from His sacrifice. He saw those gathered beneath the Cross who continued to ridicule Him to the end. He saw the people of all centuries who, in pride and disobedience and sensuality, would deliberately reject Him, His Church, His Law. Then there had been that most mysterious desolation of spirit leading Him to cry out, asking why God had forsaken Him. Truly He took upon Himself the full weight of sin, even to feeling cut off from God. As St. Paul says: "Wherefore it behoved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest before God, that He might be a propitiation for the sins of the people." (Hebrews 2:17).

He Died Freely
The last words of Jesus were cried out with a loud voice. He had endured enough to cause death, but He was still the Master of life and death. Had He chosen, He could have gone on living. His loud cry and final words show that He died by His own choice. His voice was not the weak, hardly audible voice of one who has not an ounce of strength left. His words accepting death and His immediate bowing of His head thereafter show that He died because He willed to die.

At the moment of Christ's death there was a great earthquake. The rocks on Calvary were cleft, a rent appearing down the side of the hill. In Jerusalem, the great veil of the Temple that separated the Holy of Holies from the main part of

the Temple was torn in two down the middle, signifying the end of the Old Law. The Roman centurion in charge of the soldiers, "seeing that crying out in this manner He had given up the ghost, said: Indeed this man was the son of God." (Mark 15:39). Many of the Jews left in fear and went back into the city, striking their breasts as a sign of submission to God.

Last Words Show Union with the Father
The last words of Jesus were words of trust in Clod, of resignation, love and confidence. "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." A little earlier He had cried out: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" Those words show us the degree of bitterness and the depth of abandonment He experienced. But it would have been unthinkable that these words would be His last. No, His final words must show union and harmony between the Son and the Father. Therefore, Jesus does not use the more distant form of address, "My God," but speaks familiarly, "Father."

Death is the final, lowest humiliation that the Saviour can undergo. Even at the end He could still have descended from the Cross, healed, and confounded all His enemies. He could have approached the point of death—yet without dying. But that was not the divine plan for Redemption.

Life is the sweetest and best of all the gifts of God. No one ever realized this more than Our Lord. But He now gladly gave up this life, accepting the final humiliation of death in love and submission to the will of His Father. That is the meaning of the words: "Into Thy hands I commend My spirit." They are words of complete resignation to the will of God. Life comes from God; life must be used for Him; life must go back to Him.

When We Should Use Christ's Words
There are three times especially when we should ourselves use the words: "Into Thy hands I commend My spirit."

1. Upon Going to Sleep
First, we should use them each evening as part of our night prayers. When night comes and another day is over, so is another part of our life on earth. Each day is a miniature life in itself. Each time a person lies down to sleep, he gives up conscious control of life. Sleep is an imitation of death, so that we sometimes even speak of death as a long sleep. Here, then, is a good time to remember that all life has come from God, that life must be lived and used according to His Will, that sooner or later our life must go back to God. If we use the words: "Into Thy hands I commend My spirit" in the right way, we are saying all these things to Almighty God. And if it should happen that we never wake from our sleep, then our last words, or among our very last words, will have been the same as the words that Christ used on the Cross. We could hardly find more fitting words to be our last.

2. After Holy Communion
The second time we should use the words: "Into Thy hands I commend My spirit" is after receiving Holy Communion. At this time we address these words to Our Lord present within us. They will then have the meaning of perfect resignation to the will of God in directing our life on earth. They will at this time also have a further special meaning, the giving of self to be remade in the image of Christ.

We are giving over the direction and the formation of our soul, "our spirit," to Christ Himself. The ultimate reason for receiving Holy Communion is to become more and more like Christ, to have Him formed in us. (Galatians 4:19).

This formation goes on essentially because of the growth in Sanctifying Grace, that Godlike quality that makes us adopted sons of God. Likewise, our mind, our way of thinking, of looking at things, ought to become more and more like that of Christ. As St. Paul wrote to the Philippians: "For let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 2:5). Our heart, too, ought to become more and more like that of our Savior.

We ought to love the same things He loved, will what He willed, be sorrowful over those things that made Him sorrowful. Therefore, when we say after Holy Communion: "Into Thy hands I commend My spirit," we mean to give over our soul to Christ, asking Him to mold it more and more in His own image. We give our soul to Him, knowing that He knows best what to do for it.

Sometimes people are too much interested in trying to acquire this or that good quality, begging Our Lord to help them not to be so inclined to anger or to impatience. It would be much better to stop worrying about oneself and simply to give one's soul over to Our Lord, leaving its direction to Him.

3. At the Hour of Death
The third time we should use the words: "Into Thy hands I commend My spirit" is at the final hour of life. Then we have the opportunity to offer our life to God, to accept death according to His will. It would be hard to find better words than the final words of Our Lord to express the willing acceptance of death, the willing offering of life to God. Sacred writers consider this offering of one's own life so pleasing to God that it may be compared in merit with martyrdom.

Perhaps it may seem like a small thing to offer one's life to God, to accept death willingly, but it is not. Cynics may say it is small, since a person cannot do anything about it anyway. But to offer one's life, even though death is inevitable, is no small thing, for it is to offer back to God the most precious natural gift He has given us. To offer a million dollars for building a church or school would be a sizable gift. A dying person's life is worth more than a million dollars. He would gladly spend this if his life were spared. The value placed upon life cannot be measured in terms of money. Thus, in offering his life to God, the dying person offers his most precious natural gift.

It Is Unjust to Deceive a Dying Person
Needless to say, people who are dying should have the opportunity of freely offering the priceless gift of their life. They should not be allowed to go blindly into eternity by not being told they are dying. To try to deceive a dying person, even a child who has the use of reason, is cruelty. It is injustice.

There are a number of reasons for saying this.
It may be that only the knowledge of approaching death will lead a person to true contrition. Even one who seems to be close to God may have been keeping something on his conscience that only the thought of death will lead him to confess. But aside from this, a person should be given the opportunity to die as Christ did, with full acceptance of the will of God. In all things we are to be imitators of Christ; therefore, we should be imitators of Him in this too. A person should not be denied the opportunity of making this final offering of life, which is so pleasing to God.

Yet, sad to say, there exists in many people a false sort of charity and a foolish soft-heartedness that tries to "kid" a sick person along, even through the portals of eternity. We should, of course, be optimistic and stir up the hope of living as long as there is hope. But when the danger is grave and the balance swings to the side of approaching death, then we should let the sick person know. He should not be permitted to back into eternity, but should go forward, and with his eyes open.

Well-meaning relatives sometimes try to keep all knowledge of a grave sickness from the dying person. They may even be unwilling to ask the priest to administer the "Last Rites" (Confession, Last Anointing, Communion), fearing that these may upset the sick person. But is this not misdirected affection? Is it not sentimentality instead of mercy? Certainly death is a hard fact; to be in the proximate danger of death is not a pleasant fact. But not to hear about it is not going to prevent it. To know about it in advance may be the means of a great grace, giving the dying person the opportunity to repent or the opportunity to offer his life to God.

When a person is in an accident or overcome suddenly by some sickness, the tendency among medical people is to be too hasty with the sedative needle. The doctor or hospital attendant gives a massive sedative to quiet the patient. There is a place for sedatives, but they should not be given so soon that the patient does not at least have the chance to make an act of contrition. He may not think of this himself. If you are present, you can offer to recite the Act of Contrition, asking him to pray along silently. You do not have to shock the person. Just tell him you are going to say the Act of Contrition with him "for safety’s sake," or something similar.

Sooner or later each person comes to his own Good Friday. It may be that for us the major pains of life will be distributed over the years, and that our last hours will not be full of suffering. Or, it may be that our last hours will be very painful. We may ask God to make it one way or the other, if we wish; it is not wrong to express our preference to Him. Yet the best attitude is to leave the choice to God: "Thy Will be done."

Study the Cross
We will be better prepared for death the more we contemplate and appreciate the Cross of Christ and all that it means. No schooling in college or university can explain life better; no amount of reading can make us better, more real persons than can the study of the Cross. The ultimate explanation of all the mysteries of this life is bound up in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, who is both God and man. During our life here on earth, we should study the Cross. Then, when we come to our final hour, we may have the grace to die as did Our Savior on His Cross, with full resignation, confidence and love, saying to our Heavenly Father: "Into Thy hands I commend My spirit."

PRAYER

No, Mary! Bethlehem has not come back. This is not the crib, but the Cross; not birth, but death; not the day of companionship with Shepherds and Kings, but the hour of a common death with thieves; not Bethlehem, but Calvary. Bethlehem is Jesus, as you, His sinless mother, gave Him to the world; Calvary is Jesus, as the sinful world gave Him back to you. Something intervened between your giving at the manger and your receiving at the Cross, and that which intervened is my sins. Mary, this is not your hour; it is my hour—my hour of wickedness and sin. If I had not sinned, death would not now hover on its black wings about His crimsoned body; if I had not been proud, the atoning crown of thorns would never have been woven; if I had been less rebellious in treading the broad way which leads to destruction, His feet would never have been pierced with nails; if I had been more responsive to His shepherding calls from the thorns and thistles, His lips would have never been on fire; if I had been more faithful, His cheeks would never have been blistered with the kiss of Judas.

Mary, it is I who stand between His birth and His approaching redemptive death. I warn you, Mary, think not when your arms come to clasp Him, that He is white as He came from the Father; He is red as He came from me. In a few short seconds your Son shall have surrendered His soul to His Heavenly Father, and His body to your caressing hands. The last few drops of blood are falling from that great chalice of Redemption, staining the wood of the Cross and crimsoning the rocks soon to be rent in horror; and a single drop of it would be sufficient to redeem ten thousand worlds. Mary, my Mother, intercede with your Divine Son for forgiveness of the sin of changing your Bethlehem into Calvary. Beg Him, Mary, in these last remaining seconds, to grant us the grace of never crucifying Him again, nor piercing your own heart with seven swords. Mary, plead with your dying Son that as long as I live!