The Seven Last Words

 
 
Good Friday is the second of the “Great Three Days” (in Latin, Triduum sacrum),
and is the most somber day of the Christian calendar.
 
Our presentation of the “Seven Last Words” or sayings form part of a
Christian meditation that is often used during Holy Week
and especially on Good Friday.
 
Not all seven sayings can
be found in any one account of Jesus’ crucifixion but rather is a
harmonization of the texts from each of the four canonical gospels.
 
Traditionally these sayings are called words of:
 
1. Forgiveness
2. Salvation
3. Relationship
4. Abandonment
5. Distress
6. Triumph
7. Reunion
 
Thought to have special meaning,
these words have been used
for devotion and inspiration since the 16th century.
 
These words have been the subject of a
wide range of Christian teachings and sermons.
 
In the bible,
seven is the number of perfection.
Some scholars view Jesus’ seven
last words as God’s completion of the circle of creation.
 

Christ our victim

whose beauty was disfigured

and whose body torn upon the cross;

Open wide your arms

to embrace our tortured world,

that we may not turn away our eyes,

but abandon ourselves to your mercy;

for you live and love with the Father

and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

 

 
 

“Father forgive them, for they do not know what they do”

 Luke 23:33-34

 When they came to the place called “The Skull”, they nailed Jesus to the cross there, and the two criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Jesus said “Forgive them, Father!  They do not know what they are doing.”
 
 
 

“Today you will be with me in paradise”

Luke 23:39-43     One of the criminals hanging there threw insults at him:”Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” The other      one, however, rebuked him, saying: “Don’t you fear God? Here we are all under the same sentence. Ours, however, is only right, for we are getting what we deserve for what we did; but he has done no wrong.” And he said to Jesus, “Remember me, Jesus, when you come as King!” Jesus said to him, “I tell you this: Today you will be in Paradise with me.”
 
 
 

“Woman Behold your son: behold your mother.”

John 19:25-27
 Standing close to Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that time the disciple took her to live in his home.
 
 
 
 

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Matthew 27:45-46

 

From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.  And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

 
 
 

“I thirst”

John 19:28     After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said  (to fulfil the scripture), “I thirst.”
 
 

“It is finished.”

 

John 19:29-30 A bowl was there, full of cheap wine mixed with vinegar, so a sponge was soaked in it, put on stlk of hyssop and lifted up to his lips.  When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished”.      
 

“Father into your hands, I commend my spirit.”

 

Luke 23:46 Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

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