FAUSTO GOMEZ, OP
On this Good Friday of the year 2025 – the Jubilee Year of Hope, I invite you to meditate, with Mother Mary, on the Last Word of Jesus, our crucified Lord. We read in the Gospel of St. Luke (Read Lk 23:44-46). It is the 7th and last Word from the cross.What is the meaning of the Last Word of Jesus?
A PRAYER OF TRUST IN GOD
“Into your hands, I commend my spirit.” This is a common Jewish prayer of trust in God. Like every Jewish child, Jesus learned this prayer (Ps 31:6) from his Mother Mary. On the cross, just before he died, Jesus utters the prayer, putting his life into God’s hands
Jesus, however, adds a new word to the Psalmist prayer: the word Father! It is an essential word in the teaching and experience of Jesus. Jesus revealed God to us not as lawgiver, not as judge, not as an insensitive god, but as a Father: Jesus the Son of God and of Mary places his trust – his death – into the hands of the omnipotent and merciful God the Father, Abba!
It is interesting to note that in the Old Testament God is called Father only 11 times, while in the New, He is called Father 261 times, and of these, 167 by Jesus (J. M. Cabodevilla). Thus, even on the cross “Jesus died like a child falling asleep in his Father’s arms” (W. Barclay). What is the meaning of the 7th Last Word of Jesus for us?
MEANING OF THE 7TH LAST WORD FOR US
On this Good Friday, Jesus teaches us from the cross to pray with trust: to place our spirit, our life, our death into the hands of God, of God our Father: “Our Father who art in heaven…”
Following Christ, our only Way, many saints imitated him by making his last word their last word too. St Stephen, the first martyr, while he was stoned to death cried out: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” St. Catherine of Siena said just before she died, and after repeating sixty times “I have sinned, Lord, be merciful to me…” “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” St. Thomas Becket, while being murdered in the cathedral, said: “In manus tuas, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Throughout the centuries, the Last Word of the Lord has been prayed by many, not only before death, but also before going to sleep: every night religious men and women, priests and lay people throughout the world pray the 7th Last Word as the responsorial psalm of Night Prayer: “Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit; you have redeemed us, Lord, God of truth; I commend my spirit.”
Before death, before going to sleep at night – and after getting up in the morning –, the Last Word of Christ from the cross continues to strengthen confidence in God our Father. I have the custom of saying this prayer of trust just after getting up from bed every morning: “Into your hands, Lord, I commend my day – my thoughts, words and deeds.”
We place our life, our trials, our death in God’s hands – in God, our Father! Indeed, He is our Father! We are children of God! After hearing the missionary talk on God as Father, the American Indian chief said to him: “You said that God is your Father and my Father, did you?” The missionary answered: “Yes.” The Chief commented: “Then you and I are brothers,” and the Indian chief embraced the missionary (frm W. Barclay).. The other person is not an alien, nobody, an enemy, but a brother or a sister. In the Prayer of the Lord, we do not say “my” Father but “our” Father. Hence, we pray for each other. How do we respond to the Last Word of the Lord?
OUR RESPONSE
Praying with trust in God, we place our life in his divine hands. When we get up in the morning. We place daily our life, our work and our trials in God’s merciful hands. We place our death in the compassionate hands of God our Father: “The hands of God are resurrection; He is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Martin Descalzo).
We are sorry, dear Lord, for our sins! We are grateful, beloved Jesus, for giving your life for us. And as pilgrims on the journey to heaven, we are hopeful: with God’s grace through Christ in the Holy Spirit, we shall be able to do God’s will, that is, to love one another, and to love the needy (the poor, the sick, the wretched of the earth) with especial love. Yes, “We will walk with each other; we will walk hand in hand, and they will know we are Christians by our mutual love.”
With Jesus, we say, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
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