“he submitted and opened not his mouth”
ACTIVITY – Scripture Search!– The best way to begin this lesson is to break the group into teams of three or four and give each group a bible. Tell them to look only in the Gospel’s (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). They will be looking for the seven last phrases spoken by Jesus. Even though they are called the seven last words, they are actually phrases. If your group is really ambitious, you can have them connect the seven last words to the seven parts of the Mass. To make this easier, you can print or write down the seven parts of the Mass (one of the parts is from the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite). Jesus hung on the Cross for three hours, from noon to 3pm. As He hung on the Cross, He was suffocating, short of breath, but still cared enough to speak, to teach us. On the Cross, the Divine Teacher was giving His last teaching. He is the High Priest, who in the midst of sacrificing Himself also gives us a homily. He only spoke, seven short phrases and each breath necessary to utter these phrases would have caused Him much pain. He spoke very little and thus fulfilled the prophecy “and opened not his mouth.” What Jesus did manage to say, is a great treasure for us. In fact, each phrase corresponds to the seven parts of the Mass. [1] Notice that the first three phrases are spoken by Jesus to men, to us while the last four phrases are spoken to God.
Luke 23:34 - “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
This phrase corresponds to The Confiteor of the Mass, a time when the faithful ask for God’s Mercy. At this moment we can be assured that Jesus is saying to the Father, “Father, forgive, them they know not what they do.” We even say it our self when we say in the Confiteor, “I confess to almighty God
and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.” [2] We plead for mercy, as Jesus pled in saying together the Kyrie, “Lord have Mercy, Christ have Mercy, Lord have Mercy”.
Luke 23:43 - “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
This phrase corresponds to The Offertory of the Mass, a time when we offer ourselves to the Father, along with Christ, the good thief, and all the faithful. Bishop Fulton Sheen speaks of a beautiful image of the large Host being Jesus and the small hosts being each one of us. Everyone at Mass is a small host and we are offered to the Father, in the same way as the large Host, Jesus. Jesus, the large Host is going to Paradise. We too, if we accompany Him in the offering, the sacrifice, we also accompany Him to Paradise, to Heaven. The priest prays, “Be pleased, O God, we pray, to bless, acknowledge, and approve this offering in every respect; make it spiritual and acceptable, so that it may become for us the Body and Blood of your most beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.” [3] We too want the Father to approve the offering of ourselves, which we may be to Him spiritual and acceptable. We want to become like Christ!
John 19:26 - he said to His mother “Woman, behold you son, he said to the disciple “Behold, your mother.”
This phrase corresponds to The Sanctus of the Mass, a time when we praise God by singing with the Angels, “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” [4] We are in need of holiness and want to present ourselves to Our Lord at Mass in the state of Grace, as Holy as we are able. Jesus knows that we are in need of holiness so He gives us the perfect example of holiness, He gives us His own Mother, to take as our own.
Matthew 27:46 & Mark 15:34 - “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” [5]
This phrase corresponds to The Consecration of the Mass, which is the height of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Our Lord is offering Himself to the Father for the forgiveness of our sins. “Why the cry of abandonment: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" It was the cry of atonement for sin. Sin is the abandonment of God by man; it is the creature forsaking the Creator, as a flower might abandon the sunlight which gave it strength and beauty. Sin is a separation, a divorce - the original divorce from unity with God, whence all other divorces are derived. Since He came on earth to redeem men from sin, it was therefore fitting that He feels that abandonment, that separation, that divorce. He felt it first internally, in His soul, as the base of a mountain, if conscious, might feel abandoned by the sun when a cloud drifted about it, even though its great heights were radiant with light. There was no sin in His soul, but since He willed to feel the effect of sin, an awful sense of isolation and loneliness crept over Him - the loneliness of being without God.” [6]
John 19:28 - “I thirst”
This phrase corresponds to The Communion of Mass “When they offered Him a drink, He took it not. It was another kind of thirst which tortured Him. He was thirsty for the souls and hearts of men. The cry was a cry for communion - the last in a long series of shepherding calls in the quest of God for men. The very fact that it was expressed in the most poignant of all human sufferings, namely, thirst, was the measure of its depth and intensity. Men may hunger for God, but God thirsts for men. He thirsted for man in Creation as He called him to fellowship with divinity in the garden of Paradise; He thirsted for man in Revelation, as He tried to win back man's erring heart by telling the secrets of His love; He thirsted for man in the Incarnation when He became like the one He loved, and was found in the form and habit of man. Now He was thirsting for man in Redemption, for greater love than this no man hast, that he lay down his life for his friends. It was the final appeal for communion before the curtain rang down on the Great Drama of His earthly life.” [7] When we go to communion and receive worthily, we quench that thirst of Christ. He wants to be in relationship with us, but more than that, to be in communion with us, united to us. It is not enough that He is with us, for He is always there for us, we must be with Him. “I thirst” is the motto of the Missionaries of Charity, the order Blessed Mother Teresa founded. This motto is printed next to a crucifix in every chapel the Missionaries of the Charity have all over the world to remind the sisters that Jesus is thirsty for our souls and that in the poor and abandoned, Jesus thirsts.
John 19:30 - “It is finished”
This phrase corresponds to the Ite, Missa Est. This phrase is where we get the word “Mass”. It comes from “Missa”. Ite, Missa Est is Latin and translates into English, “Go, it is the dismissal”. The Mass is the final accomplishment of Christ. He has gained Salvation for all man and now that message of salvation must go out to the entire world. Jesus says, “It is finished” because the redemption of man has been accomplished. “The Redemption of man is finished. Love had completed its mission, for Love had done all that it could. There are two things Love can do. Love by its very nature tends to an Incarnation, and every Incarnation tends to a Crucifixion. Does not all true love tend toward an Incarnation? In the order of human love, does not the affection of husband for wife create from their mutual love the incarnation of their confluent love in the form of a child? Once they have begotten their child, do not they make sacrifices for it, even to the point of death? And thus their love tends to a crucifixion.” [8] We are dismissed from Mass, and sent out to love. We have just witnessed the greatest act of love and now are called to imitate it and in imitating it, bring the Incarnation and Crucifixion into our life and the lives of others.
Luke 23:46 - “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
This phrase corresponds to the last part of the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite Mass. One difference between the Roman Rite’s two forms of the Mass (Ordinary and Extraordinary) is that in the Extraordinary, the Last Gospel is proclaimed at the end of the Mass. The Last Gospel is always the same, the first chapter from the Gospel of John is proclaimed in which we are reminded that “The Word, became Flesh and dwelt among us. The Last Gospel begins with the words, “In the beginning.” “It is a beautiful paradox that the Last Gospel of the Mass takes us back to the beginning, for it opens with the words "In the beginning." And such is life: the last of this life is the beginning of the next. Fittingly indeed, that the Last Word of our Lord was His Last Gospel: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Like the Last Gospel of the Mass, it too takes Him back to the beginning, for He now goes back to the Father whence He came. He has completed His work. He began His Mass with the word: "Father." And He ends it with the same word.”
ACTIVITY– A second activity for this lesson is to simply ask each person to read the scriptures silently and then choose which of the last words speaks to them the most and to share why.
[1] See Fulton Sheen’s book, Calvary and the Mass, the seven parts are from the Roman Rite, Extraordinary Form of the Mass – online version - http://www.sanctamissa.org/en/resources/books/calvary/prologue.html
[2] The Order of the Mass I
[3] The Order of the Mass I
[4] The Order of the Mass I
[5] Read Psalm 22. It seems as if Jesus thinks that His Father has abandoned Him. Jesus, who knew the Psalms by heart, was simply praying the 22nd Psalm. The Jewish audience to whom Matthew was writing also would have known the Psalms very well and would understand that Matthew did not have to put the whole Psalm but simply just put the first part. When I write happy birthday to you…, you can imply that I mean the whole song but just don’t want to write it out. Matthew is saying that Jesus prayed the whole Psalm 22 but didn’t want to write it out. Psalm 22 begins on a negative note but ends very positively. By praying this psalm on the Cross Christ shows us that 1. we should pray at all times especially in times of great trial and persecution and 2. that we should never lose hope in God, knowing that God can bring good out of bad situations. Psalm 22 is not only a song of hope but gives in detail the Crucifixion.
[6] Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen; Calvary and the Mass
[7] Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen; Calvary and the Mass
[8] Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen; Calvary and the Mass