“It is finished.” ~ reflex on Jn 18:1-19
During this Triduum, we are focused closely on our Savior’s last and most difficult days on earth.
Reading St. John’s narrative of Christ’s Passion and Death, no more words are needed, and yet our hearts are overflowing with gratitude and awe at this graphic expression of the great love that overflows from the Heart of Jesus for each one of us.
He freely laid down his life for us, the life of the only Son of God in the flesh. He allowed His pure Heart, the Heart of Incarnate Love, to be pierced and poured out for us. As the great High Priest, Jesus offered the supreme Sacrifice to our eternal Father to atone for our sins, the Sacrifice that is offered each day on the altar at every Mass. Because of this great Sacrifice, we are enabled to become sons and daughters of God.
And as we look on him whom we have pierced, whose beauty was distorted by our selfishness and whose wholeness was crushed for our sins, we begin to understand that he bore the guilt of us all. His serenity and his obedience to the Father were steadfast in spite of cruelty and mockery and torture. “Like a lamb led to the slaughter,” he allowed himself to be condemned and killed.
He freely laid down his life, “he surrendered himself to death,” to give us the abundant life for which we are created.
Today, I look at the scene on Calvary and know that it is I who have crucified my Lord. My own selfwardness and refusal to love him and my neighbor as I should have caused the sufferings I see as he is sentenced, scourged, mocked, crowned with thorns, and nailed to the cross he embraced for love of me. Forgive me, Lord. Open my heart to this scene and teach me how to suffer with you, to be one with you, for others.
St. Paul tells us that we can make up in our own bodies what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ (Col 1:4). What was lacking? Did Jesus hold anything back? No. He gave everything for us. So what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ is the suffering of his Mystical Body – what is lacking is MY suffering. He did not hold anything back; Jesus just “left me a little room” to join him there on the Cross. Lord, help me to understand that in bearing life’s difficulties with patience and generosity and offering them in union with your own Passion, you allow me to join you there, to take my place near you in this act of redemption, and in some mysterious way to help relieve the pain your heart bore.
Teach me how to take up my own cross each day (Luke 9:23), and follow you more closely, in love and humility. Lord, I thank you for dying on the cross for me.