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My brothers and sisters in Christ, during the time of twelve o’clock to three o’clock in the afternoon it is the custom for Christians to watch and pray, to wait with our Lord Jesus, as the Son of God wins our salvation and unites us by His passion to the Father in heaven, from Whom comes all life, all salvation, all joy.
It’s traditional to preach on the seven last words of our Lord Jesus, and so that’s what I will do, of a sort anyway.
The seven last words of our Lord are like a last will and testament of the Son of God. When someone is very near death, the family always listens very carefully for last words. When someone has died, for years perhaps, afterward, these were the last words of my mother, these were the last words of my father, and they are lovingly told and retold because we know that those last words may contain the very heart of the person who has died and that we love; and in a special way it is true with our Lord. His seven last words perfectly reveal His heart, His mission, His purpose, His divine and human life. These words are given for the Church and they fashion and shape the Church,  and they will be lovingly retold until time is no more. As long as mankind lives on this earth the last words of our Lord will be told and retold because they reveal to us like no other words the heart, the mission and purpose of the Lord Jesus.

Now the last days have been fairly busy for me and I have prepared four of the seven words, so this is going to be a new tradition, this afternoon we have the four last words of our Lord, not the seven. Maybe next year I’ll have the last three worked up. So this day we have the four last words of the Lord.

The first word: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."
Jesus our Lord was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, He lived in Israel and He died in Jerusalem in order to save sinners. The entire purpose of His divine life become man is to save sinners. That is why He was born of the Blessed Virgin and why He hangs upon the cross of Calvary. His purpose is to win our forgiveness before the Father in heaven.
Jesus has lived among mankind for thirty three years now, he has lived among us and He knows men and women, old and young very, very well. Oh how He knows us; every nook and cranny of our mind and heart and will. How He knows us. He knows us far better than we know ourselves; He looks into the mind and heart of each far better than they can themselves. And now thirty three years have past and Jesus the crucified One now looks down from the cross upon soldiers, upon Pharisees, upon high priests and politicians. And all of them to a man are delighted to see Him die. They are delighted to see Him die. They have plotted His death for months now and oh! They are delighted to see their plan come to completion. And yet before that crowd so delighted in His death, so lusting for His blood, Jesus cries out words that mystify us: "Father forgive them for they do not know what they do."
You see, if the priests and politicians, and Pharisees and soldiers, if they really did know what they were doing there could never be salvation for any of them. If they really knew what they were doing that afternoon. If they really knew that they were putting to death the author of life, the Son of the Living God, the Creator of heaven and earth, if they knew this, there would never be any salvation for any of them. How could they kill the Son of God with full knowledge, and there ever be any hope of heaven for them?
They are so filled with ignorance all of them, they are so filled with only half knowledge of what they do, they are so filled with ignorance that the true horror of what they are doing that it never even occurs to them to tell God that they are sorry.
Jesus knows us, He knows and He looks into our hearts; and He knows that we know not what we do. He knows that we’re always in need of help, and that without God we would die. He knows that we are utterly depended on the mercy of God. On our own we don’t even cry out for mercy. On our own we are not even aware that we need God’s mercy. On our own we forget God; we never forget ourselves, but we forget God. We sin and we never even think of the consequences. And so Jesus looks at us and He knows that we cannot be held fully responsible, and so He will bear the responsibility Himself, He holds us to His wounded heart and hands us over to the Father to be forgiven.
On the cross Jesus goes to confession for all mankind, He confesses our sins to the Father, He takes the responsibility of our sins upon Himself. And lest you say: "Father, you are trying to take us off the hook!" Remember, our sins are such that if we took responsibility for them we would die; we offend God, the Lord of heaven and earth. If we bore all the responsibility ourselves we would be crushed under the burden and there would be no hope. And so God bears the responsibility on the cross. He confesses our sins to the Father, He takes responsibility upon Himself, He bears our guilt so fully that the effects of our sin are seen upon His body and upon His face. His face which was once beautiful is beautiful no longer, because of our sins. From this moment on whenever the Father sees your sin and my sin, what He sees is His Son’s suffering. When the Father looks upon our sins, what He sees is His Son’s desire to purify our guilt at any cost. Our sin and the Son’s suffering, from that moment on the cross two thousand years ago are for ever linked together, our sin and the Son’s suffering cannot be separated; when God sees one, He looks upon the other. Whenever the Father sees sin He sees for ever that guilt covered by the blood of His Son.
"Father forgive them, they know not what they do." And we don’t know what we do, not really. And that is our salvation. The Sacrament of Confession and the cross of Jesus are made present; in this way our guilt is covered. Jesus assumes our guilt, His blood washes us. Jesus in confession takes over our guilt and covers it so thoroughly that God’s fatherly heart when He sees us sees only the Son’s suffering.
We are made innocent in the Sacrament of Confession, not by the perfection of our sorrow, not by the perfect memory of every sin we have committed; we are made innocent by the Father’s loving gaze upon His suffering Son. And that gaze is extended to us in the Sacrament of Confession.
"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." When we go to confession, when we tell God that we are sorry, we don’t know what we’ve done, not really. And the Son supplies what is lacking. We look at the cross before going to confession in spite of the sorrow and in spite of the worry of not being able to recall all of our sins, or not having a perfect contrition; in spite of all of that we can be sure of the Lord’s help because He hangs upon the cross. Jesus steps in, the One who suffers for me, and in the Father’s eyes, He always makes up for what is lacking in me.
Jesus’ first words are addressed to sinners like you and I, so hardened that often we don’t even know we have sinned. God forgives enemies in Christ Jesus our Lord, and so must we, for we were all enemies of God until that day the Son of God was nailed to a tree.

The second word: "Today you will be with me in paradise."

Dismus, a thief, hangs upon a cross at the side of our Lord; he hangs upon a cross for his crimes. Dismus, the thief’s life is over, and his final hour has come. For Dismus all hope is vanished, nothing remains. This thief sees no hope beyond punishment, there is no hope; his last hour is without any consolation. You see, since he was a child, the elders in the Synagogue repeated and endless refrain, over and over again he was told: "For sinners there is no hope, for sinners there is no mercy, for sinners there is no regard, no life from God." Since he was a child he was told: "God’s love is reserved for the righteous."
This hopeless one named Dismus faces his last hour filled with such agony that we cannot possibly imagine; strangling to death and struggling for every breath. There is the agony of crucifixion and there’s an even greater agony. As he cries out to God from his heart: "I suffer so, will there be a still greater suffering for me when I come before You God? When I face your judgment, will this suffering I now endure be even greater and have no end?" From the beginning of his life he was told: "God’s love is only for the righteous", he was not one that was righteous, and so for him there seemed only hell.
And the thief’s last prayer on the cross is maybe his first; and his prayer is responded to by the Lord, and the Lord’s promise to him cuts through all of his agony. The heaven which Jesus now opens to Dismus the thief is His own heaven. Jesus is Lord of that heaven, it is His own realm where He reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and when Christ Jesus speaks, Jesus it is who can admit  to heaven whomever he wants to. Jesus is the King of that realm. And if He wishes to admit Dismus, He will do so.
In that day it is God who hangs beside Dismus. Jesus was losing His life and at the same time saving a soul. Jesus is more anxious to save us than we are to save ourselves. "Today you will be with Me in paradise." Good thief, today you will be with me.
Jesus’ promise wipes out justice and in its place there is pure mercy from God himself. The thief has no merit, he is not worthy of heaven, he has not spent his life in service of God, there is no merits. But what he has is a love born of faith, and that is enough for Dismus to steal heaven.
On that day, this thief  and the Son of God will dwell together in heaven. Just imagine, on that day, the thief and the Son of God will dwell together in heaven. The thief hangs in poverty, and is promised today untold riches, a disciple of God in heaven for ever.
The thief can do nothing but ask mercy of God. Jesus can do everything, and He does for the good thief and for us. Now the robber can die. Everything for which Jesus lived and died has now been given to him in an instant, he just asks for it and it is given. Everything for which Jesus lived, suffered and died belongs to this man in just an instant for the asking; because he asked in love.
Together with Jesus he will go to meet the Father and the Holy Spirit. For the good thief one thing alone is necessary, to meet the Father, to love Jesus. To meet the Father is to gain everything we can hope for; to meet the Father is to gain everything we can love and believe in. The thief is one of the eleventh hour workers, who is the first to receive his reward. At the very eleventh hour of his life he enters into the master’s servant, and he is the first, that day, to receive the reward of heaven.
And lest we say: "This is not fair, it is not fair that he receive so great a reward with just a few words, and a few moments worth of love from his heart. I have worked all of my life to serve the Lord and to obey Him, it is not fair that Dismus on the eleventh hour receives the reward", or lest we say "What about his time in purgatory, he deserves thousands of years, how can God let him in one day?" Remember, lest you think this, remember that this very scene between Jesus and Dismus is repeated countless numbers of times when the Sacrament of the Dying, when the Sacrament of the anointing is received. How many people on their death bed lie before God and they pray as well: "Oh Jesus, may I be with You this day in paradise", and the priest takes the holy oils and he anoints their fevered foreheads, and through the Sacrament, Jesus on the cross says to them: "This day you will be with me in paradise."
To receive the Sacrament of the Dying is to receive the words of our Lord Jesus, His forgiveness, His assurance, His healing. Let us pray that the eleventh our of our life, when we face the hour of our death, that Jesus through the priest will come to us, and that we will be inspired in our weakness and approaching death to cry out: "Remember me when You come into Your kingdom." And then, at the touch of the holy oils, Jesus present in the Sacrament may say to us: "Today....Today! you will be with Me in paradise."

The third word:  "Son behold your mother, mother behold your son."
 
 

.........(Jesus) willed the suffering of the cross. From all eternity Jesus saw the cross on which He would hang, and He willed it so mankind could be reborn, saved, renewed and made children of God once more. Jesus’ suffering that He freely chose, His suffering is so fruitful that from His wounded side comes the Church and the life of the Sacraments. Jesus is like a woman in labor, and the birth pains of the cross bring forth a renewed humanity, bring forth the Church, bring forth the Sacraments which are our joy and our constant strength. Jesus’ suffering is so fruitful that it wins heaven for us. In the midst of the suffering, Jesus the Son, turns to His mother. Mary kneels at the foot of the cross. Thirty three years ago she said yes to the angel’s greeting, and that yes has been within her heart and her mind for thirty three years. And now that yes which reaches completion and bears full fruit, that yes is now the yes of becoming the mother of all the living, and the mother of the Church. Jesus presents to Mary His beloved disciple Saint John: "Woman, behold your son", John takes the place of the Lord, John now will stand at the side of the Blessed Virgin, and Mary doesn’t answer, Mary says nothing at all; she doesn’t need to, she answered her Son thirty three years ago with her perfect "yes". She knows her Son’s will, John is to be her son in the spirit, her Son speaks it and so she wills it. John is to be her son in the spirit, the fruit of her Son’s passion upon the cross. Her Son has spoken it, and so they will be bound together; the Blessed Virgin and Saint John are bound together with bonds of the cross and of the Son. And at the foot of the cross the Blessed Virgin and Saint John bound together form a new humanity. At the foot of the cross humanity is reborn. John will take up Jesus’ saving ministry, John will baptize, John will confirm, John will consecrate the Holy Eucharist, John will forgive sins and heal those who face their last hour. John assumes Jesus’ saving ministry and through him the sacramental life of the Church will feed and save all mankind for ever. And this restored humanity will be all sons and daughters of one mother. At the foot of the cross we see Mary as a new Eve, and John, in a sense, as the one who gives the Sacrament of life of the Church, is a new Adam from which comes the life of Christ Jesus upon a redeemed humanity.
At Jesus’ words Mary doesn’t say: "But my Son I prefer You!" Her yes thirty three years earlier places her perfectly under Jesus’ will, she obeys perfectly because she is the perfectly free one. In taking John she becomes a universal mother and she accepts anyone that her Son gives to her. Isn’t that wonderful!? She accepts anyone, even the likes of us, that the Son gives to her to be our mother.
The mother at the cross becomes the Mother of the Church for all eternity. The Holy Spirit overshadowed her thirty three years earlier, and at that overshadowing the Son took up His dwelling in her womb, and became her firstborn. Now the Holy Spirit dwells on her again, and from her comes the second born, the Church, a redeemed humanity of which she will be the mother. At the cross we see the Church born, and we see the structure of the Church that we see to this day. Jesus is head, Mary is mother, John is disciple and priesthood and we, the faithful receive this rich stream of grace which is our hope and our life. Jesus is Mary’s first born, we are her second born. We are children of Mary born by the blood and passion of her immaculate heart. So much the Father must love us, the mother of God has been made my mother, and Jesus my brother.

The fourth word: "My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?"

Jesus’ suffering on the cross grows more intense. A shadow comes over His eyes, the world begins to blur, His breath comes with greater and greater difficulty. He is slowly suffocating under the weight of His body. The thirst rages within Him and death comes nearer. Jesus suffers as a man who has chosen to embrace the cross, but also to share all the suffering of all humanity. Upon His dying shoulders every tear and sorrow and suffering of everyone who has ever lived bears its weight. He is suffering because of the sins of all, and because of this He can help all.
While Jesus hangs on the cross His Church on earth is still almost invisible. There is the Blessed Mother, there is Saint John, there is the Church, but it is so tiny still, it is so small, almost invisible. But this word "Why have You abandoned Me?" as all of His words are meant for the Church to form the Church for Her mission to fulfill the Father’s will. This word is for us, and so we listen carefully: "My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?" As death draws near the Father has forsaken Jesus, the Father has abandoned Jesus and He hangs upon the cross with no consolations from His Father. His Father is silent, and Jesus hangs between heaven and earth abandoned and forsaken; and you think: "Father, that’s not true, that can’t be true. The Father cannot abandon His Son, why do you even say this?" Remember what our Lord says: "Why have You abandoned Me?" Our Lord doesn’t say the words to shock us, they come from the depth of His heart: "Why (God) have You abandoned Me?" God forsakes Jesus His son on the cross. There is silence, He is alone and abandoned. "Why have You abandoned Me?" Jesus knows that He is forsaken, it is not His imagination. Like the escape goat led out into the desert carrying the sins of the people of Israel, like the escape goat led out into the desert to die alone, Jesus is led out of the city carrying our sins upon His head, He is nailed to a tree and left to die alone. His Father in heaven is silent and He is alone. But Jesus doesn’t know why He is abandoned, and again you say: "Father that can’t be possible, of course He knows why He was abandoned", but again why those words? "Why, why oh God have You abandoned me? Why? Why have You abandoned Me?" Those words are a cry from the depth of His heart: "Why Father have You abandoned me?" Only the Father in heaven  can give an answer to the cry: "Why?" But He is silent, heaven is closed and the Father is silent.
The words of Jesus are the words of one who has been stretched beyond human endurance, who can go no farther, this is the end of the road, and all that remains is Jesus’ unfailing desire, His hunger to do the will of the Father. His Father is silent, but the desire to do the Father’s will is perfect, stronger than His suffering is His desire to complete the mission He has received from the hands of His Father. Jesus our Lord can no longer hear His Father’s voice, but His mission remains. His desire to do the Father’s will remains, remains like a passion that is stronger than His suffering.
Part of Jesus’ mission is this abandonment. Our Lord Jesus is born of Mary to be crucified and to be abandoned by the Father. The Son of God is to be abandoned; Jesus knows that it is the Father who has abandoned Him, but He does not know why. The pain and desolation that He suffered for each of us that we might now what a terrible thing it is to be without God; to be deprived of the Father’s consolation.
They "why" of Jesus becomes the "why" of every Christian. The mother who loses her child cries "why have You abandoned me?" The elderly one who has lost their spouse with whom they have spent a life time cries out "why?" The person who looks at their life’s work and sees that nothing is lasting cries out "why oh Father?" The parent who sees their children leave the holy faith, leave the sight of Jesus in disbelief cry out "why? Why have You abandoned me?" But in the middle of our dark nigh we do not cry out alone "why" Jesus has already done it for us on the cross. God carries not only our sin, but He carries our abandonment, He carries our desolation, He carries our discouragement, every "why" that we utter to God Jesus has already cried out "why" He carries our sin, our abandonment. The Father asks Jesus that day as He hangs on the cross. The Father asks Jesus His Son to bear the unbearable. He dies in abandonment so that we do not have to. Jesus dies in abandonment so that He will be the last one born of woman to die in abandonment. Jesus receives no answer from the Father to the "why" of His question. Why does He receive no answer? He doesn’t receive the answer but the Church does. It is the Church which is born at the cross which receives the Father’s answer, Jesus Himself is the answer and He walks with us until the end of times. Jesus becomes the abandoned one so that we do not have to be. He is the forsaken One so that we will never be forsaken. He is the one that bears our death so that we will not die eternally. He cries out "why", and in the silence the Church is born and the Church receives the answer, and the answer is Jesus Christ crucified.
When the Church looks upon Christ Jesus we see the open side of the forsaken One, and from the lanced side comes the rich sacramental life of the Church. In those moments that Jesus was abandoned and forgotten He purchased for us the grace of never being forgotten by God.
Jesus, abandoned One, forsaken by the Father, crying out in agony, no one can ever say that God does not know what a heart suffers in abandonment. No one can ever say "God does not understand", for You are the abandoned One, and when I look upon You I receive the truth and the answer to my "why". When I look at You, I now know, that God the Father will always remember me.