Listening to the Words from the Cross

My God, my God why did you abandon me?

Lord Jesus, you knew the pain of abandonment –
of being forsaken by the one you knew as your Father.
When you needed help – no-one came in glory and power to relieve your agony.
You were alone –
you were in pain –

All seemed lost…

God of all mercies –
in that moment of abandonment,
Jesus entered the experience of all who feel that you have forsaken them –
of all who are angry and in the depths of despair.
If your Son felt so abandoned, how much more do your human children –
especially those who have been hurt by one they trusted as a father – as a friend.
Teach us to trust the One who entered such depths –
and who still enters those places of darkness and abandonment –
to touch – to heal – and to lead to hope and trust –
the light of new dawn lived in you.

Father, forgive them – they do not know what they are doing.

Lord Jesus, how did you do this?
As you were stripped and humiliated –
how could you forgive?
As your hands and your feet were nailed to a cross –
how could you forgive those who did it to you?
As you died – hearing people gloating – mocking – ridiculing your helplessness –
how could you forgive them?

God of all mercies,
your Son offers an example that is often too hard for us to follow.
We cannot forgive as he did –
for the pain is so deep…
And yet, our inability to forgive,
holds us bound to those who have hurt us.
Heal our hearts – our minds – our bodies and our souls –
so that we can learn from the One you sent to teach us about forgiveness.

Today you will be with me in Paradise.

At the end, he snatched heaven.
He knew he had done wicked things –
and there, at the end, he repented and sought forgiveness.
And you, Lord, knew that it was genuine –
and promised a convicted criminal Paradise.

God of mercy –
it is hard for us to accept genuine repentance –
and often hard for us to tell the true from the false.
For some, it is hard to know whether their own repentance is real.
Teach us discernment –
and give us the courage to act as it directs.
Grant repentance to those who have hurt the little ones close to your heart –
show them the evil that has been at work within them –
and heal them –
and bring them home.

Father! Into your hands I commend my spirit!

Lord Jesus, you emptied your soul into oblivion.
You did not know where your Father was.
Your being was assaulted by pain and anguish of mind and body –
yet you trusted.

God of all mercies,
we do not feel you in the extremities of our pain –
we are afraid to trust that you are there when all else has failed.
For some – to call you Father is to evoke fear and revulsion.
Heal their hearts, minds and souls
so that they may learn that you are worthy of the name –
that in you is found only kindness, tenderness –
infinite love and compassion.

He is your son…. she is your mother

Lord Jesus, you were part of a Holy Family –
we sense that all was well for you –
so well that you could not bear the thought of your mother trying to survive alone…
so well that you could not bear the thought of the one friend who remained loyal trying to survive alone…
and so even at the point of death –
you created a new family.

God of all mercies,
you created families to be the place in which your human children could be brought to fulfilment –
yet for some it is a place of pain –
of damage –
of lost hope.
Redeem our vision of your dream for the human family –
as a place of safety and love –
where the weak are protected –
cherished and made whole.

I am thirsty

Lord Jesus, your life ended with thirst –
a physical thirst as your life-blood drained away –
a thirst for the presence of the Father –
a thirst for a final sign of love –
a thirst to know that it had all been worthwhile –
and you died thirsty.

God of all mercies,
the Word through whom you parted the waters and created vast oceans
died with lips parched with thirst;
the One who rose from the waters of the Jordan to be greeted as your Beloved Son
died without the favour of water to moisten his mouth.
So many thirst today – not just for water –
but for love – for purification –
for refreshment and cleansing.
Pour your waters upon us anew –
that we may drink deeply of your love –
your cleansing forgiveness –
your life-giving waters
hallowed from the beginning of time.

It is finished!

Lord Jesus,
at the end –
at the very end –
you claimed all to be finished –
accomplished.
Your agony was transformed into something new –
your defeat gave way to new kind of victory –
such as the world had only glimpsed before –
where the power of God
was made known in absolute weakness.

God of all mercies,
most of us are far from the place where all is finished or accomplished.
We cannot imagine victory coming from our defeat –
or hope rising from the ashes of our despair.
Teach us to belief in hope beyond hope –
life beyond death –
to know that the cause of all this pain is sin –
but all shall be well…
one day, all shall be gathered
and all manner of thing shall be well.