Sixth of a seven-part series
“IT is finished.”
Those words from Christ on the cross in the Gospel of Saint John — the sixth of the Seven Last Words contemplated on Good Friday — declare the fulfillment of his redeeming sacrifice, told by the Apostle Paul in the March 29 Palm Sunday second Mass reading from his Letter to the Philippians (Phil: 2:6–11):
“Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Expiring after that gasping line, Jesus completed the very act of obedience summed up by Paul to Christians in ancient Philippi. Thus, will the faithful ponder during Good Friday reflections on Christ’s final words on Calvary, like the noontime contemplations at the Santuario de San Jose Parish in Greenhills, with priests interpreting Scripture, sharers telling stories and soloists offering songs.
Zillionaire zeroed
Yet that epistle to the Philippians hardly conveys the unimaginable magnitude of Jesus’ acceptance and accomplishment of his Father’s plan. Nothing written or imagined presents the full reality of God’s Second Person “coming in human likeness” to die crucified. We see more in the Palm Sunday Gospel readings, alternating among the Passion accounts of Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke in the three Church liturgical years.
Yet even combining inspired Scripture with countless films of Jesus’ agonies and execution misses the immensity of what he went through when “he emptied himself” and became one of us.
Imagine a zillionaire owning everything on the planet and wielding all the might of every movie superhero and global superpower. He casts aside all wealth and wherewithal, starts life among animals and hides abroad to escape murderous troops. After three years of preaching and healing come the beating, scorning, scourging, thorning and finally nailing on a cross.
Yet even imaginings of mammoth power and wealth swapped for poverty and persecution fail to convey what Christ “finished” on Calvary. For no earthly mind can conceive the collapse from Creator to creature, omnipotent to impotent, God to goner.
Responsorial Psalm 22 (Ps 22:8–9, 17–20, 23–24) highlights a minuscule bit of Jesus’ obedient plunge. The opening line lamenting abandonment, which Christ crucified also mouthed, manifests the chasm God allowed to intrude into His eternal oneness with His co-eternal Son and Logos or Word, expressed the opening of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
In sum, the Second Person of the divine Trinity feels forsaken by the First with Whom the Son has been forever. The separation comes amid Jesus’ agonies prophesied by the Psalm: extremities pierced, garments wagered over, and his Messiahship — the very mission for which he set aside his divinity — mocked by the mob taunting him to come down from the cross.
Yet Jesus stays true to the bitter, bloody end, as the Psalm ends: “I will proclaim your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you...”
What was Satan thinking?
Jesus did the same in the third temptation in the desert recounted on the First Sunday of Lent (Mt 4:1–11). When offered “all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,” our Lord said: “Get away, Satan! It is written: ‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.’”
But really, the tempter didn’t pitch much of a come-on. Nothing earthly can impress the Son of God “through whom all things were made,” as intoned in the Nicene Creed at Mass. What was Satan thinking? Did he really expect the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity to prefer even the whole world to his Father’s kingdom in heaven?
Yet Satan wasn’t done, as told in Luke’s desert narrative (Lk 4:1–13): “And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him (Jesus) until an opportune time.” It came before and during our Lord’s Passion. “Satan entered into Judas, [who] conferred with the chief priests and captains how he might betray” Jesus (Lk 22:3–4).
Even the leader of the Apostles was not spared. Jesus warned him: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren” (Lk 22:31–32).
In the Palm Sunday Gospel reading from Matthew, Christ again warned his Apostles, slumbering as he prayed at Gethsemane (Mt 26:41): “Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Satan’s strongest assault was the Passion and Death itself, wanting Jesus to lose faith and obedience toward God, as Adam and Eve did. In Gethsemane, our Lord did express a wish to “let this cup pass from me,” but still obeyed.
What tested him most may have been not his agonies, but those suffered by people dearest to him: his mother Mary, his Apostles, even future Christians facing martyrdom, as some saints and theologians believe Jesus foresaw.
Plus: the very many souls swayed by devils to reject God’s saving grace and mercy, throwing away the salvation Christ died for. That’s the most bitter cup.
So be warned: by stealing souls, especially the devout, the devil pains God the most, Whom he could never otherwise hurt, and makes His Son’s sacrifice fail with every soul in hell.
Our Lord finished the mission for which he let go of eternity, infinity and immortality. Let us pray no soul wastes this greatest act of God, but fulfill His plan to redeem us all.
And more than pray, may we share in Christ’s redeeming mission by showing the way for others to also battle the sin and selfishness for which God had to make divine expiation, and by enduring life’s pains as Jesus did. Amen.
