Today we meditate on the Cross—the focal yet most challenging aspect of our faith. It is always difficult to look upon the suffering of another, both because we feel each other’s pain and, frankly, because we might not know what to say. Jesus’ final words spoken from the cross specifically teach us the simple, graceful empathy with which we are called to relate to one another. Wasn’t it just like Jesus to choose to spend his waning energy to extend compassion, even as he endured unspeakable pain? Let’s review these phrases in preparation for hearing them sung.

In the first phrase, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34), the word “they” extends to everyone who has ever denied and deserted Jesus: Judas, Peter, his own people and their foreign oppressors, the soldiers, the criminal crucified beside him, his followers back then… and to us now, for every moment when we, too, have mistrusted, blamed, or simply forgotten about God.

What Jesus said to the other criminal—not the one who mocked him but the one who turned to him—rings of infinite mercy: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). The “two criminals” coexist within each of our hearts, and despite the darkness of today’s meditation, we know that God always thinks of us and welcomes us to eternal life. We, on the other hand, may at times wish to flee from him, just as Jesus’ friends did, despite having declared their readiness to lay down their lives for him.

Only two people were left standing at the foot of the Cross. For me, Mary’s presence is the hardest aspect of the Passion. Somehow it makes it more real that Jesus was once a boy, who had once been an infant; whose very human mother had once carried him in her womb, felt the first kicks, nursed, and cared for him through the years. Every mother spends years preparing to “lose” her children, yet we all hope that this loss will be to adulthood and independence, rather than a tragedy. Jesus’ own suffering must have been magnified by seeing his loved one’s sorrow, which moved him to remind them that they weren’t left alone: “This is your mother; this is your son” (John 19:26–27), even as he himself must have felt utterly lonely in his pain, despite their presence.

So much so that a familiar psalm came to his mind: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). We too, at times, return to familiar scriptures, prayers, or words of affirmation spoken to us whenever we feel alone, rejected, or forgotten. It is in these most lonely moments that we all thirst for love—again, like Jesus, who said, “I am thirsty” (John 19:28), meaning both physically and spiritually. Next time we take a refreshing sip of water, let’s reflect on it as a metaphor for love. And as we do so, may we remain mindful of all those in the world who thirst, where water is scarce and spiritual freedom is restricted.

As the Passion drama draws to a close, let’s consider: what aspects of our own lives right now feel complete, and which are unfinished? Dreams unfulfilled, marriages dissolved, children estranged or never conceived, jobs unattained… When Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30), he didn’t mean that all is lost—only that his life journey had ended and his purpose was thereby fulfilled. As for us, may we remember that for as long as we live, there is always still more to do in the roles and vocations that God has destined for us—regardless of circumstances, limitations, losses, and challenges. Jesus’ very final words were, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46), a quote from another psalm. Since in Psalm 31 these words are followed by the assertion, “for you have redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth” (v. 5), Jesus’ very last saying referred to a sense of vindication, not failure.

Above all, Jesus’ last words served as a compassionate reminder to those around him, and to all those who would reflect on his Passion in centuries to come, that self-sacrifice is the only way to overcome evil. Every day, we will notice someone who needs a simple, comforting presence—and even if we feel awkward, our little sacrifices of attention and overcoming social anxiety will go a long way. And whenever we find that we don’t know what to say, let’s think back to Jesus’ final words: acknowledgements of loneliness and need, words of forgiveness, promises of care and fulfillment, and reminders of God’s real presence with us, now and forever.

Amen.