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    Seven Last Words: An Invitation to a Deeper Friendship with Jesus
    Seven Last Words: An Invitation to a Deeper Friendship with Jesus
    Seven Last Words: An Invitation to a Deeper Friendship with Jesus
    Ebook91 pages1 hour

    Seven Last Words: An Invitation to a Deeper Friendship with Jesus

    By James Martin

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    About this ebook

    “Spiritually rewarding and uplifting.” — Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York

    New York Times bestselling author and editor at large of America magazine Father James Martin reveals how we can turn to Christ completely in mind, heart, and soul. Martin offers a portrait of Jesus, using his last words on the cross to reveal how deeply he understood our predicaments and shows us what it means to be fully human.

    Each meditation is dedicated to one of the seven sayings:

    • “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
    • “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
    • “Woman, this is your son”  . . .  “This is your mother.”
    • “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
    • “I thirst.”
    • “It is finished.”
    • “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

    With the warmth, wisdom, and grace that infuse his works, Father James Martin explains why Jesus’s crucifixion and death on the cross is an important teaching moment in the Gospels. Jesus’s final statements, words that are deeply cherished by his followers, exemplify the depth of his suffering but also provide a key to his empathy and why we can connect with him so deeply.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateFeb 2, 2016
    ISBN9780062431394
    Author

    James Martin

    Rev. James Martin, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, editor at large of America magazine, consultor to the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, and author of numerous books, including the New York Times bestsellers Jesus: A Pilgrimage, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and My Life with the Saints, which Publishers Weekly named one of the best books of 2006. Father Martin is a frequent commentator in the national and international media, having appeared on all the major networks, and in such diverse outlets as The Colbert Report, NPR's Fresh Air, the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.  Before entering the Jesuits in 1988 he graduated from the Wharton School of Business.

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      Book preview

      Seven Last Words - James Martin

      DEDICATION

      For all who have ever felt confused,

      abandoned, or alone.

      CONTENTS

      Dedication

      Foreword

      Introduction: The Seven Last Words

      1. Jesus Understands the Challenge of Forgiveness

      2. Jesus Understands Doubts About the Afterlife

      3. Jesus Understands a Parent’s Love

      4. Jesus Understands Feelings of Abandonment

      5. Jesus Understands Physical Pain

      6. Jesus Understands Disappointment

      7. Jesus Understands Self-Offering

      Conclusion: The Understanding Christ

      Acknowledgments

      Notes

      Also by James Martin

      Copyright

      About the Publisher

      FOREWORD

      At the time of this writing, St. Patrick’s Cathedral is undergoing its first full-fledged restoration and renovation since its construction in 1858. As I sat in the cathedral on Good Friday in the midst of this physical renewal of our beloved cathedral, I listened to Father Martin’s reflections on the Lord’s Seven Last Words, grateful for the spiritual renewal he was bringing to the faithful assembled in prayer on this most solemn day of the church year.

      I trust you will find these reflections as spiritually rewarding and uplifting as I.

      —Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan

      Archbishop of New York

      May 13, 2015

      Year of Consecrated Life

      INTRODUCTION

      The Seven Last Words

      When I mentioned to a friend that I had been invited to preach the Seven Last Words at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, her reaction was not surprising: "The seven last what?"

      Although prayer services centering on the Seven Last Words began, by some accounts, as early as the sixteenth century, many devout Christians are not familiar with the tradition. So a little background may be in order.

      The Seven Last Words are the seven last sentences, or phrases, or sayings, uttered by Jesus as he hung on the cross on Good Friday, at least as recorded in the Gospels. (There may have been others that were not recorded.)

      Traditionally, they are ordered as follows:

      Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34)

      Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise. (Luke 23:43)

      My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46)

      Woman, here is your son. . . . Here is your mother. (John 19:26–27)

      Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. (Luke 23:46)

      I am thirsty. (John 19:28)

      It is finished. (John 19:30)

      A quick glance at that list shows that Jesus speaks one time in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, three times in Luke, and three times in John. So the first question people often ask about the Seven Last Words is: Given the importance of these utterances, why doesn’t each phrase appear in every Gospel? Indeed, if we treat Matthew and Mark as a unity (since Matthew probably drew upon Mark’s Gospel), no saying in any of the Gospels appears in the others.¹ Why not?

      To answer that, it’s helpful to understand something about the New Testament. So let me offer a brief précis of the development of the Gospels.

      The writing of the Gospels took place in several stages.² The first was Jesus’s actual public ministry, which began roughly around 30 AD. Next came the oral tradition, when stories of what Jesus said and did were passed along orally, from person to person. During this period, there would have been little need for a written record: Jesus’s apostles, disciples, followers, and other eyewitnesses were around to offer firsthand accounts of their encounters with him. For some episodes there would have been many witnesses; for others, a small number; for a few, just one.³ But there was no need for books when you had eyewitnesses. Besides, many of the early disciples could neither read nor write.

      Even at this early stage, you can see the likelihood that differences would arise among the various oral traditions. To begin with, not all eyewitnesses would describe an event in precisely the same way. Each would stress one thing or another, depending on what each deemed important. Already we can see how variations could creep into the story of Jesus, which helps to answer the question of why the Gospels don’t always agree with one another and, in this case, why all of the Seven Last Words aren’t included in every Gospel.

      After the original witnesses died (and it became clear that Jesus would not, as some expected, return soon), the next stage began. This required the editorial work of those who compiled the Gospels for the early church, known as the evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.⁴ Over time, the church settled on these four books as the approved, or canonical, Gospels because of their widespread use, theological orthodoxy, and association with the apostles.⁵

      Each evangelist wrote for a different audience and so stressed different parts of the story, perhaps leaving out what another writer would deem important or adding passages that another writer would consider less significant. This also helps to explain the selection of some of Jesus’s sayings from the cross and the omission of others. Moreover, some of the sayings of Jesus from the cross may have been known to one evangelist, but perhaps not to the others.

      Three of the Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke—are intertwined. Although there are competing theories about how they are connected, it is clear that they are. Most scholars think that Mark’s Gospel came first and that the evangelist

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