Each account of the Passion of Lord is dramatic and draws on what the Jewish people knew best – the psalms. For most of us, I suspect we know of just a few psalms some of which we can recite from memory such as the 23rd psalm we might pray when we are scared or threatened. The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack…Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me.
Jesus knew the psalms quite well. After all, he was Jew, and the Jewish people’s deepest feelings were and still are given voice through the psalms that can be chanted or sung. We Catholics do the same, although most of us have shortchanged ourselves by giving the 150 psalms little attention except for our Music Director, Donny Nolan, who has arranged music for well over 100 psalms.
The different Passion accounts provide many examples of how the psalms became the foundation on which the followers of Jesus built their own remembrances of his passion, and of their own suffering as well. The psalms expressed their feelings and emotions such as fear, despair, longing, and hope.
Psalms teach us by example and show us, “I’ve been there; that has happened to me; and this is how I made it through.” The psalms have great power, and they can be our refuge when we are in distress such as when we feel crucified through our pain and suffering or the pain and suffering of those we love.
Clearly, Jesus was in great and terrible distress on that cross after having been whipped and cursed. Nailed through his hands and feet to the wood of the cross, his agony must have been intense and excruciating. He appeared to use the psalms to help him deal with his agony. For example, just before he died, we believe he said, “I thirst.” His words were from psalm 69 that reads in part: “Insult has broken my heart, and I despair; I looked for compassion, but there was none, for comforters, but found none. Instead, for my thirst they gave me vinegar.” The Passion accounts tell us that was what he was given, and on a sponge.
How many of us here today or watching live stream are burdened by insults that have broken our hearts, and we despair. How many of us look for compassion, but there is none; for comforters, but we find none? We thirst for that, like Jesus. But, we have been given vinegar, like Jesus.
How does Jesus quench our thirsts? He reminds us from the cross about what he said during his ministry. For example, he promised the Samaritan woman at the well: “…whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.” Through Jesus we drink from his fount of water and receive the promise of eternal life – eternal love – through his life and sacrifice.
Finally, the Passion of the Lord, according to John, ends with: “When Jesus had taken the wine. He said, ‘It is finished.’ And bowing his head, he handed over his spirit.” In a previous scene with the woman at the well, Jesus told his disciples: “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work."
Therefore, when Jesus said: “It is finished,” we can assume he meant he finished his Father’s work. He became our suffering servant. He became our Savior – the Savior of the world, on whom we constantly call to be just that. He might also have meant that other things were finished: his persecution, betrayal, abandonment, pain, and suffering – his life.
Are we finished? Have we become what Jesus asks us to be: kind, loving, tolerant, understanding, compassionate, forgiving…happy? Have we become saviors for other people offering them forgiveness and support? And happiness?
If we can say “yes,” then before we bow our heads and give up our spirits when we cross our own finish lines at the hour of our deaths, we hope we will be able to say: “We did our best to do God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.”
Deacon David Pierce
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