Sixth Friday of Lent: two little words

Growing up, learning my manners, I remember being exhorted to remember “the two little words”: “Thank you”, advice which has served me well over the years, training me not to allow the kindness of others towards me, in whatever form, to go unacknowledged. I’d like to share two more “little words” that I’ve found fruitful to carry with me as I meditate on Christ’s Passion, and especially as I enter each year into the sacred celebrations of Holy Week. At the last supper, Jesus offered up His Body and Blood in sacrifice “for you” (see Luke 22:19). I allow those two little words to echo in my own heart: for me … Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection … for me.

The Gospel accounts of Christ’s Passion give us seven sayings or seven “words” that Jesus spoke from the Cross, and I hear the “for you” spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper re-echoed there. When He says the two words, “I thirst”, I ponder how He thirsts not simply for water but for me, for my salvation, for my love, my comfort.  Even more poignantly, however, I hear Jesus’ “for you” in the words He addresses to the Good Thief.

In prayer, I put myself on Calvary. I draw close to Jesus as He hangs on the Cross, gazing on Him with the eyes of my heart. I behold the way we treated Him, all that we did to Him … His suffering is horrendous … He suffers because of my sins, and it is atrocious. Jesus is meek and silent and determined, letting all this evil and hatred come upon Him. Yet, when I draw close to Him, in His eyes, in His heart, there is love: He wants me. That’s what “for me” means: it means He wants me, and this is the price He is willing and eager to pay for His Bride. Each one of us, each soul, is called to be the bride of Christ, that is, united with Him in perfect love. From His perspective, this is a love story. On Calvary, I see sin and evil and suffering; I feel ashamed. He sees me, He gazes upon me like He did on the Good Thief, and He feels so much love and mercy and pity. I say to Him with my heart broken, “My Jesus, I am a sinner. My sins cause you all this unimaginable agony. I did this to You …” And He says, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” He says that to the convicted criminal beside Him in response to a glimmer of faith; He says it to me. He says it with delight: for Jesus, this is what the Cross is all about: “You will be with me in paradise.”

               There are times when I can especially identify with the Good Thief — when I’m in a time of darkness and suffering, when I feel like I’m fastened to the Cross with Jesus. I feel this way especially when I am painfully aware that the suffering I’m going through is the result of poor choices and mistakes I myself have made. In these times most of all, when I reach out to Him with confidence, Jesus says to me, “This day you will be with me in paradise.” Through His Cross and Resurrection, yes, He will bring me to everlasting life if I accept the gift of His mercy. But the life He so eagerly won for me is not delayed till the joy of eternal heavenly bliss in the next life. No, He won abundant life for me even now.

This day He wants me to be with Him: in the sanctuary of my heart, where He dwells with the Father and the Holy Spirit through the grace of Baptism; in Eucharistic Adoration and Communion, where He abides with me in His very Flesh and Blood; indeed, in Paradise, where, mystically one with Him through Baptism, I already dwell with Him in the Bosom of the Heavenly Father.  He invites me today into the Paradise of His love, His mercy, His freedom, His communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit. This is Jesus’ will, His eager desire, this is His “for you”.

And my meditation on Christ’s “for you” … for me, brings me back to those “two little words” learned in my childhood manners.

Jesus, my Savior, my Love, my God …. Thank You!