2009 PASSIONIST CHARISM RESOURCES - Passionists
2009 PASSIONIST CHARISM RESOURCES - Passionists
2009 PASSIONIST CHARISM RESOURCES - Passionists
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6. It is finished<br />
(John 19:30)<br />
THE WORD OF TRIUMPH<br />
There is a kind of timelessness about hanging on the cross. It is not a quiet death, over in<br />
an instant to one glorious moment of martyrdom like being town apart by lions. A cross is<br />
as much an instrument of torture as it is a gallows from which to hang.<br />
And as the day wears on seconds stretch into minutes which stretch into hours until there<br />
comes a point when time can no longer be measured except in the gradual weakening of<br />
the body and its ever more insistent demands for the substance which is so vital to life, so<br />
foundational to all living things, so basic to existence as we know it – water.<br />
Water to moisten the parched mouth, water to free a swollen tongue, water to open a<br />
rasping throat that cannot gasp enough air, water to keep hope alive, to keep life alive just<br />
a few moments longer. Water, to a crucified man, is life.<br />
SCRIPTURE<br />
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,<br />
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world<br />
that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might<br />
have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but<br />
that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:14-17)<br />
REFLECTION<br />
The solders give Jesus what they have, some sour old vinegar. It probably tasted<br />
disgusting but it is what poor soldiers drank and so they shared it. They could not affaord<br />
decent wine. Jesus accepts what they have to offer. At the feeding of the five thousand,<br />
Jesus asked the disciples what they had to give to the crowd, and they reply, “Just five<br />
loaves and two fish.” It is not much. It is all that they have and so it is enough. Faced with<br />
our hungry world, with millions who are starving, we may not feel that we have much to<br />
give. If we give what we have, then it will be enough.<br />
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