The 7 words of Christ from the cross: 1) Father forgive them
7 words for 7 days
The seven words of Christ from the Cross.
1)
Father forgive them because they do not know what they do.
We take
this sentence from the Gospel of Luke, the gospel of Mercy, so it is
normal that the first sentence said by Jesus from the cross is a word
of mercy, a word of forgiveness. Let us remember what he had just
suffered the previous few hours: The betrayal of his “friend”
Judah, the arrest, the accusations, the crowd shouting “Crucify
Him”, the scourging, the coronation with thorns, the mocking, the
climbing to Calvary carrying the cross, the nails and again the
mocking; and he answers “Father forgive them because they do not
know what they are doing”. He is not talking to them, he is not
trying to explain, he is not trying to convert; he speaks now
directly to his Father, the righteous judge as a defending lawyer
would do in court to plead for his client whom he knows is guilty.
“They do not know what they are doing”. It is true. They thought
they were killing a blasphemer and a political “hazard”, and they
were afraid of the revenge of the Romans and of God, and to do so
they sold themselves to the Romans. But one thing they achieved,
indeed: They are now spared from God's anger because by their own sin
God can now show his merciful self, the strength of his mercy, of his
love. They did not understand that, nor they do now, but God's mercy
is far bigger than their ignorance, their fears, their stubbornness.
Didn't
He say: Love your enemy? He is consistent with his teaching and now
they are not anymore his enemies. They are his friends and he is
their “defender”. He now loves them more than anyone else because
they are those most in need of his mercy.
God
gives us his forgiveness, even though we do not deserve it, and even
if we do not look for it. He gives it freely, it is up to us now to
take it or not.
We are
his followers: are we able to forgive?are we able to find reasons in
favour of our “enemies”? How many times do we say sentences like:
“It is his fault”, “ he does it purposely, he always does”,
“He is always against me!, and thousand more words which show that
we are unwilling to forgive, unwilling to accept the other, unable to
see what is good in him, to see Christ in him. Yes, Christ is inside
each one of us, even the greatest sinner, especially the greatest
sinner. Christ died on the cross for all and all he wants saved. It
is neither a “Human reason” which will save us, nor our false
“Rights” but the strength of forgiveness, the strength of love,
the only thing able to make us like Christ and Christ on the Cross.
From
the words of St. Luigi Orione: “Souls! Souls! Christ
died for all of them, Christ wants them
all safe in His arms and in His wounded Heart. … I see only a
heaven, a heaven that is truly divine, because it is the heaven of
salvation and true peace: I see only a kingdom of God, the kingdom of
charity and forgiveness, where the whole multitude of peoples is the
inheritance of Christ and the kingdom of Christ.”