[.ca] The Seven Last Words From The Cross (ISBN 0802827861)

Holy words...:
The Seven Last Words from the Cross come from the various pieces in the gospel stories of the crucifixion. They are, according to the King James Version, as follows: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' (Luke 23:34) 'Verily I say unto thee, today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.' (Luke 23: 43) 'Woman, behold thy son! ... Behold thy mother!' (John 19:27) 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' (found in Mark 15: 34 and Matthew 27:46, also in Psalm 22:1) 'I thirst.' (John 19:28) 'It is finished.' (John 19:30) 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.' (Luke 23:46, also Psalm 31) Fleming Rutledge, a priest in the Episcopal church, has developed this small book based on meditations on these seven words from Jesus. These are statements that have been used as inspiration for meditation and works of art in the many centuries since the time of the crucifixion, and remain inspiring texts to this day. Rutledge developed these as meditations for the Three Hours of Good Friday, and delivered them in churches in Columbus, Georgia in 2002 and Boston, Massachusetts in 2003. Such services on Good Friday usually involve hymns; Rutledge has incorporated stanzas from various hymns to give the reader a fuller sense of the services. However, these reflections stand alone very well. Rutledge is skillful at incorporating the modern with the ancient, the timely with the timeless. Through it all, she relates the crucifixion with honesty and detail to the our lives. Her method is fairly inductive; however, it tends to start and end with the words of Jesus. Rutledge makes the claim that we are in the grip of something we cannot fully comprehend, but that the prayers of Jesus, even as he was undergoing humiliation and degradation on the cross, reach something deep inside of us even to this day, and pierce through the darkness in ways that no other event could do. Rutledge relates the aspects of the individual gospels as well as the collective memories - for example, all four gospellers recall that Jesus was crucified among thieves, common criminals; on the other hand, not all gospellers record the same words, so the fullness of the seven words comes from taking all the stories together, even in the paradox of our sometimes difficult task in reconciling the events as recorded. Perhaps the most beautiful aspects of Rutledge's work are when she gives her personal memories, or personal stories shared by others. She recalls in the text that she had a particular theology professor who tragically lost his only son, his only child, at a relatively young age; the professor put to words his grief and task in life in terms of these statements of Jesus - we live our lives, he said, between 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me,' and 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.' On this Good Friday, may your spirit be blessed. Rutledge's book is a blessing during the passion, during Eastertide, and at any point in the year.