Margaret Bullitt-Jonas - Christs Passion, Our Passions: Reflections on the Seven Last Words from the Cross

Cloister Books are inspired by
the monastic custom of walking
slowly and reading or meditating
in the monastery cloister, a place
of silence, centering, and calm.
Within these pages you will find a
similar space in which to pray and
reflect on the presence of God.

Christs
Passion, Our
Passions

Reflections on the
Seven Last Words from the Cross

Margaret Bullitt-Jonas

2002 Margaret Bullitt-Jonas

All rights reserved

Published in the United States of America by Cowley Publications, a division of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any meansincluding photocopyingwithout the prior written permission of Cowley Publications, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles and reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Bullitt-Jonas, Margaret.

Christs passion, our passions : reflections on the seven last words from the cross / Margaret Bullitt-Jonas.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN: 978-1-56101-211-4

1. Jesus ChristSeven last wordsMeditations. I. Title.

BT457 .B85 2002

232.96'35dc21

2002155696

Scripture quotations are taken from the following:

New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Revised Standard Version of the Bible, 1952 (2nd edition, 1971) by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

King James Version of the Bible.

Cover design: Gary Ragaglia

This book was printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.

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This book was conceived in prayer and first delivered as a series of sermons. I am grateful to everyone who participated in the Good Friday service that was held at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul on March 29, 2002. I am indebted to the Dean of the Cathedral, John P. (Jep) Streit, who invited me to preach and suggested the sermons collective title, and to the Cathedrals Organist and Director of Music, Mark T. Engelhardt, who skillfully shaped the services flow of music, words, and silence. I want to thank my bishop, M. Thomas Shaw SSJE, for his warm response to the sermons and his suggestion that I offer them to Cowley Publications. Several friends and colleagues helped track down elusive facts: Nora Gallagher, Richard McCall, and my sister, Sister John Marie Bullitt, R.S.M. My agent, Beth Vesel, and her assistant, Emilie Stewart, were staunch allies. It was a pleasure and privilege to work with Kevin R. Hackett SSJE, a first-rate editor and a man of prayer.

For spiritual friendship along the way, thanks go to Nora Gallagher, Deborah Whiting Little, Ruth Redington, Janet Ruffing, R.S.M., Martin L. Smith, and to my mother, Sarah Doering, my brother, John Bullitt, and my sister, Sister John Marie Bullitt, R.S.M.

I am especially grateful to my son Sam and my husband, Robert A. Jonas, who endured the white-hot intensity with which these sermons were written during the course of Holy Week. My husband not only gave tireless and invaluable help as I wrestled with the intricacies of good theology and good writinghe also played shakuhachi at the Good Friday worship service. Through his end-blown Japanese flute, Jonas offered us an opportunity to be drawn into the mystery of the Holy One who transcends all words, however eloquently expressed.

Margaret Bullitt-Jonas

ADVENT, 2002

When someone we love is dying, we hang on every word. Is there something she needs? A secret he wants to disclose or some final message she wants to make? Often we probe these last words for years to come, pondering their meaning, struggling sometimes to come to terms with words uttered in anger, despair, or surprise. Im told that the most common last word of someone about to die from sudden accident or violence is a familiar expletive. Sometimes a persons last words are more ambiguous. Shortly before his death, Goethe reportedly said, More light! Was he registering a desire for wisdom, fear of the gathering darkness, or the sight of unexpected radiance? Sometimes a persons last words are unambiguously serene. The last thing Beethoven said before he died was I shall hear in heaven.

For generations, Christians have gathered at the cross of Christ to ponder his last words. We can probe Christs words in the same way we sometimes decipher the last words of our loved ones, testing their meaning, wondering what he intended to communicate. But we can also turn the exercise around, for in the end we come to the cross not to probe Christs words but to let them probe usto let them work on our minds and hearts as we take our next step toward union with God.

The seven last words of Jesusthe seven sentences that the Gospels record Jesus saying from the cross before he diedhave captured the imaginations of preachers and writers since at least 1618, when Cardinal Robert Bellarmine published The Seven Last Words Uttered by Christ on the Cross. They have inspired composers such as Heinrich Schtz, Franz Joseph Haydn, Theodore Dubois, and more recently James McMillan. They have nourished the personal meditation and prayer of countless seekers through the ages. And for more than three hundred years, Christians have gathered on Good Friday from noon until 3:00 PM to ponder them anew in a service that includes seven sermons, one for each word, interspersed with periods of silence, In both Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions, this devotion developed alongside the Proper Liturgy for Good Friday, which includes lessons and prayers, a ceremonial veneration of the cross, and Holy Communion from bread and wine consecrated the day before.

This book is based on the seven meditations that I preached on Good Friday, 2002, at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston, Massachusetts. Although I have edited and added material, I have made no effort to change the essential flavor of the words I spoke on the occasion for which they were originally intended. The congregation that gathered on that Good Friday shared an unusual sense of spiritual focus and urgency. This was the first Good Friday since September 11, a personal and national earthquake that shook us as decisively as the 1687 upheaval in Lima must have shaken the Jesuits. Like them, we needed to turn to the cross. We needed to draw close to Jesus, to listen to his words, to watch his actions, and to sense, if we could, the spiritual power that was released so many years ago at Golgotha and that continues to reverberate at the center of our lives.

Times of trouble and loss often intensify our search for God, and the quest for God eventually leads every Christian to the cross. The place where the Crucified One spoke his last words and breathed his last breath is the place where suffering and evil are met squarely by the love of God. At the foot of the cross we dont need to pretend that our suffering is not real. Nor need we fear that our suffering will overwhelm us. Because the cross is planted before us, we can finally open ourselves to the reality of suffering and evil: Here all suffering and evil are touched by Love. Here, through the grace of God, all suffering and evil are endured, absorbed, and transformed. Like a lightning rod, the cross of Christ draws all suffering and evil to itself and, neutralizing their power, grounds them in Love.