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The Christ’s seven words on the cross  
   
There is a long tradition among the Christians to meditate the words of Christ on the cross. Some music composers, such as Joseph Haydn, built oratorios around them to be played in the churches during the Passion liturgy time. Each of the four evangelists mentions one or the other of these words pronounced by Jesus. Seven words altogether, a symbolic figure as a sign of completion, as if the Saviour is entirely there, his life, his message, the accomplishment of his mission. They are brief words: a crucified man does not do long speeches, but what he says sounds true and comes from the deepest of his heart.  
   
In Mathew and Mark, a single word, a question to God, just before dieing at the ninth hour of the day. In Luke two words of forgiveness one during the nailing on the cross and another one of confidence before the last breathe.  
   
John recalls that he was beloved by Jesus and he received Mary as his mother in becoming her son. All along the description of the Passion, John insists on the link between what was going on and its announcement in the Scriptures: “In order that all was written by the Scriptures be accomplished, Jesus said: I am thirsty”  
   
By looking more carefully to these words, we are stricken by some major points:  
   
Christ en croix First the link between Jesus and his Father: in his prayer at the beginning of the crucifixion and at the moment to pass away, he spoke to his Father: this underlines that his long agony on the cross is under the sign of a dialogue with God, his Father. Already in Gethsemane in the anguish of what is going to come, he was saying: “Father, not what I want but what you want”
(Luke, 22, 42).
 
   
Then two words of forgiveness: in the course of this prayer at the beginning, Jesus thought about those who were planting the nails into his feet and his hands: “Father forgives them…” and he found an excuse for this barbaric action: “they don’t know what they are doing!” (Luke 23, 34). Peter will recall this later during his speech in the Temple: ”I know well that you have acted in ignorance, you and your chiefs” (Act 3, 17). Without ignoring our human free will, is not it true for each person committing evil? Can this person really know every thing about his action? This does not weaken the grandeur of the act of forgiveness of Jesus. During his teaching of the beatitudes he was reaching the summit of love in the forgiveness towards the enemies: he did apply what he had preached.  
   
On the cross, Jesus did not answer back to the criminal who was trying to provoke him, neither to the great priests and the crowd insulting him:” Get down from the cross!” But to the other criminal of good will who was asking help from Jesus, he answered him with all his determination:” Today, with me, you will be in the paradise” (Luke 23, 43).  
   
He had a word for his mother and for his followers: “Near the cross his mother was standing... (John 19, 25). To his mother, watching her son die, Jesus asked her to take now and then John, his beloved disciple, as her son. Here John represents all the people, as a new family, who will follow Jesus in the future: ”Woman this is your son”
(John, 19, 26).
femme, voici ton fils
 
   
And Jesus entrusted his mother to John: ”This is your mother” (John 19, 27). From now and then, the disciple took her with him to his home. On the Calvary, John was not alone; his own mother, “the mother of the sons of Zebedee”, was there with other women and was “looking in the distance” (Mathew, 27, 54). Close to him was Mary.  
   
Two words of suffering: a moral suffering, an unbearable feeling to be abandoned and the absence of God: “God, God, why did you abandoned me?” (Mathew 27, 46). It is the beginning of Psalm 21, the first part of which is a cry of grief as anticipating the Saviour on the Cross.  
   
A physical suffering summarized by the cry ”I am thirsty” (John 19, 28), the man having lost his blood, all his body is in fire…  
   
Two words of appeasing: “ All is accomplished” (John 19, 30). Jesus has achieved the work given to him by the Father. His mission ended with a total paradox for some body that came to save his brothers: he made them free by giving his life. He is really the Messiah as described and promised in the book of the Prophets and in the psalms; although Israel was waiting for a triumphant political hero.  
   
tout est accompli “Father, in your hands I confide my spirit”
(Luke 23, 46). Jesus confided his breath to the One who was able to give it back to him: “Yes my body will be secure…you cannot abandoned my soul in the realm of the dead” in Psalm 15.
 
   
When the disciple receives these words, he can only keep a silence filled with wonder.