In These Last Hours

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (Jn. 3:16). In these words, St. John the Theologian addresses us so that all of us, standing today in front of the Holy Shroud of our Lord, may see Him dead—the One Who gave life to each one of us. The Prophet Isaiah says that Christ was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed (Is. 53:5).

Throughout Holy Week, we have remembered the The Passion of ChristWe know that it was Divine will. But our heart—the human heart—remains as if unsatisfied: could there really not have been a single person with the resolve to say a kind word for the Lord before His judges, or testify in His defense?.. We are shocked by this spectacle of the ingratitude, blindness, madness, and cruelty of Christ’s contemporaries.

“>Passion of the Lord in the final minutes of His life so that our hardened hearts and souls, incapable of loving or of being kind and compassionate, may be softened by this remembrance, and we may hear the Lord’s voice: If ye love Me, keep My commandments (Jn. 14:15).

What does the Lord say as He goes to His voluntary Passion? How does He admonish His disciples, and through them all of us? But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted (Mt. 23:11-12). This means that we can find God only in the depths of humility, of our loving hearts, and ready to serve our neighbors. He who loves his brother loves God, but he who does not love God does not love his brother either (cf. 1 Jn. 4:20).

When a person’s life ends, we try to keep his final words, carefully fulfilling the will a human being has given to his fellow human beings. A hundred times more precious and important is the testament that God left behind in the Holy Scriptures—the living, effective and powerful Word of God that can heal our sinful, sick and self-loving souls.

What are the last words the Lord says on the Cross? At the third hour the Lord was crucified; the Sun was darkened, ashamed of the hard-heartedness and insanity of the creation that crucified its Creator, Who gave it this light, this life, this air, and brought everyone from non-existence into being. The Sun was ashamed, and the Earth shook, unable to bear the Lord’s Cross, and the graves of the saints of God opened, as we read in the Holy Scriptures, and many of them entered Jerusalem. The mighty power of God tore the Temple curtain in two to show that now the way into the Holy of Holies is open to man, and he is reconciled to God. The Apostle Paul tells us: Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father (Gal. 1:4). The people walking away from the Cross beat their breasts and lamented what would happen to them and their children for the shame they had inflicted on an Innocent Man. When they saw what had happened, they realized that the One they had crucified was no ordinary man. Pilate’s sign affixed to the Cross, “King of the Jews”, proves that He is indeed True God and True Man. Standing at the Cross and seeing death and suffering—all that is incomprehensible to us and a truly world-shaking event—the centurion exclaimed: Certainly this was a righteous Man (Lk. 23:47). This is how the one who just a moment before took a spear and pierced the Savior’s side so that Blood and water came out of it, came to believe in Christ, providing the whole world with streams of living water. And we partake of this Blood of the Lord. While performing the proskomedia and preparing everything necessary for the Liturgy, the priest incises the prosphora crosswise, takes a lance, and remembering these events, pierces the prosphora through with the words: “One of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side and immediately there came forth blood and water. And he who saw it bore witness, and his witness is true.” Then he takes the Chalice and pours wine and water into it, which, after the descent of the Holy Spirit during the prayer of the priest and the whole Church, will become the true Blood of our Lord, by consuming of which we partake of Eternal Life.

If we read the Holy Scriptures carefully, then in the Gospel of Luke we find the words that Christ said on the Cross: Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do (Lk. 23:34). With these words, the Lord instructs us to pray for our enemies. In the words of St. Ambrose of Milan, we should inscribe on copper the benefactions we receive from others, and on water the evil that others do to us—that we would not remember evil. We should be like the Lord Who forgave those who crucified Him on the Cross. Can we, who receive what we deserve for our sins, spew oaths and curses foolishly when others give us our due—that is, suffering for our sins? On the contrary, let us strive—at first only with words, and later maybe with our hearts—to say: Lord, forgive them; for they know not what they do. This prayer of faith for our enemies does not so much change the hearts of our enemies, or even those who simply don’t understand us, as it does our own hearts. Only when a person, with faithfulness to the will of God, blames himself for his troubles, failures and misfortunes, will his heart allow him to endure all suffering, slander, misunderstanding, and insults peacefully and patiently.

Through these words from the Cross, the Lord teaches all of us forgiveness and long-suffering. The Lord said to the penitent thief from the Cross: Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise (Lk. 23:43), thus showing that there is no gap between repentance and Paradise. Once a person resolves in his heart to abandon sin and love the truth, God’s truth and His holy commandments, he begins to feel Paradise in his heart.

One day a man was asked: “Where is God: In Heaven or on earth?” And he replied: “When a person lives in God, Heaven comes down to earth.” The Lord showed that repentance is all-powerful, that there is no sin that the Lord cannot forgive, and there is no abyss of fall from which it would be impossible to rise. St. John Chrysostom says that the angels do not fall; people fall and rise. Only the demons never rise after falling. We will not be condemned because we have fallen, but because we have not risen after falling. We must fully understand that God did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is greater joy in Heaven for one sinner who has repented than for ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent. The next words teach us to repent, to condemn ourselves without limits in order to inherit Paradise, eternity, and be with God. Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise (Lk. 23:43). These words should always live in our memory and help us walk the path of repentance.

When the Lord was nailed to the Cross, He suffered terrible torments, because His Divine nature was inseparable from His human nature. By His human nature, Christ suffered as a real Man. It did not alleviate His suffering at all because His Divine nature is united with His human nature. It was even more painful, because we are unable to stop our suffering by our human nature, but He could have stopped it by His Divine nature. As Christ Himself said, He could have asked His Father to send Him legions of angels in a moment, but He did not do this and suffered on the Cross voluntarily with all His being.

In those final moments, which are hard even to imagine, He turned to His Mother, pointing to His disciple John the Theologian: Woman, behold thy son, and said to His beloved disciple: Behold thy Mother (Jn. 19:26–27). With these words, the Lord showed how great His love was for mankind, for His Mother, for His disciple John the Theologian, and in him for all His disciples. At the final moment of His earthly life, He did not think about Himself, but about those who would be left without Him. He knew that His Mother would grow old and need care, and young John would need good guidance.

This is an inexhaustible lesson for all of us. When everything in our lives is fine, when we enjoy good health, money, and strength, then, in accordance with our Christian duty, we have the desire to help each other. But the Lord teaches us that even when we don’t have anything, when we can no longer truly serve our neighbor, even in those times we must preserve inner care and inner prayer. Don’t think only about your illness and old age, but take care to fulfill the commandment of love to the end—because sympathy and compassion alone can fill you with love.

We must pray to receive such power of love that will remain with us until the very end, even to the point of God-forsakenness, when each one of us will be tested. If the Lord went through this, then we too will inevitably experience these dreadful moments of the final trial, the name of which is death.

Being crucified, by His human nature the God-Man Jesus Christ felt the terrible moments of ordeal and temptation when He thought that God the Father had forsaken Him as a Man. In the final moments of Christ’s Passion, everything is said only about His human nature, as He cried out: My God, My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me? (Mt. 27:46; Mk. 15:34). These words indicate that He experienced terrible moments of loneliness. This is a reminder to us that we also must face the final struggle of death courageously. We need to prepare for it in advance. The Holy Fathers taught that we must not only live worthily, but more importantly, also die worthily. He who has lived in God, received the Holy Body and Blood of Christ, tried to cleanse his conscience in the sacrament of confession, and cared about union with Christ in this life, will find the only strength to endure this final ordeal in all of this. First of all, we must ensure that the last rites are administered to our loved ones at the end of their earthly lives, remembering that Communion especially gives the grace of the Holy Spirit.

With His fourth word, the Lord teaches us to have courage and to think about death in advance, in order to avoid the death of the soul and be united with God forever.

Addressing His Heavenly Father from the Cross, the Lord says: I thirst (Jn. 19:28). And the people around Him believed that He was talking about the thirst of human nature. According to St. Luke the Evangelist, they took a sponge, filled it with vinegar and offered Him to drink; another one says that they offered Him wine mixed with some narcotic substance that can dull and alleviate the suffering of those hanging on the Cross. This is how Roman legionaries showed “humanity” to their victims. Christ only tasted the vinegar-soaked sponge, but did not drink. The people interpreted His thirst as proceeding from human nature—but instead of water, they gave Him vinegar, which burns the mouth. The Lord tasted it, just as Adam once tasted the forbidden fruit. In place of Adam, Our Savior consumed gall with vinegar in order to eliminate the addiction to self-indulgence, sensuality, and everything that a carnal person sets as his goal. The Lord drinks gall with vinegar to eliminate the consequences of what Adam once partook of.

Christ says, I thirst—that is, “I thirst to fulfil the will of God”. When the disciples approached Christ as He was speaking with the Samaritan woman, they wondered if He had any food with Him, but He replied that His food was to fulfil the will of His Heavenly Father. They did not understand what He meant. Thus, His “thirst” was for the salvation of the human race, and for granting it eternal life, which it lost through its forefather Adam.

When Jesus therefore hat received the vinegar, He said, It is finished! (Jn. 19:30). The work of salvation, the redemption of the human race, was accomplished.

After these words, the Lord exclaims: Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit (Lk. 23:46), so that we may know how the life of an Orthodox Christian will end. A pious life in God will end in the soul’s passing into the hands of God, Who Alone will never forsake us. Only His hands can carry a person through the toll-houses and suffering, and it will never be cold, sad or painful on these Hands.

St. John the Theologian says: For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes (Rev. 7:17). The path of man is the cross, at the end of which unspeakable and everlasting joy awaits him. Into Thy hands I commend My spirit. Thus, the goal of our lives should be commending ourselves into God’s hands. The Holy Church reminds us of this every day during services: “Let us commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.” It reminds us of the purpose of our being—eternal life, joy, Divine Contemplation, and fullness of God’s love. We must strive for this throughout our lives.

People were beating their breasts as they walked away from the Cross, regretting what had happened. Likewise, we should be filled with the same feelings, looking at the Holy Shroud as an image of God’s love for every human being, an image of victory over death, an image of God’s co-crucifixion with this world, but also as hope—for there is no sin that cannot be forgiven by Divine love. The holy martyrs offered their blood at the foot of the Cross; the venerable and pious fathers and mothers offered their ascetic struggles and tears of repentance, the sweat of their labors, in order to express their gratitude to God for His love for us if only to some extent. The Psalmist David exclaims: What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? (Ps. 115:3).

And what will we, carnal people and lovers of sin, offer at the foot of the Cross? The blood of martyrs? But we weren’t even observe the fast as Orthodox Christians should. Will we offer tears of repentance? But if we ever cry during our lives, it is only over external losses: money, health, or someone’s favor. These are fleshly tears. We rarely weep over the sins we have committed in our lives.

So, let’s try to offer the Lord the feelings of filial love that still probably remains somewhere in the depths of our souls, so that in these last hours before Holy Pascha, with a prayerful sigh and repentance, we can (if only to a small extent) become like the penitent thief who erased his entire sinful life with just one cry: Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom (Lk. 23:42). If we have not been able to bear any fruit during Lent, then at least let us admit it honestly. Let us commend our lives into God’s hands and realize that we are nothing without the grace of God. We will not succeed in anything in our lives until we come to realize that only the Lord can change and “regenerate” us, for He is omnipotent, all-righteous and all-good. But we also need to have burning hearts, desire, a prayerful mood, and most importantly, true love for Him, which is given only through remembering the price He paid to save each one of us—the cost of the Passion that we have been reading about all this week.

St. Gregory the Theologian says that the work of our salvation had to be accomplished by God Himself. Why? He had to become a Man to regain what had been lost in Adam. To offer His arms outstretched on the Cross in place of the hands intemperately stretched out to the tree of knowledge; the tree of the Cross in place of the tree in Paradise; suffering in place of the pleasure for which Adam reached; death for death, and life for life, so that we could gain in Christ what we had lost in Adam. In His human nature He was buried in the tomb—that is, He suffered all the punishment and rose from the tomb so that all mankind would rise from the dead together with Christ. St. Paul tells us: Therefore we are buried with Him by Baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His Resurrection (Rom. 6:4–5). St. Philaret (Drozdov) says that on the Cross we saw the triumph of the love of God for man. The love of God the Father is the crucifying one, the love of God the Son is the crucified one, and the love of God the Holy Spirit is the triumphant one.

Let us pray to our Lord that by the end of this Holy Week, we may have a feeling of gratitude to the Lord for all His love, poured out abundantly for the entire human race. And let us have the determination to “commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God”.

Amen.