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| Detail of Hosios Loukas, Greece, 11th century |
It is Finished!!!!
These words hit me – touched me
like they had never done before.
“It is finished!” ( Jn 19:30)
I had rarely, if ever, truly spent
time contemplating these words. But, alone in our Church this past Tuesday of
Holy Week, I was touched to do so while contemplating Jesus' Seven Last Words
from the Cross.
What do these words mean... for me
... for all of us?
In prayer I realized they mean far
more than the end of Jesus’ suffering and death on the Cross.
I understood they mean that ALL
that Jesus had come to do was accomplished!
Consider this...
Consider this...
ALL has been atoned for!
ALL has been done that could be
done to save us!
Contemplating this led me to
consider the immense glory of this statement that Jesus proclaimed
from the Cross!
These words are a cry of
Triumph!
If ALL has been accomplished, ALL
has been accounted for --
this means...
this means...
NOTHING has escaped Jesus' loving redemption and His Saving
Power!
Jesus, our Savior, atoned for,
and suffered for every evil committed from all eternity!
This wasn't just the culmination of
His suffering, but a proclamation that ALL Christ came to do
was accomplished --from His Incarnation
to His upcoming Glorious Return to the
Father
in which He brought our
humanity, forever united with Him, into heavenly glory!
From His first instant of existence
as Man in Mary's womb,
to the Infinite Grace poured out
unto the last drop of His blood on the Cross.
ALL Jesus did, said, experienced and lived when He became Man
was to save us,
which is expressed in His very
Name,
Jesus,
meaning God SAVES!
Contemplating this, what an
astounding understanding is gained!
If, ALL has been atoned for …
Then, Jesus saw and atoned for every
genocide, every holocaust, every act of terrorism and
persecution, every addiction and murder and divorce, every
suffering of the innocent, every heartbreak, every abortion, every
martyrdom, every sin and suffering that had ever occurred and would continue
to occur to the end of time! Not only did Jesus atone for and suffer for
these tragedies, but He also was and is present -- suffering in those who suffer, in
ALL of these terrible tragedies (as well as in the big and small sufferings in
each of our lives)-- because as the Divine Son of God, He is beyond all space and time!
How mind-boggling is that!
ALL is accomplished!! ALL has been
atoned for! ALL has been done to save us!!
What glorious news! But do
I believe it and cling to this knowledge when I am in the midst of sin and
suffering?
“God, who knew no sin, became sin
to save us!” (2 Cor 5:21)
Bearing the weight of our burdens,
our suffering, and our sin upon Himself, He opened the gates of heaven wide for
ALL who repent, receive, and cooperate with this Forgiveness, this Pardon, that He accomplished for us!
ALL is finished!
What GLORY has been wrought for us!
And at what a PRICE! Contemplating His suffering shows us the extent of Christ's love for us and that He would stop at nothing to show us His love and His forgiveness.
What more could He have done to save us?!
What more could He have done to save us?!
Because of the immense suffering He
endured...we should have immense confidence in Him!
We are to trust in His power to
save –
We are to trust that “It is
finished” as He said!
We are to believe and trust that,
in Him, we are ALL commended to the Father in the Spirit.
ALL that is lacking is our cooperation
in faith, hope and love!
This is accomplished in our Baptisms, in which "we die with
Him, so also to rise with Him to new and eternal life!" (cf. Rom 6:5, 8; Col 3:1).
So, by the grace of our Baptisms,
then... each day
We are to hope against hope (Rom
4:18) –
When ALL seems lost…in our souls,
in our lives, in our families, in our marriages, in our world and in our
nation...
We are to stand firm and be
assured of His mighty power to save!
He has accomplished our Salvation!
He, Who is ALL-powerful, has
brought the dead to life!
He has borne the entire weight of
all humanity’s sins from the beginning unto the end of time!
No one has suffered like unto Him –
but His Cross is HIS GLORY and Ours – it is our salvation, it was what He wanted to achieve by becoming Man.
So, what need have we to ever fear?!
“Hope in God I will praise Him
still, my Savior and my God!” (Ps 42:11, 5; 43:5)
Not only does He atone for all our sufferings,
Not only does He atone for all our sufferings,
Jesus unites all our sufferings with
His --for He is “ALL in ALL!”
He is both He who suffers in and
through and with us – bearing the bulk of our suffering, sin and shame…
As well as the Conqueror of Sin and
Death -- leading us to Freedom!!!
So we can cry in joy:
You have set us free!
You have set us free!
Free from sin and death!
Free from eternal slavery
Free from fear, worry and anxiety if we never lose our hope in You!
Free from fear, worry and anxiety if we never lose our hope in You!
It is finished!
You created us in freedom and You
gave us freedom to either choose You or not.
Sin alone, destroys our freedom,
for Jesus said: "Amen, Amen, I say to you, anyone who sins is a slave
of sin" (Jn 8:34).
It is for this reason He came... to
set us free!
Jesus, You have born the weight of our
suffering and our sin – freeing us from this unbearable weight and its eternal
consequences so we can live in eternal freedom, if we so choose!
If we choose—
If we choose You in our freedom… (What
power He has given us in our free will?!)
You have paid the price for ALL to
experience an eternity of glory in heaven.
But we must choose to accept Your
unfathomable goodness and the glory You wish to bestow on us – a glory of union
with God Who created us and loved us so much that He rent the heavens and
came down (Is 64:1) to live among us, and to suffer unto death
to save us!
A glory and a freedom that we can
experience even on earth, especially in the Mass, in the Eucharist and Holy Communion, when
He again rends the heavens and comes down to live inside of us
– proclaiming with love and forgiveness to our souls, “It is finished!”
May these words pierce through any darkness of mind, body or spirit we are experiencing this Easter season and may they be our hope and
glory. Also, let us pray for ALL those who have not yet accepted Jesus and ALL He has
accomplished for us, that they may soon freely choose Him and His Salvation!
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Let us rejoice and be glad in the victory that has been won for us!
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Let us rejoice and be glad in the victory that has been won for us!
© Janet Moore 2015. All Rights
Reserved.
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