“Ever since my years of Scripture study in Rome, and especially in Jerusalem for nearly five years, Holy Week and the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord have taken on new and deep meaning for me. Each year on Good Friday we relive the tragic chain of events of the Passion of our Savior leading to his crucifixion on Golgotha. There is a haunting question about this day that has resounded throughout history. Where was God in the midst of the disaster on Calvary? This is a question that even Jesus the Lord cried out from the wood of the cross: "Where are you? Have you really forgotten me? Why are you deaf to the sound of my pleading?" (Psalm 22).

On Good Friday 2016, I had the privilege of preaching the Tre Ore Devotion of the Seven Last Words of Christ in Seattle’s St. James Cathedral. This experience allowed me to draw deeply from years of prayer, Scripture scholarship, teaching and pastoral ministry to tell the story of Jesus’ death in a unique manner. The Seven Last Words of Christ refer not to individual words, but to the final seven phrases that Our Lord uttered as he hung on the Cross. These phrases were not recorded in a single Gospel but are taken from the combined accounts of the four Gospels. As Jesus hung on the cross, he uttered words of great meaning to those who contemplate his passion and death. Nailed to the cross, Jesus is the insurgent, the revolutionary of kindness, tenderness, compassion, consolation, forgiveness and care for others. From the cross, Jesus turns us outward toward people to whom we are not physically related, identifying these people as our spiritual mothers, fathers, sisters or brothers. From the Cross, Jesus breaks down the barriers between people and creates this new family by the power that flows from his death for humanity. The way of the cross and the words spoken from the cross continue in our world today. May we learn from the words, phrases and example of Jesus crucified, for he is our “pontifex” to the heart of God.