Good Friday - I Thirst

    After this, Jesus knew that everything had now been completed, and to fulfill the scripture perfectly he said:

   I thirst.

 A jar full of vinegar stood there, so putting a sponge soaked in the vinegar on a hyssop stick they held it up to his mouth. After Jesus had taken the vinegar he said,

 It is finished.

   and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.

If there was only one thing that I learned during my Lenten journey through the desert it would be that a desert is a lonely place.  It is a quiet place, maddingly so, but it is never completely silent. The wind blows forever on its way to the north, south, east, or west.  Sometimes it seems to go in all directions at once obscuring the light until the day becomes as the night. Even in the midst of twelve fellow travelers you are faced with large banks of time when your only companion is yourself.  It is only in a place like this that you can forsake all other cares and really dig into yourself and find out what you are made of spiritually.  I led Benjamin, my sweet-tempered camel who took everything in stride and I think that he liked me across countless miles of desert with the sun beating down on us for eight to twelve hours a day.  Benjamin did not complain, he just followed me one step at a time, following me mile after mile, shouldering the burden that I placed on his back.  This journey has placed me in a reflective mood and I am questioning some of the paths that I have taken in life.  I have analyzed myself and I have to say that I find a lot of good in me and this fact surprised me.  I was always taught to be humble and I was humble, at least what I thought humble was.  I always taught to be self-effacing.  I would turn down compliments with head bowed low.  I would give all the credit for something to others and make it seem that I had nothing to do with the outcome of a project. I know now that is false-humility.  When someone compliments me from now on, if the compliment is truly deserved, I will thank them and I will do so with head raised high. I will also be sure to look for ways to build up my brothers and sisters and make sure that they get the credit that they deserve. To be humble is, to be honest. I will always remember this lesson. 

Thursday night all of us met for one last time at a restaurant near the Via Della Rosa.  It was mid-afternoon and it was very pleasant, not too hot or cold.  The party room on the second floor had been reserved for us.  It was a plain sort of room, There was one large table with room for all of us.  The Master was already there and greeted each one of us warmly by name and showed us to our place at the table,  My place was next to The Master, to the left of Him.  When we were all gathered around the table, He spoke to us like a father speaks to his children. 

"My good friends, my sons, we have traveled many miles together through the desert.  We have spent long hours combating sand, heat, stubborn camels, and ourselves.  The hours we spent with the reins of a camel in our hand were lonely ones because the person in front of us was too far for us to easily speak with and the same was true for those that trudging behind us. At the end of the day, we would gather together, we would share a meal and usually some stories, laughter, and on at least one occasion an excess of wine.  (He looked directly at me and the table erupted in laughter)  I told you many things while we were on the way.  I fed you with a food you had never had before.  Today, I will do the same.  It will be the last time you receive it directly from my hand to your mouth.  So, take and share this bread among you for even the angels are envious of you.  Drink also from this chalice of wine and think of the death of the Lord."

We each took a piece of the bread and a sip of the wine and our souls were filled with concentrated graces as they had never felt before. The Master had left, but no one had seen Him go. None of us said a word.  We couldn't because we were filled with holy joy and wonder and awe. We just relished the beauty that had invaded our soul and we knew that the Master even though He had gone away, that He was still there.

The time came for us to participate in the walk to Calvary on the Via Della Rosa. At each station, we not only saw but felt in our spirit the misery and pain that Jesus, the Christ of God, the Son of the Father had gone through.  I felt the weight of the cross as I walked each step.  I felt the love pass between Mother and Son when they met on this final journey.  The tenderness of Veronica was not lost upon me, it was the only kindness He received along this journey of pain. He fell three times and three times he willed Himself to rise and shoulder the burden. He was thrown to the ground and nails pierced His hands and His feet.  He was raised to public view not on a throne of ivory but on a cross of rough-hewn wood. He forgave us from the cross and He promised the repentant thief paradise this very day.  Then all was that He had come to do was done.  Now His baptism in pain was over.  He said, "I thirst."  and one of the bystanders raised up to His lips a sponge soaked in sour wine.  Jesus drank of the wine and in a loud voice ended the Passover meal He had presided at the previous night and drank the last cup of wine, the fourth cup, the cup of forgiveness, and He allowed His Spirit to depart from His body and death claimed Him. 

At Calvary, there twelve men traveling together.  They had been together for a long time and had faced many hardships together. All of them, grown men, weathered by wind and sand, were inconsolable in their tears when they heard the Gospel proclaim that Jesus was dead.  To a man, their lives would never be the same.