THE THIRTEENTH STATION
Jesus dies on the Cross
Antiphona
Tenebrae factae sunt, dum crucifixissent Jesum Judaei:
et circa horam nonam exclamavit Jesus voce magna:
Deus meus, ut quid me dereliquisti?
Et inclinato capite, emisit spiritum.
Antiphon
Darkness fell when the Jews crucified Jesus:
and about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice:
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.
Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison.
Pater noster ...
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Our Father ...
Luke 23: 44-46
It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun. Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit"; and when he had said this he breathed his last.
Responsoria
V. Christus factus est pro nobis oboediens usque ad mortem.
R. Mortem autem Crucis.
V. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R. Quia per Sanctam Crucem tuam redemisti mundum.
Responsory
V. Christ became obedient unto death for us.
R. Even the death of the cross.
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by you Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Reflection
The ability to turn pedestrian suffering into a participation in the redemptive suffering of Christ is in the offering of all to God not for ourselves but for others. Christ commended his last breath to his Father in heaven and with it all that he had done in his name. And in this last act of yielding all to God he wrought salvation for man – his suffering, his death, not for himself but for all mankind. In modern speak, we need to “get over ourselves”. We live lives that are very “me” centric but the Church, the Body of Christ, has no emphasis on the individual. We are what we are not through our own merits but because we are one body one spirit in Christ. The new commandment to “Love one another as I have loved you”, is precisely this: I would suffer for you, I would die for you, I would yield all to God if only you would be saved. Want to know how to love your enemy? … This is how.
V. Domine, exaudi orationem meam.
R. Et clamor meus ad te veniat.
Oratio
DOMINE Iesu Christe, qui de caelis ad terram de sinu Patris descendisti, et sanguinem tuum pretiosum in remissionem peccatorum nostrorum fudisti: te humiliter deprecamur, ut in die iudicii ad dexteram tuam audire mereamur: VENITE BENEDICTI. Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo Patri in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
V. Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come before you
Prayer
O LORD Jesus Christ, who out of the bosom of the Father descended from heaven to earth, and shed your most Precious Blood for the remission of our sins; we humbly beseech you, that in the day of judgment we may be found worthy to stand at your right hand, and to hear you say to us, "Come, blessed ones." You, who live and reign with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.
