Good Friday Reflection
By Carlos Andrés Martínez Vela, SJ
When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” These are the last words of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John.
In this same Gospel, after uttering these words, Jesus bowed his head and “he handed over the spirit.” In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus “gave up his spirit” after crying out in a loud voice. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus also cried out loud, and then, “he breathed his last.” And in Luke, Jesus also breathes out his last breath when he says, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Breath … and spirit. When Jesus died, he left a void in human history. But he did not leave emptiness behind. He filled the world with his breath, with his Spirit, with a love that blows like a calm breeze.
With his death, Jesus fulfilled his mission, but we know that this was not the end. For all of us, the death of Jesus signals a new beginning. When he exhaled his last breath and commended his spirit to the Father, he commended his mission to each one of us.
“I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do,” we hear him say at the end of the Gospel reading on Holy Thursday.
As a teacher who taught with simple words and simple actions, Jesus modeled for us our mission; he taught us what it means to be human among humans.
He is here, among us. He is out there, living and walking through our neighborhoods, in encounters in the streets, on the bus and the subway, in every act of justice and kindness. He continues to teach us, never losing hope that perhaps one day we will finally get it.
Throughout my almost three years living in the Bronx, my most memorable teacher has been Natalia Mendez. She is the mother of the family who owns La Morada, a restaurant in the South Bronx. “La Morada” means the dwelling.
At La Morada, Natalia works every day with her family and a team of cooks preparing meals for migrants who show up at the door. In this city that sometimes feels like the Tower of Babel, everyone who comes to La Morada is treated with dignity. They are treated like one family, even though they come from all over the world and speak different languages.
In every meal prepared with love and given away, Natalia and her family teach us the way to God by imitating Jesus. Along with the aroma of mole and fresh tortillas that fills La Morada every day, floats the Spirit that Jesus breathed from the Cross when he died.
Natalia and her family live poor among the poor and show us how to love like Jesus did. This love is the foundation of the mission that Jesus entrusted to us: to build the Kingdom of God begins with the greatest commandment.
As we read in Matthew 22:
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.
Jesus taught us clearly that our love of God is inseparable from our love for one another. A love of God that lacks love of neighbor is always incomplete, but by loving our neighbor, we complete our love for God and realize it here in this world, in this time and place.
In the Gospels, Jesus told us multiple times how to live this love and how to make his mission our own. In the Sermon on the Mount he told us to love the poor and be poor in spirit, to feel compassion for those who suffer, to be gentle and close to those who are meek, to be merciful, to make peace, to be in solidarity with those who are persecuted and to be prepared to be persecuted because of Him. He told us to be the salt of the earth and light to the world; to not hide the light that will be rekindled and given to us tomorrow.
As we come together in these holy days, let us remember that Jesus’s last words signal a new beginning for us, that we are called to embrace with courage and joy the mission He gave us. This new beginning begins within our hearts.
So, with the Psalmist, let us plead:
Crea en mi, o Dios, un corazón puro,
y renueva la firmeza de mi espíritu.
No me alejes de tu presencia
ni retires de mí tu santo espíritu.A clean heart create for me, God;
renew within me a steadfast spirit.
Do not drive me from before your face,
nor take from me your holy spirit.
Now, pause for a moment, close your eyes and bring stillness to your heart. Imagine yourself in front of Jesus on the cross. Hear his last words: “It is finished.”
As we see him breathe his spirit upon us, let us join Servant of God Pedro Arrupe in prayer, asking Jesus to help us make his mission our own:
Lord, meditating on our way of proceeding I have discovered that the ideal of our way of acting is your way of acting.
You yourself have told us: “I have given you an example to follow.” I want to follow you in that way so that I can say to others: “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.”
Teach me how to be compassionate to the suffering, to the poor, the blind, the lame, and the lepers.
Give me that grace, that sense of Christ, your very heartbeat, that I may live all of my life, interiorly and exteriorly, proceeding and discerning with your spirit, exactly as you did during your mortal life.
Teach us your way so that it becomes our way today.
Amen.
Carlos Martínez-Vela, SJ, is a Jesuit of the USA Central and Southern Province in first studies at Fordham University in New York City. This reflection on the last words of Jesus was delivered at the Church of St. Ignatius in New York on April 18, 2025.
