 on this beginning of Holy Week, on this passion, or as we typically call it, Palm Sunday, it's coincidental that I will be preaching on the last of the seven last words of Jesus Christ from the cross. I still plan on preaching one more sermon on this topic on Holy Thursday, but today we reflect on the last statement of Jesus before he died, and these are his words from the Gospel of Luke chapter 23. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. To set this statement of our Lord just a little more in context, let me read more of the passage. 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. He breathed his last. Again, on a very natural way, we can understand the words of our Lord to mean that after everything has been taken from him, after his life is now coming to a close, he has nothing left but God, his Father. And so his spirit about to leave his body, he commends it to the Father. So he says, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. It's very appropriate. I think anyone who loved the Father would entrust themselves to the Father in such a last effort at the end of their life. So the words of our Lord are very appropriate on a natural level. And notice that the text says he breathed his last. Well, the word in Hebrew, ruah, for breath is the same word for spirit. So he spirated his last. He gave up his spirit. And that's when he died. But again, if we stop there merely at a simple interpretation, we're going to miss so much of what our Lord is trying to communicate to each one of us even now. Reflecting on the words of Jesus throughout the Gospels, one of the things he makes clear is that no one can take his life from him. Jesus says, I lay it down freely. So when we look at his passion at this moment, we can never think, oh, they took his life. No, he laid it down freely by choice. And why is this important? Because Jesus being God and also being in the flesh is revealing to us what perfect love looks like. And theologically, we know that perfect love is what's often explained as the gift of self, where you give of yourself to another. And to the extent to which you make yourself a gift, sacrificing your time, your energy, your money, to that extent is to the extent in which you have loved. So Jesus revealing the love of God, he gives everything to us, everything, every drop of his blood, every agony, his very physical life. And after he has given everything in love to us for our salvation, the only thing left is his spirit. But that doesn't really belong to him to give away. But notice he doesn't keep his spirit for himself at the end of his life. He even gives that away. Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit. At this moment when Jesus died, he was totally empty. Nothing belonged to him, not even his spirit, for he had given it away. This is the perfect example of love, of self-sacrifice, or making of yourself a gift to the beloved. Now we as humans are terrified to truly do this. As much as we love the idea of God loving us this much, and maybe would like to do it ourselves. When push comes to shove, and we're asked to sacrifice that much, like Peter being threatened, or you know Jesus, we deny it. No, I can't do this, sorry, this is too much. Don't know the guy. We run away. Without the grace of God in our lives, it is not possible to give all of yourself. You can't do it. And it's not just an example that Jesus sets for us, and yes, that is true. But through his gift, he is empowering us in his church and in the sacraments to make the same gift. And this is what really sets the great saints out from the rest of us, is they were so conformed to Jesus Christ that they did in fact give everything, everything. Think of St. Stephen, the first martyr. What were his final words? Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit as he was being martyred. Perfect imitation of Jesus Christ. It's possible. It's possible for each one of us. But it takes an intimate relationship with our Lord, because only love incarnate can teach you how to love in this world. How is it, though, that we can find even intellectually the courage to really empty ourselves in love for someone else? Spouse, children, neighbor, God, whomever. Well, we must look to the Trinity itself in order to understand the nature of love. Since God is love, then he has to be self-empting. Well, how does that work in the Trinity? Theologians teach us that the Father eternally gives himself to his son, pours himself out to his son, empties himself, and says, my son, I'm yours. All that I have is yours. And the son receiving that gift eternally empties himself out to the Father. Father, all I have is yours. Take me. And that self-gift is the Holy Spirit, that mutual giving of self. And that's how we get the three persons of the Trinity. That's what love is. And so even though it's fearful at times when you're giving of yourself and seeming not to get anything back, ideally, as we see in God, if I truly loved you as I was meant to, I would be empty of me. But I would be full of you because you would love me back. You would empty yourselves into me. I would always empty myself into you. You would always empty yourself into me in love. And both of us forever would be full of each other. It's a beautiful thing to consider. But in sin and in this world, that's not what happens, is it? We try to love and we don't get loved back. And so we try to empty ourselves. And since we're not being loved in return, we're just empty. We're just dying on our crosses. But that's how we imitate Jesus. That we love even when we are not loved in return. And in the end, when everything of us has been poured out, and there's nothing left to give except our spirit, we make the words of our Lord our own. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.