 and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In our ladies' intercession, let us pray. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Good evening, brothers and sisters. So I have decided that during the season of Lent, I will preach on the seven last words of Jesus Christ. So I'm going to use these seven last words as the theme for the main homilies throughout Lent. And just to clarify, oftentimes people may get a little confused about this. They think that it's literally the seven last individual words that Jesus used? No, no. It's technically the seven last statements of Christ. So while dying on the cross, he said seven different things. And we're able to work out what he said in order just using the four Gospels. And I'm going to go through them in order. And there's some debate upon maybe the last two, which is first and which is second, but I'll tell you why I think it's my way. So the first statement our Lord Jesus Christ made after his entire passion, and he's finally brought to Galgotha and he's laid down and he's nailed to the cross and he's raised up. The first thing he said was, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Now it's important to remind yourself that crucifixion was in fact and probably still is in fact one of the greatest means of human torture, greatest means of human torture. Because one, you're hanging up by nails and your wrists and in your feet. And two, you don't die of blood loss. You die of suffocation. You choke on your own spittle and it takes hours, even days. It's a slow agonizing death. And the reason is it's nearly impossible to breathe, nearly impossible to breathe when your body is nailed to a cross like that because of the tension on your chest from your arms. The only way to get a breath is actually to pull up on the nails in your wrists and push up on the nails in your feet. But the Romans being good at torture put the nails in the wrists right through the main nerve. So just to get a breath, it was an agony for the Lord. That's just to breathe. But imagine how much of a breath he had to get in order to speak from the cross. So these seven last sayings, these seven last words of our Lord are precious statements. They cost him more than any other statement he made during his entire life. So he didn't waste words. I think every Christian should have these words memorized. We should regularly meditate upon them. So it's a worthy thing to do during this season of Lent. Jesus chose that the first words he would speak in his agony on the cross were father, the name of the father, right, forgive them. They know not what they do. Now when we think of these words, it's important to consider the fact that there has to be some people out there that knew what they were doing, right? I mean, I think we can assume that there were some people out there who knew what they were doing, but he still pleads and he still makes excuses for us sinners. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. One of the things my dad said to me when I was having some problems with a kid at school is he helped me think of how this other young man was probably suffering in his home. Who knows what was happening? And it was purely conjecture, just theoretical. We had no idea, but he said, you know, if he's being treated this way in his private life and we don't know about it, maybe that's why he's acting this way towards you. And even just as a hypothetical, it made it easier for me to forgive this individual. My dad gave me an excuse to forgive him. And I was far more patient. I mean, I kept my distance and boundaries and everything, but I was far more patient and far more willing to forgive because I could think of a reason to do so. And this is what Jesus does. He pleads with his heavenly father, making excuses for us. Imagine if every time someone offended you, you could think of at least one excuse, why maybe it wasn't totally their fault. We'd forgive far more quickly. We probably wouldn't get as perturbed or angry. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. I think it's easiest just to use the words of the Lord in our own lives, in these instances of suffering when we're offended. They must not know what they are doing. If they really knew how much they were hurting me, they wouldn't have done it. So during this season of Lent, especially during the first week or two in which you're going to be a little stressed out because of your penances, especially if you gave up something that you're really used to having regularly. It's going to take a couple of days at least to get into it, to get over the initial shock. Remember these words. Don't take offense so easily. Don't be so sensitive. Use the words of our Lord yourself in your own little agonies and just consider that maybe they didn't realize what they were doing when they hurt you. You'll find it's far more easy to be patient and to forgive.