"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

As we go through Holy Week I want to reflect upon the seven last words of Christ from the Cross.  Each day I will post a new reflection from now until the Easter Vigil. One of the books that I'm currently reading is "The Life of Christ" by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen and one of the chapters toward the end of the book is about this topic.  There have been many reflections and writings concerning the last words of Our Lord by people who are much further along the path of holiness than I am, so this will be a feeble attempt in comparison, but by God's grace I hope these reflections can provide an avenue to help you enter more deeply into prayer as you prepare to enter the Triduum. 

There was never a preacher like the dying Christ; there was never a congregation like that which gathered about the pulpit of the Cross; there was never a sermon like the Seven Last Words. ~ Bishop Fulton Sheen

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." ~ Luke 23:34
In "Divine Mercy in My Soul", St. Faustina says that mercy is God's greatest attribute.  I remember when I was in college even writing that phrase at the bottom of a test I had just taken hoping that the professor would imitate this great attribute of God in having mercy on my grade.  Did it work? Well, that's another story for another day. Let's just say that he agreed with my statement but was a little more focused on God's perfect justice that day.
 
God's mercy manifests itself in many ways.  Obviously the first way that we think of is that he forgives us when we come to him in the Confessional, but another way God shows us his mercy is through prayer.  How many times have you asked him for something in prayer and you did not receive what you asked for, or received something else completely unexpected or maybe even something you didn't think you wanted?  When the mother of James and John approached Jesus and asked that he give her sons the seats at his right and left in the Kingdom, Jesus responded, "You do not know what you are asking."  Many times we ask him for things that we think we are desperate for, but he knows our hearts and their needs even better than we do, so in his mercy he asks us to wait so that the true desires of our hearts may be revealed and we may have the courage to ask for what we really need.  God answers prayers perfectly, though we often don't see how it was perfect until we look back. God is faithful and holds our hearts with unshakeable tenderness.  Rather than giving us everything for which we ask, he gives us what we need in order to draw us closer to him.  And of all the things we are desperate for, are we not most desperate for him?