This set of seven reflections follows the traditional church sequence of “The Seven Last Words of the Cross,” utterances that the gospel narratives place on the lips of Jesus. These utterances are drawn from the several gospel narratives. In the liturgical life of the church, however, the sequence has a significance and staying power of its own quite apart from the gospel narratives in which the utterances are embedded. These sermons take seriously the faith voiced by Jesus in his context of wretched abuse by the Roman Empire. They attempt, moreover, to connect that reality of faith and abuse in our contemporary world of concentrated, ruthless power. The intent of such sermons on Good Friday is to replicate for us in our context what such an interface of faith and abuse must have been like.
