Jesus hardly could speak when he pronounced these words. "They" had nailed him to a cross and were now casting lots on his garments and hurling insults at him. He was dying and very short of breath and yet his concern was on his Father's "pain" in the face of what was happening with him, and with the lack of conscience and consciousness of his executioners. He loved these men as they were, they didn't need to change in order to be loved by Jesus, but his love was the most powerful of invitations to making the choice for love and for the change of behavior.
A few moments later Jesus breathed his last entrusting himself to his Father's hands. That was the end of his living among us but not the end of his giving of himself to us. A soldier pierced his side with a spear and, like in any birthing, messy water and blood came forth together with the new life, the Church. This is the beginning of our birthing into the Christ being in the womb of Love, the Love that we celebrate today on the solemn Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Jesus had said, "Who sees me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Now he was showing us what Love looks like, how God loves, and also what it means for us the invitation "Learn from me because I'm meek and humble of heart".
In St. Paul's Hymn to Love (1Co 13) we learn some beautiful characteristics of Love, but looking now at Jesus we can see that God's Love in a human person is utterly free. Here is where the puzzling mystery of evil and sin become part of the picture as they represent our real choice of saying "no" to Love, to life, and to our existential calling.
What we call the Christian spiritual journey is our life-long gestation of growing into the freedom of this kind of Love, a Love created through God's grace at work with our free choice. It is not an easy journey but knowing the destination may help us get through some of the more trying territories in the way. Because we are to be partakers of God's very being, our transformation is about becoming Love ourselves like Christ and in Christ.
