It Is Finished

It Is Finished

With the world as it is today, I tend to watch the news to get a rundown on what’s going on. I don’t see much local news. It doesn’t interest me. Home I can handle. Home my vote counts a little more and my voice is a little louder, but globally, that’s where the action is. That is what I believe influences everything around us.

            I pray the rosary every day, rejoicing in God’s plan and sorrowful at how badly we resist. I pray for friends and family, for the needs of the community, the poor, the disenfranchised and for the world in general. Near the end of every rosary is the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, where we ask him to “defend us in battle” against the forces of evil. Oft times, I have prayed this prayer as a matter of course. It’s just part of the rosary like the Salve Regina, committed to memory from my youth and part of the formula of the rosary.

But as I delve deeper into the rosary and each prayer as I grow older, I find more meaning, perhaps the original meaning of these prayers. This prayer is our understanding of St. Michael the Archangel’s mission, to assist us in our battle with the forces of darkness that are at work here on earth. I see these battles play out every day during my daily news recap. Wars and rumors of war. The stubbornness on both sides to not reconcile, to continue the fight until there is a single victor, and I’m not just talking about military conflict. I’m talking about political, social, sexual, economic and Sociological battles that take place every day in every corner of the earth. We are besieged.

As I prayed the five sorrowful mysteries this morning, I read from the gospel of St John.

After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.”

There was a vessel filled with common wine. So, they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth.

When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.-John 19:28-30

            Those three words, “It is finished,” I once saw in the light of his death, as in “My life is over now,” yet knowing that what was finished was Christ’s victory over sin and death. In all of my years in prayer, I knew and understood these words, but somehow never connected the two.

            Christ’s death on the cross, a brutal and hideous death, was the muzzle on sin and death. In the Apostle’s Creed, we pray;

He descended into hell

and on the third day rose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven.

As a kid, I was told that Christ went to the netherworld to free the souls trapped by sin and to bring them to heaven. But more importantly, in the moment of Christ’s passing, He gave us authority over sin and death. All we need to do is to believe in Him. Any sin. Any conflict within our soul is easily remedied with the simple calling of his name, with a remembrance of his sacrifice and the belief that the chains of death and sin have been destroyed. Those simple words, “It is finished,” are exactly that. The breaking of chains.

            So what next? Why are there still wars and killings and poverty and destruction of all means? It is because we don’t use the weapons at our disposal and are constantly reminded that the world we live in is ruled by evil, evil we invite into our homes and hearts every day. Every time I watch a newscast, I get not only a reminder of the world as it is but a world that is at its most destructive, most carnal, most selfish. I am given an opinion to consider, visuals of people in their worst moments and asked to choose a side, but there is only one side.

            I’m choosing to invoke the name of Jesus often and remember his victory over sin every day to put a muzzle on sin. I don’t think I’ll be watching much in the way of news anymore. We have made tragedy our entertainment somehow and I just think that there are better things to do with my time.