Editor’s note: Father Raymond J. de Souza recorded meditations on the Seven Last Words at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Ogdensburg, New York. They will air on EWTN on Good Friday at 1:00 p.m. (EDT). It will also be available at ewtn.com and EWTN+. Through Good Friday, those meditations will be published at the Register.
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One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise’ (Luke 23:39-43).
The question of kingship was central in 1776. The Declaration made a long list of complaints against King George III, a list sufficiently grave that the signers argued that he no longer could claim the right to rule over them.
Jesus was accused of claiming a false
