Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.

St Luke Chapter XXIII : Verses 44-46

Contents

• Luke xxiii. Verses 44-46.  Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text & Latin text (Vulgate)
• Douay-Rheims 1582 text
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary

Luke xxiii. Verses 44-46.

Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

44 And it was almost the sixth hour; and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

Erat autem fere hora sexta, et tenebræ factæ sunt in universam terram usque ad horam nonam.

45 And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.

Et obscuratus est sol, et velum templi scissum est medium.

46 And Jesus crying out with a loud voice, said: Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And saying this, he gave up the ghost.

Et clamans voce magna Jesus ait : Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum. Et hæc dicens, expiravit.

Douay-Rheims : 1582 text

44. And it was almost the ſixt houre: and there was made darkeneſſe vpon the whole earth vntil the ninth houre.

45. And the ſunne was darkened; and the veile of the Temple was rent in the middes.
46. And IESVS crying with a loud voice, said: Father, into thy handes I commend my Spirit. And ſaying this, he faue vp the ghoſt.

 

Annotations

    44.-45. And it was almost the sixth hour; and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. As soon as the Lord of all had been given up to be crucified, the whole framework of the world bewailed its rightful Master, and the light was darkened at mid-day, (Amos viii. 9.) which was a manifest token that the souls of those who crucified Him would suffer darkness.

    AUGUSTINE. (de Con. Ev. lib. iii. c. 17.) What is here said of the darkness, the other two Evangelists, Matthew and Mark, confirm, but St. Luke adds the cause whence the darkness arose, saying, And the sun was darkened.

    AUGUSTINE. (de Civ. Dei, l. iii. c. 15.) This darkening of the sun it is quite plain did not happen in the regular and fixed course of the heavenly bodies, because it was then the Passover, which is always celebrated at the full moon. But a regular eclipse of the sun does not take place except at new moon.

    PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS. (Dion. Areop. ad Polye.) When we were both at Heliopolis together, we both saw at the same time in a marvellous manner the moon meeting the sun, (for it was not then the time of new moon,) and then again, from the ninth hour until evening supernaturally brought back to the edge of the sun’s diameter. (ad diametrum solis.) Besides, we observed that this obscuration began from the east, and having reached as far as the sun’s western border at length returned, and that the loss and restoration of light took place not from the same side, but from opposite sides of the diameter. Such were the miraculous events of that time, and possible to Christ alone who is the cause of all things.

    GREEK EXPOSITOR. This miracle then took place that it might be made known, that He who had undergone death was the Ruler of the whole creation.

    AMBROSE. The sun also is eclipsed to the sacrilegious, that it may overshadow the scene of their awful wickedness; darkness was spread over the eyes of the unbelieving, that the light of faith might rise again.

    and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. BEDE. But Luke, wishing to join miracle to miracle, adds, And the veil of the temple was rent in twain. This took place when our Lord expired, as Matthew and Mark bear witness, but Luke related it by anticipation.

    THEOPHYLACT. By this then our Lord shewed that the Holy of Holies should be no longer inaccessible, but being given over into the hands of the Romans, should be defiled, and its entrance laid open.

    AMBROSE. The veil also is rent, by which is declared the division of the two people, and the profanation of the synagogue. The old veil is rent that the Church may hang up the new veils of faith. The covering of the synagogue is drawn up, that we may behold with the eyes of the mind the inward mysteries of religion now revealed to us.

    THEOPHYLACT. Whereby it is signified that the veil which kept us asunder from the holy things which are in heaven, is broken through, namely, enmity and sin.

    46. And Jesus crying out with a loud voice, said: Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. The Arabic has pono, Tertullian depono (cont. Prax. cap. xxv.) The Hebrew word Hiphid means the same as our “commend.” “My Spirit.” S. Athanasius in his work De Human. Nat. cont. Apollin., says, 

“When Christ said on the cross, Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit, He commends all men to the Father, to be, by Him and through Him, restored to life; for we are members, and those many members are one body, which is the Church. He commends therefore all who are in Him to God.” 

    Christ therefore, according to S. Athanasius, calls men His soul and spirit. What then ought we not to do to profit and save souls, that we may keep as it were for Christ, His soul and spirit? So S. Paul to Philemon and Onesimus, “His bowels.” “He gave His life,” says S. Cyril, “into the hands of His Father (Lib. 11 on John chap. xxxvi.), that by this and through this, as a beginning, we might have certain hope of this, firmly believing that we shall be in the hands of God after our death.” So Victor Antiochus on S. Mark, “This recommendation of Christ tends to the good of our souls, which, when freed from the bodies previously inhabited by them, He gave by these words, as a kind of deposit, into the hands of the living God.” And Euthymius: “God did this for us, that the souls of the just should not henceforth go down into hell, but should rather ascend to God.” He cites Ps. xxx. 6, when David, afflicted and in danger of death, spoke as much in his own person as in that of Christ and said, “Into thy hands I commend my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth. / In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum; redemisti me, Domine Deus veritatis.” And, from this, the Church daily uses the same Psalm and verse, and sings it in the Compline at night, to teach us, when we retire to rest, to commend our souls to God, because at night we run many risks of sudden death. The dying use the same words, as did S. Nicholas, Louis King of France, and S. Basil. S. Basil did it in the presence of angels, who brought him away; as S. Gregory Nazianzen testifies in his oration on him. S. Stephen also cried, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

    By these words we testify—

    1. That at our birth we received our souls, not from our father and mother, but from God alone; and that we therefore give Him back the same, as His own creatures. 

    2. That we believe that our souls do not die at our death, but survive and are immortal, and return to God who gave them and who will judge them. 

    3. That we believe in the resurrection of the flesh. For in death we commend our souls to God that He may keep them, as it were as a deposit, and restore them again at the resurrection to our bodies. 

    4. That in the last agony which we undergo, most bitterly, from the devils, we implore the assistance of God, that in giving back our souls to Him, we may overcome and triumph over the devil. Hence many think that each of us has his own peculiar devil, who appears to the dying in some terrible form, and tempts them to despair, and to other sins, as he did to S. Martha and others, but not to all. S. Ephrem seems to think this in his sermon on those who sleep in Christ. S. Chrysostom (Hom. 34 on S. Matt.), and others whom our own Lorinus cites on Eccles viii. 8. Many think the same of Christ. Hence Eusebius (Demonstrat. Lib. iv. cap. ult.) understands Christ’s words, Ps. xxi. 13-14, “Many calves have surrounded me: fat bulls have besieged me. They have opened their mouths against me, as a lion ravening and roaring,” of devils whom Christ saw, mocking Him on the cross as a criminal and wicked, and insulting Him for His crucifixion and impending death. Habakkuk seems to support this idea, iii. 5: “Death shall go before his face. And the devil shall go forth before his feet.” and S. John, xiv. 30: “For the prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not any thing.” Christ lays down His Spirit therefore into the hands of God, certain that no one can sever Him from it. For God is a most faithful and strong protector. So S. Jerome on Psalm xxx. vi, “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” That is, “into Thy power.” This example the Church received from Christ, and S. Stephen followed it. The saints when departing, use the same words; as the following: “They commend their souls to the faithful Creator for His good acts;” our Lord said this, when hanging on the cross, commending His Spirit to the hands of the Father as being to receive it again at the resurrection.

    Symbolically, Didymus in his Catena on Psalm xxx. “The spirit is threefold—1. Our thought. 2. Our soul. 3. Our conscience. These three we ought to commend to God.”

    And saying this, he gave up the ghost. The Syriac. “He said this, and ended,” His life, that is. The Arabic, “And when He had said this He gave up His Spirit.” This was a certain sign that He was the Son of God the Father, who was called upon by Him, and that the Father heard the cry of the Son and received His soul. “For when He had said, ‘Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit;’ then, at last, He suffered death to come to Him.” Says Euthymius, on Matt. xxvii: “As certainly knowing that the spirit, placed in His hands as a deposit, the Father would keep securely, and would give back in the resurrection on the third day. Firm in this hope He gladly and with alacrity rendered up His Spirit to the Father.”

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.