It was his soul’s desire to imitate his Lord!

When we make the Stations of the Cross we kneel at the 12^th One - "Christ dies on the Cross" and perhaps we attempt to imagine what this might have been like.

In this, his 6^th Psalm Francis explores his Saviour’s thoughts, anguish and fears as he hung there waiting to release his own spirit.

Francis uses Psalm 21/22 as his insight into the Saviour’s mind, in this manner he gifts us with what the Gospels couldn’t tell us – what it was like to hang there! Ever seeking to walk in his Lord’s footsteps, Francis desired above all things to know the pain of the cross.

Jesus must have been able to see quite some way into the distance from the vantage of the cross, enough to notice the crowds still pouring towards Jerusalem for the Passover.

Many would come by that way to view the latest executions, to stare and gawp at the criminals hanging there as warnings to others who might try the same things. Francis experienced this with his Lord.

Howling, barking, growling and snapping about the base of the cross, more like animals than people, Francis saw what a pack of dogs the assembly of the wicked became as they gathered there in the strength of numbers. He watched as the soldiers divided Jesus’ garments between themselves and then cast the die for his seamless robe.

In excruciating agony, Jesus hangs there, each bone and muscle screaming with its own pain, as though they had been counted out and brought to individual life.

Francis now takes us back a few hours to that time when the Roman soldiers hammered the nails into Jesus’ palms. .. As Jesus lay there it seemed to him that as the soldiers loomed above him, to reach down with hammer and nails, they became as ravening lions, poised with open mouths to devour him.

Francis likens Jesus to a bag of dry bones which when scattered cease to be the remnants of anyone and become just dry bones. Not only his bones scattered, but his blood serum drained.

His Sacred heart hangs there boiling within its chest cavity, held in place by its sack, it rendered as melting wax in the heat. Jesus has no goodness left to give, Francis feels the impotence of his Lord who no longer has anything remaining with which to feel love. No longer a tongue empowered to bless but sticking to its thirsting jaws awaiting the silence of the tomb.

The hyssop branch rises with vinegar mixed with gall and Francis tastes this and knows there was some pity for one who thirsted there.

Well the pack of dogs has gone having buried its bones everywhere and therefore nowhere and Francis is alone with his Lord as the evil task is almost done.

The jeering crowd, the thieves all added insult to the injury of his wounds but from within the pain of hearing them Jesus looks forward past the end of his nightmare.

They have led Jesus to the dust of death but they could not push him over into it for Jesus gave up his own spirit before they had the opportunity to break his legs and send him there.

Francis now turns his psalm at verse 11 towards the Resurrection and Ascension. The psalm has become triumphant.

Christ is resurrected from the dust of death and the tomb and has been assumed into glory.

As his lord may have said, so Francis must have felt that in heaven alone waited His holy Father and that earth held no pleasures, that as long as he remained mortal he would always yearn for God.

As it is our witness and experience our God is glorified among the Nations as the most High God, though not always in the same manner.

Jesus has redeemed us through his own most precious blood and we are at one with him and looked towards the day when he comes to judge the living and the dead.

16.And we know that when He comes + He comes to judge justly!