Commend
your spirit to God.
Commend your
spirit to God. Stephen did this in our First Reading,
when he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," as he was being stoned to
death. A few minutes ago, we all recited in
unison essentially the same words when, in our Psalm Response, we said: "Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my
spirit." And in our gospel
reading, Jesus affirmed the tremendous merit of our commending ourselves to
him, when he said: "Whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes
in me will never thirst."
Do this, and
you will never be hungry. Commend
yourself, and you will never be thirsty.
This a marvelous goal, but what do we understand about "commending"
our spirit to God?
What does the word "commend" mean to us? It's not a word we use very often. Some of us, perhaps, only use or say this word when we are reading or listening to scripture, like in our Psalm response — which, by the way, is the same Psalm Response we sing on Good Friday. Remember this?
"Commend" is not a routine part of our vocabulary. There are actually three variations on its meaning. In its first meaning, you could say, for example, "I commend the way you park your car." Now, probably no one would actually say that to you — except I say it to Philma, because I watched her yesterday successfully wiggle her car into a very tight parking spot. And I do commend her. This means I "praise" her. But "praise" is not what we mean when we commend our spirit to God. After all, self-praise doesn't count for much.
Another variation on the meaning of "commend" is virtually the same as the word "recommend" that we know much better. It would be correct, for example, to say: " I commend Mrs. Butterworth's pancake syrup to you. It is beyond a doubt the greatest thing since sliced bread and canned soup." With a commendation like that, I'm sure you will be heading off to Glen's right after you leave here today. This meaning of commend is to praise something while recommending it to someone else for their own use or their own consideration. I "commend" this or that to you.
"Commending your spirit to God," however, is far more than a recommendation with some possible praise thrown in. This meaning of the word "commend" — which is the meaning in our readings today and is the meaning that should always be before us — is to entrust our spirit to God. When you entrust your spirit to God, you give your spirit, yourself, completely to God, without any reservation. It means to give yourself totally to God — no strings attached. There must be no holding back. There is no portion kept for yourself. Commending your spirit to God is done freely, with genuine confidence and 100% trust in Him. Another way to look at it is to say that you abandon yourself entirely to God—just as St. Francis of Assisi did.
In the Passion texts of the four gospels, Christ speaks very little on the cross. But at least two of his comments while hanging on the cross are quotations of Psalms. When he says, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me," he is not concerned that God the Father has really forsaken him, but he is recalling for his audience at the foot of the cross the entire text of Psalm 22. Read that whole psalm to understand his message. And the second Psalm Jesus recalls on the cross, in Luke 23:46, is when Jesus cries out in a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." And when he had said this, he breathed his last. Here, of course, he is quoting Psalm 31, our Responsorial Psalm today.
In Saint Paul's farewell speech to the presbyters of the church of Ephesus, after his third and final missionary journey to the Gentiles, he establishes and affirms his departure from them by saying, "I know that none of you to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels will ever see my face again." Then he says, "I commend you to God and to that gracious word of his that can build you up and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated." Paul entrusts the leaders of the fledgling church to the care of God.
"Commend your spirit to God." In our gospel, Jesus said, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." What could possibly deter us? Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. This vision was precise confirmation of exactly who Christ was. What could hold anyone back from commending themselves to God if they would simply open their minds and heart to God and to sacred scripture?
To commend our spirits to God we have to entrust him completely with our lives. While living out that small part of our eternal lives that occurs here on earth, we have to make little human decisions on our own each day about our lives, but if every decision we make is based on prayer and made in accordance with Christ's teachings, then this is how we entrust our temporary earthly lives to God. And by doing this everyday, we will have no difficulty in the future commending our spirits to God when the day of our transition to a heavenly life occurs. Remember, just practice your singing ….