Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up his spirit.
All Commentaries on Matthew 27:50 Go To Matthew 27
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
But Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. "Again" refers to the former words on the Cross. He first cried out, and then expired. S. Luke gives the exact words, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." In the Greek, "I will lay down My life; I will consign it into Thy hands as a deposit, to take it back when I am raised up on the third day." Hence the faithful use this verse when dying, as David first used it when in suffering ( Psalm 31:5 ).[ Psalm 30:6]
It was by a miracle that Christ cried with a loud voice, for the dying lose their voice, so that they can hardly speak. For though S. Thomas says (par. iii. q47) that Christ preserved the vigour and strength of His body to the last; yet others suppose, more correctly, that His strength had so failed by what He had gone through, that He could not cry out naturally, but only by a miracle, for otherwise He would not have died through the violence of His sufferings, but merely by His own voluntary severing of His soul and body, and thus would not have been slain, or have made satisfaction to His Father by His death of violence.
He cried out, then, by the supernatural powers which His Godhead furnished. And that to signify, 1st, that Hebrews , as God, died not by compulsion or necessity, but of His own free will. As He said, "I have power to lay down My life," &c. (John x18); and that His sacrifice of Himself might clearly be voluntary. "He had His whole life and death," says S. Victor of Antioch, "entirely in His own power." 2ndTo show that He was more than Prayer of Manasseh , and was God, as the Centurion exclaimed3To set forth His vehement love of God, His reverence, His obedience, and earnest desire for man"s salvation (see Heb. v7 , and notes thereon). 4th To indicate His sure and certain hope of His glorious resurrection on the third day (so Origen).
Yielded up the ghost. Voluntarily. "For that which is sent forth (emittitur) is voluntary, that which is lost (amittitur) is of necessity," S. Ambrose (in Luc. xxiii.); and S. Augustine (de Trin. iv13), "The spirit of the Mediator left not His body against His will, but because of it when He willed, and as He willed it; for man was blended into union with the Word of God. Hence He says, "I have power,"" &c. ( John 10:18).
Song of Solomon , too, S. Jerome, Bede, and others. Whence, also, "He bowed His head" ( John 19:30). "As the Lord of death," says Theophylact; "for other men when dying first breathe their last, and then bow the head, which thus droops by its own weight." S. Chrysostom says this was "to show that He died not of necessity, but voluntarily. He lived as long as He willed; when He willed He gave up the ghost." A spurious work attributed to S. Athanasius is also quoted to the same effect. For though His human nature sank beneath the violence of His pains, and He ought to have died, yet His Godhead was able to give it strength, and to prolong His life. That nature, therefore, could not die, except by permission of His Godhead. He therefore freely died, whether as God or man; for His human nature could have asked, and would have obtained, this strength from His Godhead.
Observe, He died at the ninth hour, the very hour when Adam sinned, and to expiate his sin. The same hour also when the Paschal Lamb was slain, and the Jews offered the daily sacrifice. And this to show that He thus fulfilled all these types in His death. Whence the ninth hour is the Christian"s hour of prayer.
Symbolically and Morally: He bowed His head, as bearing the burden of all men"s sins, sin being the heaviest of all burdens; to mark His obedience, thus teaching "religious" persons, and those under authority, to obey those over them (conf. Philippians 2:8); to humble Himself before the Father, to do Him reverence, and to submit His own will to His, even to the death of the Cross; to bid farewell to the world, especially to Italy and the West, for His head, as we have said, was turned towards Italy, which He wished to make illustrious by His faith, and by the Pontificate and martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul; to bid farewell to His Mother; to mark the spot where the spear was to pierce Him; to show that He and His Father were by His Passion reconciled to men. So S. Augustine (de Virg,.) says, "Behold His wounds when hanging, His Blood when dying, His value when dying, His scars when rising, His head bent down to kiss, His heart opened to love, His arms extended to embrace, His whole body exposed to redeem," &c. It was, again, to show that His soul would descend below, and set the Patriarchs free; to manifest His compassion. "He made His head to melt," says Laur. Justiniani (de Triumph. Agone, cap. xx.), "to show compassion; He bent down to display His grace; He bowed it to show forgiveness;" again, to manifest His love for S. John , the Magdalen, and others like them who were standing by, and to turn away from those who shrank from the Cross; to look away (again) from the title on the Cross, as declining, and teaching us to decline, all worldly sovereignty and pomp; to show that His death, as He was to rise on the third day, was rather sleep than death; for they who sleep bow the head, "I will lay me down in peace," &c. ( Psalm 4:8). Lastly, having fulfilled His mission, He asks, as it were, His Father"s blessing and permission to depart from the world. He seems to say, I have finished My course, I have done and suffered for man"s salvation all Thou commandest. Permit Me to die, and return to Thee. And I ask, too, according to Thy promise ( Psalm 2:8), that all nations may be converted and saved by My Passion and death. I have done Thy bidding, fulfil Thou Thy word. "Religious" persons and Priests, in like manner, when their mission is done, return to their Superiors, bow the head, and ask their blessing, and their former rank and position. S. Bernard pointedly says, in a moral sense, "What avails it to follow Christ if Thou canst not come up with Him? For S. Paul said, "So run that ye may attain." Fix the limits of thy course where Christ fixed His. "He became obedient even unto death." However far thou hast run, if thou hast not gone as far as unto death, thou wilt not win the prize."
