Summary of 7 Words To the Cross by Fulton J. Sheen

What is your reaction to the Cross? How do you respond to Christ crucified?

In this book, Fulton Sheen seeks to answer these questions by looking at how 7 different people or groups spoke to Christ on the Cross on Calvary Hill.

These 7 reactions repeat in every generation. We too can have these 7 different reactions.

As you read the 7 different groups, consider which group you feel a part of right now…

1st Group: The Humanists

Who are the humanists? Humanists are those who believe that man is naturally good, that progress is inevitable through science, and that human reason, by its own effort, is able to restore peace to the world and to consciences. Therefore, humanists regard all suggestions about faith, grace, and the supernatural order as impractical and unnecessary.

What is their reaction to the Cross? Their representative on Calvary was “the passerby” when he said, “You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Mt 27:40). The humanists on Calvary thought themselves wise because they had a passing acquaintance with Christ. This continues in every generation. Humanists boast of their knowledge and superior wisdom. Humanists want an education of self-expression, a God without justice, a morality without religion, a Christ without a Cross, a Christianity without sacrifice, and a kingdom of God without redemption.

What is Our Lord’s response? Our Lord responds to the humanists who boast, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Christ reminded the humanists that all their wisdom was ignorance: “Forgive them!” Humanists… “Do you not know that to have a world without a Cross is in itself a cross? Do you know a mother worthy of the name who would not, out of love, take the pain of her tender babe as her very own, because she loves? Why, then, should not Supreme Love, in the face of evil, seek to take the penalty that sin deserves, that the evil might be innocent again?”

2nd Group: The Sinners

Who are the sinners? Sinners are those who are so bad that they are sick with themselves. They recognize their own evil and seek a remedy.

What is their reaction to the Cross? Their representative on Calvary was the good thief on the right. At the beginning of the Crucifixion, he cursed and blasphemed the Savior. But suddenly his soul, lighted by fires from that central Cross, turned to a King who was being mocked and asked to be one of His subjects: “Lord, remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42). The conversion of the good thief is the key to the conversion of the modern world. Men will return to God, not because they are good, but because they recognize that they are evil.

What is Our Lord’s response? To the sinners who repent, Our Lord responds with a promise for paradise: “Today, thou shall be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Our Blessed Lord shows the supreme instance of bringing good out of evil. God, in His infinite wisdom, had reached deep into the lower layers of humanity and picked out of its dregs two worthless derelicts, and He used one of them as the escort of His Eternal Son.

3rd Group: The Selfish

Who are the selfish? The selfish are those who feel that salvation is an individual matter and that religion exists any impediments to their selfish existence. When the selfish are in distress, they ask, “Why should God do this to me?” When the selfish sin, they say, “What harm does my sin do to anyone else?”

What is their reaction to the Cross? Their representative on Calvary was the thief on the left. Unlike the thief on the right who cried out for mercy, the thief on the left, in the supreme expression of selfishness, cried out with bitterness of soul: “If thou be Christ, save thyself and us” (Luke 23:29).

What is Our Lord’s response? Our Lord did not answer the selfish thief directly, but He did answer Him indirectly when looking down from the Cross, He addressed the two most beloved creatures on earth — Mary, His Mother, and John, His disciple: “Woman, behold thy son. . . . Son, behold thy mother” (John 19:26–27). He called Mary “Woman” and John “Son” in order to show that religion is not a selfish matter but it is rather relational. He was setting up a new family, a new social relationship. 

4th Group: Intelligentsia

Who are the intelligentsia? Every age has its intelligentsia, and by the intelligentsia is here meant not the educated, but those who have been educated beyond their intelligence. The intelligentsia are those who know enough about religion to distort it.

What is their reaction to the Cross? The intelligentsia of the time — the chief priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees, said: ‘‘He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he is the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him now deliver him if he will have him; for he said: I am the Son of God” (Matt. 27:42–43). The intelligentsia always knew enough about religion to distort it; hence, they took each of the three titles that Christ had claimed for Himself, “Savior,” “King of Israel,” and “Son of God,” and turned them into ridicule.

What is Our Lord’s response? For all their mocking there was an answer — the total, complete surrender to God — the smiting of pride into nothingness: “My God! My God! Why hast thou abandoned me?” (Matthew 27:46, cf. Psalm 22:1). The Word made flesh was having recourse to His own words (cf. Psalm 22:1). The poet was reciting His own poetry. It was the poetry of redemption. The courts of justice, the mobs, the unrepentant, the intelligentsia had now done all they could to break Him down, by throwing back all His love in His face, but that great royal love remains unbroken. For in the very dark moment when He felt the isolation and abandonment that sin merited, He in His human nature calls on God…. This is the foundation of religion and the way of salvation to all the intelligentsia: by becoming obedient; by making a total surrender to God; by acknowledging creaturehood; by pleading for restored fellowship.

5th Group: Moderns

Who are the moderns? The moderns are those who believe in moderation. They hate excesses, either good or evil; compromise is the very essence of life; they have an “open mind” — in fact, so open that they never close it on anything absolutely right and true; they are what Scripture calls “lukewarm,” but they prefer to call themselves “broad.” Criticism. Sarcasm. Humour at the expense of others.

What is their reaction to the Cross? The moderns represented at the Cross were called “the bystanders.” These original moderns loved their puns and their humour at the expense of religion. The occasion for it was the fourth word of Our Lord from the Cross: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” It was spoken in Hebrew: “Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani” (Matt. 27:46). The bystanders knew very well what that meant. But to those who willed to mock, it was a fine opportunity for a pun. Pretending that they understood him to say “Eloi” rather than “Eli,” or “Elijah” rather than “God,” they mocked Him and said, “This man calleth Elias. . . . Let us see whether Elias will come to deliver him” (Matt. 27:47–49; Mark 15:34–36). It was a typical attitude of many who think religion means something else than it actually does: mistaking Eloi for Eli, Elijah for God, religion for social service, contemplation for dreaming, mortification for morbidity, confession for psychoanalysis, and the papacy for politics.

What is Our Lord’s response? As Our Lord did not answer those who mocked Him in the fourth word, neither does He answer those who mock Him now. The perfect soul never permits itself to be drawn down to the level of those who mock, for “mockery is the fume of little hearts.” His words? “I thirst” (John 19:28). There was genuine thirst there, for no one could be crucified without it. But under that physical symbol of thirst was hidden a spiritual thirst, and St. John, who was at the foot of the Cross, made it known: He spoke that the Scriptures might be fulfilled! What Scriptures? His own words: “I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink” (Matt. 25:35). It was a thirst for the salvation of souls, a desire to be on fire for God. That is the key to salvation for salvation. To be set on fire for the salvation of souls!

6th Group: Sensationalists

Who are the sensationalists? Sensationalists judge religion by their feelings rather than by their minds and wills. They judge religion by drama. They wanted entertainment. In every age, they say: “Come down from the Cross with rosebuds in place of scars, garlands in place of a crown of thorns, and with power instead of sacrifice.”

What is their reaction to the Cross? The sensationalists were represented at the Cross by the Roman soldiers. For sensationalists, religion must always be dramatic. There, within a stone’s throw of them — was being enacted the tremendous drama of redemption, and they only sat and gambled. Their words? “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” (Luke 23:37).

What is Our Lord’s response? Our Lord responded that true religion is always unspectacular: “It is finished” (John 19:30). This word was not the sigh of a sufferer finding relief; it was the word of a Divine Artist finishing the work His Father had given Him to do — finished at about the age of thirty-three. Thus, the perfecting of creation by redemption and the restoration to fallen man of the dignity of divine adoption was rendered all the more undramatic because He did not finish His work with an autobiography. Rather, His autobiography was a biography. He did not say: “I finished it”; but “It is finished.”

7th Group: The Thinkers

Who are the thinkers? By “thinkers” we do not necessarily mean the educated but rather all those who concern themselves with the two ultimate questions of life: Why am I here, and where am I going? “Thinkers” are those who, once they are brought in contact with the spectacle of death, think the whole problem through.

What is their reaction to the Cross? The centurion at Calvary is the representative of this group. “As a soldier, he was often brought into contact with death. On this occasion, He had nailed Our Lord to the Cross, then sat down, shook dice for His garments and watched Him die. But there was something peculiar about that Figure on the central Cross. Often the tongues of those crucified had to be cut out to prevent their blasphemies. But here was one who forgave those who sent Him to His death. Then, too, he noted that as the end grew near, He seemed to be getting stronger as if death were not coming to meet Him, but He was going out to meet it. He was not dying on this Cross as other men died in bed. The very second of death, He spoke in a loud, clear voice as if men were not taking away His life, but He was laying it down of Himself: “Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit” (Luke 23:46). It made the sergeant think! Are we just animals who eat and sleep and then lie down to die and rot, or is there something after death, a God into whose hands we go to render an account of our stewardship? He shook off the thought for a moment… He went on thinking about life and death as he broke the legs of the two thieves, for they were not yet dead. Coming to the central Cross and finding Christ dead, He ran a spear into His side. Blood and water came out; the Divine Miser had hoarded up a few drops, to prove that death is not the end of life. These drops trickled down the spear, touched the centurion’s hand, and tradition has it that he was immediately cured of a lifelong affliction. In any case, he glorified God by saying: “Indeed this was the Son of God” (Matt. 27:54).