"It is finished!" [John 19:30] the Lord declares and then calls upon the Father saying, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit!" [Luke 23:46].
Jesus has fulfilled His mission. But not without making the necessary preparations for the people that He will be leaving behind. To His beloved mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, he entrusted His disciples represented by the Apostle John [see John 19:26] and to the Apostle John, representing all His disciples, He entrusted His beloved mother [see John 19:27].
Jesus's mission is over. But not for the Church. The Church which He has founded upon the Rock, Peter, was just about to start her mission - a mission which is both a mere continuity and unique in itself. It was a mere continuity because Christ our Lord's mission is one and cannot be duplicated. His saving act is merely continued by the Church visibly through the Sacraments.
But it was also a unique mission because no other institution has been given the role of continuing the saving act of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only through the Church that the Lord gave the mission to go into the ends of the earth to proclaim the Gospel and to make disciples of all nations with the corresponding assurance that He will accompany her until the end of time [see Matthew 28: 19-20]. Other than this abiding presence of the Lord, He also sent the Holy Spirit to guide the Church.
Jesus died in order to give life to His Church. Jesus died in order for the Church to bring salvation to all the world. Jesus died in order for sin to die upon the cross and in order for all who shall look upon the cross to be spared. For Jesus has turned the cross from an instrument of punishment to a tool of salvation; from being an instrument of death toward being a tool for eternal life.
Like Jesus we ought to offer our lives upon the cross so that by dying there we might also gain eternal life through His resurrection.
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