Below is an excerpt of a private revelation of the death of Jesus Christ by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824), a Catholic mystic. Emmerich was instructed by church authorities to write down her revelations and they were compiled into the book The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, upon which the popular movie The Passion of the Christ was based. Emmerich’s writings about Christ’s passion and death are not viewed by the Catholic Church as literally true or in any way an addenda to the Gospels. They are private revelations that may be read by the faithful with devotion, much as one might read a religious novel.
Chapter XLV
Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Words of Jesus on the Cross—His Death
Jesus was almost fainting; his tongue was parched, and he said: ‘I thirst.’ The disciples who were standing round the Cross looked at him with the deepest expression of sorrow, and he added, ‘Could you not have given me a little water?’ By these words he gave them to understand that no one would have prevented them from doing so during the darkness.
John was filled with remorse, and replied: ‘We did not think of doing so, O Lord.’ Jesus pronounced a few more words, the import of which was: ‘My friends and my neighbours were also to forget me, and not give me to drink, that so what was written concerning me might be fulfilled.’ This omission had afflicted him very much.
The disciples then offered money to the soldiers to obtain permission to give him a little water: they refused to give it, but dipped a sponge in vinegar and gall, and were about to offer it to Jesus, when the centurion Abenadar, whose heart was touched with compassion, took it from them, squeezed out the gall, poured some fresh vinegar upon it, and fastening it to a reed, put the reed at the end of a lance, and presented it for Jesus to drink. …
