From the Friars: The Cry from the Cross
Once I was speaking with a Jehovah’s Witness who claimed that Jesus’ cry from the Cross, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” showed that he was not a Divine Person. Surely God Incarnate would not feel such despair. I replied that Jesus was quoting Psalm 22, which indeed describes a man who feels abandoned by God, but in the end it is a hymn of triumph. Because God hears the poor man “and has not hid his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.” (v.24) This astonishing Psalm was seen by the early Christians, not only as an amazingly detailed prophecy of Christ’s death, but also a foretelling of His Resurrection, the Holy Eucharist and of the coming universal Church. “My vows I will pay before those who fear him. … May your hearts live forever!” (vv.25-26)” The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied.” (v.26) “All the ends of the earth will shall worship Him.” (v.27)
The Adoration of the Trinity, by Albrecht Dürer. Public Domain, Link
Jesus died as He lived, in intimate prayer with the Father. Pope Benedict XVI, in his brilliant book Behold the Pierced One, explains that we can only know the Lord by participating in His prayer. Because this intimate communion with the Father is the center of Jesus’ identity. We can know many facts about him, and even fulfill external religious obligations, but remain a distant stranger to the One with Whom we were created to know for all eternity.
Pope Benedict also explains how the Last Supper reveals the meaning of the Cross as a self-gift to the Father. Death is thus transformed into a redeeming sacrificial act of love. And the woman at the foot of the Cross participates in her son’s prayer, and the Redemption, in a unique way. Each one of us is called to “Do this in memory of me.”
May this Holy Week be a time of entering more deeply into the prayer of the Suffering Servant, and a more complete gift of self to the Father with Him.
Our Lady Co-Redemptrix pray for us.
Amen.
–Fr. Peter