The Victory of Love
In his book “Jesus of Nazareth, Holy Week,” Pope Benedict
shares his insights into the meaning of Jesus’ anguished cry from the cross,
“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” – heard twice in today’s readings
(Ps 22:2, Mt 27:46).
“It is no ordinary cry of abandonment. Jesus is praying the
great psalm of suffering Israel, and so he is taking upon himself all the
tribulation… of all those in this world who suffer from God’s concealment. He
brings the world’s anguished cry at God’s absence before the heart of God
himself. He identifies himself … with all who suffer under God’s “darkness;” he
takes their cry, their anguish, and all their helplessness upon himself – and
in doing so, he transforms it.
… Psalm 22 pervades the whole Passion story and points beyond
it. The public humiliation, the mockery… the pain, the terrible thirst, the
piercing of Jesus’ hands and feet, the casting lots for his garments – the whole
Passion is… anticipated in the psalm. Yet when Jesus utters the opening words
of the psalm, the whole of this great prayer is essentially already present –
including the certainty of an answer to prayer, to be revealed in the
Resurrection… The extreme cry of anguish is at the same time the certainty of
an answer from God, the certainty of salvation – not only for Jesus himself,
but for “many.”
Christ prays as both head and as body… And as he prays as
“body,” …all of our struggles, our voices, our anguish, and our hope are
present in his praying. We ourselves are the ones praying this psalm, but now
in a new way, in fellowship with Christ. And in Him, past, present, and future
are always united.
…This perspective takes nothing away from the horror of
Jesus’ Passion. On the contrary, it increases it, because now it is not merely
individual, but truly bears within itself the anguish of us all. Yet at the
same time, Jesus’ suffering is a Messianic Passion. It is suffering in
fellowship with us and for us, in a solidarity – born of love – that already
includes redemption, the victory of love.”
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