Abandonment, Part 5 of 6

Meditations on the way to Palm Sunday

Finally, ultimately, Jesus was abandoned by God.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” A poignant, passionate plea of one who, in committing his life to God, believing he was following, fulfilling his life’s calling, found himself plunged into the loneliest depths of Godforsaken suffering, deprived of divine help.

“My God, my God!” Jesus didn’t question God’s existence or presence, or God’s power to do something about his plight. But “why have you forsaken me?” Jesus questioned God’s silence.

I wonder. To hold in mind and heart some idea of the divine or some divine ideal of the highest hope or deepest dream for one’s self – around which one’s life is centered, out of which one’s passion is born, from which one’s sense of duty is drawn – only to find it empty and ineffectual in a time of grave need, only to have it all crash on a cross of crisis for which there is no remedy, from which there is no rescue.

Has such a thing ever happened to any of us?

I would guess, yes.

To be continued…

© 2023 PRA

Illustration: Crucifixion (c. 1618-1620), Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)