Our Holy Father Leo, Pope of Rome (461)
2 John 1:1-13; Mark 15:22-25, 33-41
Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat
Read Mark 15:22-25, 33-41
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
“E’lo-i, Elo-i, la’ma sabach-tha’ni?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Our Lord has been abandoned by his disciples and friends, he has suffered the agony of interior suffering of this moment on the cross, he has endured humiliation of his own Jewish people through the Sanhedrin, he has been undergone derision and unspeakable tortures at the hands of the Roman soldiers, ridiculed before the local Jewish king and Roman procurator, carried his own death device through the streets of the holiest city being cajoled and rejected by so many along the way, and was cruelly crucified amid two common thieves, bleeding and naked, lifted up for the world to see. His arms outstretched and nailed to the tree such that he need to press down on his nailed feet in order to take a breath, excruciatingly painful each time.
And he cries, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Our Lord was incarnate in the flesh for our salvation. He was like us in every way except sin. Sin is what separates us from God. When we recognise our sin, we may have this experience of abandonment by God, that he has forsaken us (it is but an experience as God will never abandon us – it is his promise to us). Our Lord perhaps went through this experience – the feeling of being abandoned by God. He has willingly embraced all that we experience. What a most wondrous and loving God! To enter into our own experience of abandonment is truly a most excellent gift. In today’s world, we often state that another cannot known our pain because they have not experienced it. Well, here is our Lord – with us!
Most glorious Saviour, glory be to You!
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is the opening verse of Psalm 21 (22). It is a lament of being abandoned by God and turns into a song of praise because the sufferer is liberated by God. Some have stated that our Lord quoted the beginning of this psalm on the cross and thereby intended the entire psalm (which does not take away from his own suffering) in order for us to lift our countenance as see that the Lord is present. Fr. Lawrence Farley (a Canadian) writes that our Lord cries these words and recognise that he is not quoting the psalm; rather, the psalmist is quoting the Lord on the cross. Perhaps it is both. The important thing is to remember that the Lord never abandons us. Never. Even in the midst of suffering, he is there. It is his promise. By word. By deed.
Most glorious Saviour, glory be to You!