Why have You forsaken me?

Today is the day when the crucifixion of Christ is celebrated in the Western Christian world.  I have too much sadness because of what is happening among Christians who profess to be servants of the Lord.  Christianity is under attack because Christ is being questioned like Pilate did with him almost 2000 years ago. Today the questioning is by Christians. Some of us, not in my community, doubt the divinity of Christ. More of us believe it but act as if they are the Anti-Christ. Look only at the unending questioning of everyone discussing his own troubles or envying his neighbour because the neighbour happens to be richer.

Look only at the murdering of many innocents and real humans in the name of liberation and freedom in the Middle East. We do not know anymore who is right in Syria as the media continue to favour the armed resistance.

Look at the huge economic problems driving governments in Europe, Canada and the U.S. to bow to excessive speculation and Capitalism. Look at the incredible looting of money by some corporate elites. Who is being disadvantaged but the weary poor and disabled! The poor of Africa included! And the unborn Children too!

One word comes to my thought: “Why have You forsaken me?” uttered by Christ on that cross when he had already trusted his Father. He was probably repeating words from the Psalmist in agony but that was real suffering to the last breath.  

He had already sweat blood on the night when he was to be betrayed by one of his disciples and left alone by the rest to confront Satanic powers. Generations of artists attempted to replicate the picture of his suffering but none was able to gaze into his bleeding heart, except probably his immaculate mother.

And here how can I imagine a young mother who is watching her son being beaten and crucified with such barbaric methods? Where was the Father when His only Son had already surrendered himself to His protection? The Father, I think subject to ecclesial approval,  could not have watched His own Son suffering without the Father himself suffering too with His Son. He was not the cruel judge but the loving Father who shared with His Son the cross of self-giving from eternity. The Gospel tells us that there was darkness over the earth when Jesus died. Nature itself seems to have protested the death of Christ, but something else happened according to received Tradition.  

When the Romans invented the cross as a tool of hanging their enemies and troublemakers, they knew it was a terrorist machine intended for slow killing and torture so that the perceived criminal’s flesh will be eaten by eagles alive if not already dead. The surprise which we sing tonight in the Christian Byzantine Tradition is the descent of Christ that defeated Hades when he visited it in his divine power as Hades expected to swallow him. Hades full of herself was surprised by the visitor and the power of Satan was crushed. How deep is the wisdom of God who does not stop from loving us!