Day 41: April 5

Readings:

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a great voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lamma sabachthani? Which is, being translated, My God, My God, why have Thou forsaken Me? And some standing by, and hearing, said, Behold, He calls Elijah. And one running and filling a sponge with vinegar, and putting it around a reed, gave Him to drink, saying, Let be; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down. But Jesus, letting out a great voice, let forth the spirit. And the veil of the temple was ripped in two from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion, who stood by over against Him, saw that thus crying out He let out the spirit, he said, Truly this Man was the Son of God! (Mark 15:34-39)

In temptations apparently man is left to himself alone, although he is not; for God is then most nearly present in man’s inmosts and sustains him; therefore when man conquers in temptation he is inmostly conjoined with God, as in temptation the Lord was inmostly united to God His Father. That in the passion of the cross the Lord was left to Himself is evident from His exclamation upon the cross: “O God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46) (True Christian Religion 126)

Reflection:

Jesus calling out in seeming despair shows us the nature of the trials we will face if we want to be united to Him. When we feel most alone the Lord is actually closely present with us, and we will experience that closeness after we pass through temptation. The veil that separated the people in the temple from the ark of the Lord, was ripped in two to show that now nothing separates us from directly reaching out to the Lord for help.

previous		next