When the Gospel writers state that Our Blessed Lord cried out this 4th word from the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34), what type of cry was it?
Q. Was it a cry of despair?
A. No! Since “despair” signifies the voluntary refusal to hope in God’s promises and the means God provides to obtain the ends which He promises, Christ could not have given into despair because He underwent His Passion with perfect knowledge that He was fulfilling the divine will.
Q. Was it a cry of damnation?
A. No! Since “damnation” signifies the pain of definitive privation of God’s grace, knowledge, and vision due to a personal aversion to God’s will, Christ could not have experienced damnation because He underwent His Passion out of perfect loving obedience to His Father’s holy will.
Q. If it was not a cry of despair nor damnation, what was it a cry of?
To answer this question, it is helpful to first understand that Jesus’ cry was a cry from the opening line of Psalm 22. The Poet was reciting His own poetry. Just as when someone today recites the opening of a national anthem, “O Canada!” and it triggers the entire meaning of the song for Canadians, so too in Jesus’ time, reciting the opening of a psalm, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1), would have triggered the entire meaning of the psalm for faithful Jews, such as Mary and John at the foot of the Cross.
So, for our Blessed Mother and the beloved disciple, what was the meaning of this cry?
A. It was a cry of eschatological desire!
St. Thomas Aquinas understood “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” to be a cry of eschatological desire, that is, a “both-and” of extreme suffering in the present moment and perfect confidence in future fulfillment.
1st – Suffering in the Present
On the one hand, Christ recited the opening line of Psalm 22 to reveal the tremendous suffering that He underwent out of LOVE for us. Here are the verses of pain from Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The words of my groaning do nothing to save me. My God, I call by day but you do not answer, at night, but I find no respite… But I am a worm, less than human, scorn of mankind, contempt of the people; all who see me jeer at me, they sneer and wag their heads, ‘He trusted himself to Yahweh, let Yahweh set him free! Let him deliver him, as he took such delight in him.’… Do not hold aloof, for trouble is upon me, and no one to help me! Many bulls are encircling me, wild bulls of Bashan closing in on me. Lions ravening and roaring open their jaws at me. My strength is trickling away, my bones are all disjointed, my heart has turned to wax, melting inside me. My mouth is dry as earthenware, my tongue sticks to my jaw. You lay me down in the dust of death. A pack of dogs surrounds me, a gang of villains closing in on me as if to hack off my hands and my feet. I can count every one of my bones, while they look on and gloat; they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing” (vv. 1-2, 6-8, 12-18).
Because of His divine plenitude of love and perfect knowledge, the potential cries of “despair” and “damnation” that Christ perceived at Calvary were not in himself, but in us. The Head of the Body experienced tremendous suffering for His members & the consequences of sin in fallen humanity, including the fear of mortality, deep sadness, and a loss of the sense of God’s consoling presence but did NOT experience the sin itself.
“Christ grieved not only over the loss of His own bodily life, but also over the sins of all others. And this grief in Christ surpassed all grief of every contrite heart, both because it flowed from a greater wisdom and charity, by which the pang of contrition is intensified, and because He grieved at the one time for all sins, according to Is. 53:4: “Surely He has borne our sorrows” (Aquinas, ST III, q. 46, a. 6, ad 4).
2nd – Hope in Future Fulfillment
On the other hand, Christ recited the opening line of Psalm 22 to reveal His perfect knowledge and confidence of future fulfillment that God would vindicate Him from His enemies. Here are the verses of confidence from Psalm 22: “Yet you, the Holy One, who make your home in the praises of Israel, in you our ancestors put their trust, they trusted and you set them free. To you they called for help and were delivered; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. It was you who drew me from the womb and soothed me on my mother’s breast. On you was I cast from my birth, from the womb I have belonged to you. Yahweh, do not hold aloof! My strength, come quickly to my help, rescue my soul from the sword, the one life I have from the grasp of the dog! Save me from the lion’s mouth, my poor life from the wild bulls’ horns! I shall proclaim your name to my brothers, praise you in full assembly: ‘You who fear Yahweh, praise him! All the race of Jacob, honour him! Revere him, all the race of Israel!’ For he has not despised nor disregarded the poverty of the poor, has not turned away his face, but has listened to the cry for help. Of you is my praise in the thronged assembly, I will perform my vows before all who fear him. The poor will eat and be filled, those who seek Yahweh will praise him, ‘May your heart live for ever.’ The whole wide world will remember and return to Yahweh, all the families of nations bow down before him. For to Yahweh, ruler of the nations, belongs kingly power! All who prosper on earth will bow before him, all who go down to the dust will do reverence before him. And those who are dead, their descendants will serve him, will proclaim his name to generations still to come; and these will tell of his saving justice to a people yet unborn: he has fulfilled it” (vv. 3-5, 9-10, 19-31).
Christ knew perfectly that He was fulfilling all of the prophetic utterances of Psalm 22. That’s why Psalm 22 is considered a Thanksgiving Psalm—to thank God for deliverance, triumph, feasting, and good news going out to all the nations! Therefore, this cry is BOTH an exclamation of tremendous suffering in the presence of evil AND a proclamation of triumphant victory over sin, death, and Satan. How remarkable to express such divine confidence before any sign of victory!
Fr. Raymond Brown notes that the “cry” is often seen in the New Testament as an initiation of the eschaton, such as the cry of Jesus in raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:43), the cry of the archangel at the end of times in 1 Thess. 4:16, and the cry of the angel in Revelation 10:3 to reveal the seven thunders (cf. The Death of the Messiah, 2:1045.). “In the Gospel of Matthew, the cry of agony from the cross (27:46) is immediately accompanied by such eschatological signs: the sun darkens, the temple rock is split open, and its curtain is torn, the earth trembles, the dead are raised, and the gentiles begin to recognize Christ (27:45, 51–54). In Mark’s Gospel, the eschatological effects are more discreet but are still present. Darkness covers the earth, the temple veil is rent, and (most importantly) the centurion is converted to a recognition of Jesus as the Son of God” (TJ White).
Summary: The Both-And of Eschatological Desire
To conclude, Christ’s cry of eschatological desire reveals how His perfect act of loving obedience substitutes for our disobedience in order to heal in our human nature the injustice done to God’s loving wisdom by human sin. Because Christ underwent His Passion out of perfect love for the Father and for us, love has the final word.
To conclude, two final thoughts for personal reflection.
1st. Christ had recourse to Scripture in His moment of suffering. Do you go to Scripture in your pain? Do you go to the Psalms to teach you how to pray in your times of agony?
2nd. Christ took His “why” to God in His pain. Do you take your “whys” to God? Do you have the courage to address God personally in your pain? Do you have the vulnerability to cry out to God if you feel forsaken by Him?
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