358th Meditation
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Ps 22:1).
These are the words of Psalm 22 that Jesus pronounces shortly before He dies.
Our Father never forsook Him, but because Jesus bore all the sin of this world and nailed it to the Cross, God allowed Him to experience “in the flesh” the full weight of estrangement from God, that terrible inner state of being excluded from love and true life, “like the slaughtered lying in the grave” (Ps 88:5).
Jesus could only endure it thanks to the magnitude of His love for the Father and for us men. Thus, the unconditional nature of divine love contrasts with the desolation and darkness of sin. It is this love that saves us! Jesus remains faithful until death to His Father and to the mission He entrusted to Him.
Thus, our Father, through His Son, carried this enormous burden for us. Only He, who was free from sin, could save us! Only the love of the Father, which went to the extreme in the Passion of His Son, could pierce the tremendous darkness and transform it into shining light.
And this word that Jesus exclaims from the Cross is not the only one; it is even surpassed by the last word that the Savior pronounces: “It is fulfilled” (Jn 19:30).
With His gaze fixed on the Father, Jesus pierced this darkness and snatched us from the clutches of the prince of darkness. His love is greater than all hatred; more powerful than all the dominion of evil; brighter than a thousand suns….
It is precisely on the Cross – in the greatest darkness – that the love of our Father shines with such intensity that all those who have closed their hearts to love are blinded, until, after all, the Savior’s mercy ends up reaching them.