Deacon Jack’s Homily for Palm Sunday 2020
 

Psalm 22 is our responsorial psalm for today. It is the famous psalm that begins “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?”

I know a lot of us have - in the past month or so - cried out to God on behalf of those afraid, the sick, the dying and all who feel abandoned by God. All who are juggling family and job and care for others, who feel abandoned in the uncertainty and the darkness of this valley of tears.

I am looking at today’s psalm because it seems to me that every prayer that was ever uttered from the beginning of time - all the suffering of all of humanity - is caught up in the words of Jesus: "my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

It’s the cry of the suffering servant in the voice of King David, who wrote the psalm. Even though he’s king of Israel, even though he is an anointed one, he undergoes suffering and rejection. David was never crucified, but he uses this as an image of his experience of his suffering that’s so great that it’s as if he’s being put to death.

This is a troubling passage for a lot of people because when they hear Jesus cry out like that, it can sound as if he is despairing in his final moments, as if he not only feels abandoned by God, but thinks that God has turned his back on him or forgotten him.

I don't think that Jesus despaired, or thought that God turned his back on him, because he's quoting Psalm 22. If you read the whole Psalm, you will find that, although it begins in desolation and the experience of David feeling abandoned by God, it ends with the conversion of the nations, the conversion of the pagans, the conversion of all the families of the earth.

Before his death, when Jesus quotes the opening line of this psalm, he forecasts both his suffering and his eventual deliverance. The very, very hopeful outcome of this psalm rules out the possibility that Jesus despaired. In quoting this psalm, Jesus depicts the plight of a righteous sufferer - the innocent man. Although he is innocent and mocked and abused by the ungodly, he turns to God in his distress and petitions God for deliverance by citing the Psalm’s opening line. Jesus expresses his agony as he experiences the fullness of rejection. The entire plot of Psalm 22 includes the humiliation giving way to vindication. Jesus doesn’t consider his passion meaningless or a mark of failure. He doesn’t give in to the sin of despair. As it says in the psalm, he trusts in God and surrenders his spirit to the Father like the innocent sufferer, who is confident that the Father will turn his misery into victory.

This psalm says that the cry of the one who is apparently forsaken by God is actually heard by the Father. The Father doesn't turn his back on the one who is afflicted, and instead hears his prayer and answers the prayer.

In today’s Gospel from Matthew, when Jesus cries out, at the very foot of his cross is a Roman soldier, a pagan Centurion, who sees Jesus, hears the cry, and doesn't say “truly this man despaired of God,” but says “truly this man was the son of God. ”Right there at the foot of the cross, the conversion of the Gentiles begins. So Jesus not only quotes the Psalm, he fulfills it with the beginning of the conversion of the nations in the words of the Centurion.

The Church tells us about this cry of Jesus in the Catechism: “All the troubles, for all time, of humanity enslaved by sin and death, all the petitions and intercessions of salvation history, are summed up in this cry of the incarnate Word. Here the Father accepts them, and, beyond all hope, answers them by raising his Son.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2606)

In other words, the Catechism is saying that when Jesus cries out, what he is actually doing is speaking on behalf of all of humanity. Yes, he is crying out in anguish. He feels the pain of the cross, but he's using the inspired words of Scripture to cry out to God on behalf of humanity, who feels abandoned by God in their suffering, who feels abandoned by God in the darkness of this valley of tears, such that every prayer that was ever uttered from the beginning of time until the end of time, all the suffering of all of humanity, is caught up in the words of Jesus, "my God, my God, why have you abandoned me," which is spoken as a prayer to the Father. And the Father answers that prayer by raising Jesus from dead.

So if you've ever felt abandoned by God. If you've ever felt forsaken by God. If you've ever felt like God has forsaken you, always remember that Jesus knows what that's like. He experiences that in his human nature on the cross, but he also cries out to God with a psalm, which tells us God doesn't abandon his righteous ones and that he will answer their prayers and bring about the salvation of the world.

We forget that most of human history was lived by most of the people in poverty and slavery, under the rule of tyrants and dictators, where life was truly a valley of tears.

We are living in the most blessed country during the most blessed time. We are so used to an unparalleled blessing of freedom, that the restrictions on our movements, on our worship, the temporary loss of employment, loss of things we love and the harsh break in our normal life seem like too much.

But God doesn't abandon his righteous ones. He will hear and answer our prayers.

(attributed to the work of Brant Pitre)  

- Deacon Jack Schaefer