From the responsorial psalm: “All who see me scoff at me; they mock me with parted lips, they wag their heads: ‘He relied on the LORD; let him deliver him, let him rescue him, if he loves him.’ My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 15:1-39)
Mark relates the excruciating details of the passion, crucifixion, and death of Jesus until the moment Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” A prayerful reading of the immense pain Jesus suffers reveals who we are to God and the divinity of Christ that breaks through to humanity in his redemptive sacrifice. At the moment of Jesus’ death, Mark tells us this: “The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. When the centurion who stood facing him saw how he breathed his last he said, “’Truly this man was the Son of God!’” How is it that the same Jesus who rides a colt into Jerusalem and hears from the crowd, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” days later is mocked, tortured, and put to death at the hands of the people in Jerusalem? It was necessary for the sake of our redemption that he was both suffering servant and Lord of all, King of kings.
God, help me humbly accept that I cannot fully understand the mystery of the suffering and death of your Only Begotten Son. In fallen human nature, I see in myself the one crying “Hosanna” as Jesus enters Jerusalem; a sinner, I see in myself one among others in a crowd who crucifies him. Help me, Lord, in brokenness turn more toward you. Give me the grace to understand the necessity of a Savior of us all and what it means to me that Jesus died on a cross to destroy sin and death and to restore the hope of eternal life. “For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”
image: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
