A President Preaches of Sin and Redemption
Editor’s note: Father Raymond J. de Souza recorded meditations on the Seven Last Words at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Ogdensburg, New York. They will air on EWTN on Good Friday at 1 p.m. (EDT). It will also be available at ewtn.com and EWTN+. The Register will publish those meditations through Good Friday.
* * * * *
“At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ … And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last. And the curtain of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Mark 15:33-34; 37-38).
The Fourth Word from the Cross can be perplexing. Jesus is not forsaken by the Father. And Jesus does not think that he has been forsaken. He is praying the opening lines of Psalm 22, which begins with the cry of dereliction, but concludes with a determination to praise God in the midst of the assembly (22:23).
St. Paul writes that Jesus was “made sin” even though he “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). In experiencing the deepest consequences of sin, Jesus
