"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Jesus cried to the Heavenly Father asking, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?". Whenever, I reflect this verse, I see Jesus humility and humbleness of His human attire, which He took to save us. One can easily connect with this status of Jesus. He is fully human and fully God, for Him to cry out to Father in absolute abandonment like this, encouraging to know that He advocates for us, knowing our human frailty and limitations.
This verse indicates that human soul needs constant guidance and assurance from God's presence throughout the life. Inability to perceive God's presence near in times of troubles pushes the soul in the mode of desperation. Many times in our life, we cry out to God in the similar manner.
When I reflect the human aspects of Jesus's condition, I understand how Jesus represented us at the cross in fully human conditions. I realize that when human encounter the problems, many a times, we are consumed by the problem which is in front of us, which makes us blind to God's presence. Overwhelming problems pull the soul to the here to earth approach where soul get troubled due to the separation from the divine presence as body and spirit desperately focus on the remedy of earthly matter. Many saints have called this stage as a dark nights of the soul, where soul thinks that it is not in sync with Heavenly Father or soul is not able to perceive divine presence, which is the ongoing consolation of the soul. Soul becomes desperate to reconnect itself with Father and cries constantly seeking God's presence. While all human undergo this stage some time of their life, only those who have climbed to the heights of the spiritual realm, perceive this separation from the divinity, as their functions revolve around the soul. Their life is soul dominated life. Their life is moral perceptive conscience led life. So they perceive quickly, the absence of God's presence, when it is divine imposed. One may come under this separation of wilderness by two conditions.
Number one, the human condition, where body , mind, and spirit, separates itself willingly from God's presence. Accumulation of venial sins, which could cloud the conscience with complacency, which could result in this stage. Human conditions which buries human into the unnatural, unwanted busy life, which could lead to the Luke warmness towards God's presence by simply lack of communication leading to avoiding heavenly graces. Human sins and unrepentant heart can keep the soul in darkness for prolonged period of time. If not intervened, it could chain the soul into the slavery of flesh dominated life. In this situation also soul undergoes imprisonment, where it is deprived of God's presence. Human soul is a divine sanctuary, which can be satisfied only by God's presence. Body may try to place many things other than God to replace the vacuum inside the soul, but soul becomes restless in resisting non Godly things. In this stage, human undergo wilderness, which is natural, in the void of the perception of God's presence. In human conditions, soul is troubled however, the body , mind and spirit do not perceive or acknowledge the status. So soul is left abandoned in this situation, as body, mind and spirit functions in separation from soul and God in sinful life.
Jesus Christ, as He was paying atonement for our sins, as He was carrying all our sins on His shoulder and paying with His life, did he feel the total abandonment comes from the sins of the humanity at that time? as he
cried out, ""My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
However, there is another status documented by many holy people and saints that they undergo such a desperate wilderness in the void of God's presence, in the absence of human imposed conditions. They are troubled by this wilderness status to the level that they become restless without God's presence. So, the question is, Does God, retrieve His divine presence from His people? or People are not able to see God's presence in the midst of trouble due to human nature, which focuses on trouble? Why holy people undergo this fire of separation? Is it their final test to prove their faithfulness to God? These questions are unanswerable by human reasoning as they are mysteries of human life. Jesus underwent similar condition. He underwent total abandonment. I understand, incarnated word of God Jesus was fully God and Fully human. However, He laid down His divine attire to undergo our sufferings as human and cried, ""My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He has come to the time of laying His human life at the altar of God and He shed His divine power and cried, '"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" In this status, Jesus abandoned the divine side of His incarnation to suffer in our place in the atonement of our sin, which is His sacrifice as the Chief priest of atonement.
There is another side to this status, when we suffer we are not alone. Omnipresence of God is all around us, whether we perceive it or not. Sometime we can perceive and other times we may not be able to perceive due to various reasons. All the more, during suffering, the divine presence is a sure assurance. Many times God's presence suffers one with us, when we undergo the conditions in our life. Such times, it is my understanding, if we are not able to perceive the divine assistance, which means, God is in control, and He is present not outside the problem, where we tend to look for, but He is in the midst of the problem, and He is surely with us. In this situation, if we study the problem, if we constantly trusting Him in seeking His presence within the problem, we may find consolation. During this time, a thirst of prayer, a way of prayer, a thought of prayer, a wisdom of thought, a subtle plan, people associated in the situation, environment related to the situation, the events preceding the problems, the revelations prior, the faith exercises of past, the experiences of faithfulness of God in the past, etc.... are some of the indications of God's presence in us in the midst of the problem. A desire to pray in the midst of a problem is a sure sign of God's presence. These situations always lead to an exponential growth of the soul. These situations, some of them are orchestrated by Holy Spirit guidance. The point is God is in us and He intervenes through us in these situations, so that when we cross this milestone we increase in our faith in multi-fold.
In Jesus Cry, we can see the prayer lifted from His soul searching for God's presence " "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", This prayer is an indication of God's presence being one with Jesus Christ. I believe, Son of God, God Himself, in Him, Father, Son and Holy Spirit made a joint sacrifice at the cross in the atonement of Our sin. Father God's love for us is so great that He suffered with His Son on the cross. Holy Spirit love for us is so great that He suffered with Jesus on the Cross. So Jesus cried in human attire in the presence of Father and Holy Spirit, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Comments
Post a Comment