“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

THAT’S one of the last words of Christ (cfr. Mt 27,46)

before he gave up his spirit on the cross. It’s an intriguing

statement, considering that Christ is God who can absorb and suffer

anything as if in a breeze. Nothing could actually bother or disturb

him.

          But let’s remember that Christ is also a man. He is God the

Son who assumed our human nature precisely to save us. And in saving

us, he had to pay for our sins. He bore all our sins and the

consequences that go with our sins. He had to do this because he is

the very pattern of our humanity. He is also the savior of our

humanity that has been damaged by our sin.

          And so, his suffering and death are real. They are not just

theatrics, something simply staged and contrived. Since Christ is one

person with two natures, his suffering and death are not just in his

human side. The whole Christ, the whole person of Christ in his

divinity and humanity, suffered and died.

          If we cannot fully understand that, just leave it at that.

It’s a mystery, just as how one person can have two natures is also a

mystery. We are not expected to understand this mystery fully. This is

where we have to bow down to what our faith tells and accept what it

teaches us.

          Truth is, that Christ had to voice out that ‘complaint’ to

the Father simply points to one clear fact—that all our sins that he

bore are no mean or petty thing. They are truly horrible things that

would make even the God-made-man express such pain.

          And we cannot deny the most serious gravity of our

sinfulness. Even the most saintly among us fall into sin, not only

from time to time but all the time. And it’s not just small and simple

sins, but rather deadly sins.

          Our sinfulness has also become habitual. Many are already

obsessed and addicted to sin. Besides, our sinfulness is not anymore

simply personal. It has become systemic, structural, inculturated. The

situation can be so bad that we can even say that the sense of sin is

disappearing. No wonder then that Christ who had to bear all our sins

could not help but make that filial ‘complaint’ to his Father. “Why

have you forsaken me,” he said.

          But we should neither forget that after that ‘complaint,’ he

simply proceeded to do what was expected of him. He went all the way

such that he also said, “It is finished.” (Jn 19,30) He said this when

after saying, “I thirst,” he was offered in a most malicious way a

sponge of sour wine.

          The consideration of these complaining words of Christ

should motivate us to be more active in resisting sin and to be more

willing and generous in our suffering. We should assume the mind of

Christ toward suffering whenever we are made to suffer because of our

sin and the sin of the others. That way, we would know that our

suffering would have a redemptive value.

          It should motivate us also to try our best to clean up our

environment and our culture of anything that are already sinful or

that can be an occasion of sin.