On The Edge Of Darkness

We follow our Lord to the foot of the Cross and find ourselves standing on the edges of darkness-the darkness of the Crucifixion. It is a darkness so deep that even nature cries out in a kind of convulsive protest. It is a darkness so deep that the Man who lived closer to God than anyone else who ever lived, the Man who loved God more than any other man who ever lived, this Man in this moment cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”: Why have You abandoned Me? Why have You left Me? How do we explain this word of anguish, this word of desolation, from that someone who loved God so intensely? This is the task we have before us if we want to enrich our understanding of the Crucifixion event.

You may be aware of the fact that these words are the first lines of the Twenty-second Psalm which, if read all the way through, ends…