Dear Pauline Family & Friends,
As we approach Lent, on the eve of Ash Wednesday 2012, I wish for us to revisit a VIS article (Feb. 8, 2012) on Jesus' Prayer Before Dying from which we could learn from His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI about God's great love.
Let us join in prayer with our dear Pope Benedict XVI. The Holy Father said, "In our prayers, let us bring God our daily crosses, in the
certainty that He is present and listens to us. The cry of Jesus reminds us
that in prayer we must cross the barrier of 'self' and our own problems, and
open ourselves to the needs and sufferings of others. May the prayer of the
dying Jesus on the cross teach us to pray with love for so many brothers and
sisters who feel the burden of daily life, who are experiencing moments of
difficulty, who suffer and hear no words of comfort, that they may feel the
love of God Who never abandons us."
VIS article of Feb. 8, 2012 follows:
QUOTE
JESUS'
PRAYER BEFORE DYING
Vatican
City, (VIS) - The prayer of Jesus at the moment of His death, as narrated by
St. Mark and St. Matthew was the theme of Benedict XVI's catechesis during his
general audience, held this morning in the Paul VI Hall.
"In
the structure of the narrative", the Pope said, "Jesus' cry rises at
the end of three hours of darkness, which had descended upon the earth from
midday to three o'clock in the afternoon. Those three hours of darkness were,
in their turn, the continuation of an earlier period which also lasted three hours
and began with the crucifixion. ... In biblical tradition darkness has an
ambivalent meaning: it is a sign of the presence and action of evil, but also
of the mysterious presence and action of God Who is capable of vanquishing all
darkness. ... In the scene of Jesus' crucifixion darkness envelops the earth,
the darkness of death in which the Son of God immerses Himself, in order bring
life with His act of love".
"Insulted
by various categories of people, surrounded by a darkness covering everything,
at the very moment in which He is facing death Jesus' cry shows that, along
with His burden of suffering and death apparently accompanied by abandonment
and the absence of God, He is entirely certain of the closeness of the Father,
Who approves this supreme act of love and of total giving of Self, although we
do not hear His voice from on high as we did in earlier moments".
Yet,
the Holy Father asked, "what is the meaning of Jesus' prayer? The cry
addressed to the Father: 'my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'" He
explained that "the words Jesus addresses to the Father are the beginning
of Psalm 22, in which the Psalmist expresses the tension between, on the one
hand, being left alone and, on the other, the certain knowledge of God's
presence amongst His people. ... The Psalmist speaks of a 'cry' to express all
the suffering of his prayer before the apparently absent God. At moments of
anguish prayer becomes a cry.
"This
also happens in our own relationship with the Lord", the Pope added.
"In the face of difficult and painful situations, when it seems that God
does not hear, we must not be afraid to entrust Him with the burden we are
carrying in our hearts, we must not be afraid to cry out to Him in our
suffering".
"Jesus
prays at the moment of ultimate rejection by man, at the moment of abandonment.
However, He is aware that God the Father is present even at the instant in
which He is experiencing the human drama of death. Yet nonetheless, a question
arises in our hearts: how is it possible that such a powerful God does not
intervene to save His Son from this terrible trial?"
The
Holy Father explained that "it is important to understand that the prayer
of Jesus is not the cry of a person who meets death with desperation, nor that
of a person who knows he has been abandoned. At that moment Jesus appropriates
Psalm 22, the Psalm of the suffering people of Israel, at that moment He takes
upon Himself not only the suffering of His people, but also that of all men and
women oppressed by evil. ... And He takes all this to the heart of God in the
certainty that His cry will be heard in the resurrection. ... His is a
suffering in communion with us and for us, it derives from love and carries
within itself redemption and the victory of love.
"The
people at the foot of Jesus' cross were unable to understand, they thought His
cry was a supplication to Elijah. ... We likewise find ourselves, ever and
anew, facing the 'today' of suffering, the silence of God - many times we say
as much in our prayers - but we also find ourselves facing the 'today' of the
Resurrection, of the response of God Who took our sufferings upon Himself, to
carry them with us and give us the certain hope that they will be
overcome".
"In our prayers",
the Holy Father concluded, "let us bring God our daily crosses, in the
certainty that He is present and listens to us. The cry of Jesus reminds us
that in prayer we must cross the barrier of 'self' and our own problems, and
open ourselves to the needs and sufferings of others. May the prayer of the
dying Jesus on the cross teach us to pray with love for so many brothers and
sisters who feel the burden of daily life, who are experiencing moments of
difficulty, who suffer and hear no words of comfort, that they may feel the
love of God Who never abandons us."
UNQUOTE
May God grant and sustain you with special blessings as we enter Lent 2012.
Respectfully,
Margie Skeels
Pauline Cooperator - NYC
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