"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

St. John Chrysostom writes that Jesus cried with a loud voice to teach us that he did not die of necessity, but of his own free will, uttering so strong a voice at the very moment when he was about to come to the end of his life, that he voluntarily sacrificed his life for his sheep, and not through the will and malice of his enemies: “I lay down my life for my sheep.”

Jesus has been on the cross for some time now. Though Jesus is sinless, the weight of sin and its emptiness overwhelms him. He experiences the depth of separation which sin causes between a person and God. This sense of abandonment was perhaps the greatest pain that Jesus endured for our sake. Even though in fact and in faith, the Son of God could never be separated from the Father, becoming sin for us has its toll on Jesus. God did not forsake the first Adam even though he sinned, nor did God forsake Cain, nor the Chosen People when they broke the Covenant. God has never forsaken his people because of their sin. Would he forsake his sinless Son even though he has taken on the sin of humanity? If God did not forsake the first Adam will he forsake the second Adam? It is not abandonment but love. The Father loved the Son and the Son loved the Father. It is also out of love for us that God allowed Jesus to experience the darkness of sin. And yet, we still sin.