By St. John of Kronstadt
“My God, My God! Why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46)
Thus, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus, cried out for the sins of the world, and therefore for you and me, brothers and sisters. “My God, My God! Why have you forsaken me?" He cried out because of His human nature, which had weaknesses and not sins. But how could God the Father, who sent Him into the world to save the world, abandon His only begotten, His beloved Son? The Divinity was inseparable and will remain inseparable forever along with the human nature of Jesus Christ. This abandonment means, beloved brethren, that human nature in Jesus Christ was exposed to all the torment, all the horror of the sufferings on the cross, all the terrible, mortal grief that He experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane before His capture by a gang of villains led by Judas Iscariot. He then began to be horrified and grieved, and said to his disciples: “My soul grieves unto death; abide here and watch with Me” (Matthew 26:38). Imagine what the physical torment was like, what was the sorrow of the all-righteous and all-loving, sensitive soul of the God-man, who suffered execution for all human sins, for the sins of Adam and Eve and all their descendants without exception, and therefore for you and me! And you and I, brethren, are more sinners and are guilty of countless punishments for our countless iniquities.
Judge, I say, judge, what was the acuteness, bitterness and burning intensity of the torment of the cross, what was the spiritual grief of the Lamb of God, who took upon Himself the sins of the world, how hard it was for God to abandon Him, that is, leaving His humanity with all the burning of suffering, to His soul all the overwhelming, boundless, terrible sorrow. After this, you will understand in what state was the soul of the God-man as He was hanging on the cross when He cried out: “My God, My God! Why have You forsaken Me?” Yes, it was, together with His most pure body, in a state of terrible, unimaginable and indescribable suffering.
Know then, O man, whoever you are, the bitterness, the absurdity, the ugliness, the abomination, the folly, the disgustingness, the torment, the deadliness of sin; know how unnatural it is to us, how it is not proper in our divine nature, created in the image of God; and how the all-holy, all-perfect, all-good Divinity abhors it, and after that judge all of you how we should deal with sin, which deceives us and defiles and perverts our nature, corrupts it, plunges it into eternal dishonor, into eternal sorrow, into eternal torment; if we do not hate it with all our hearts, that is, if we do not repent of our iniquities, if we do not turn away from sin completely. Imagine, imagine what would have happened to us if the only-begotten Son of God had not suffered for our sins and satisfied God's righteousness, and if God had left us forever by His grace? Oh, one imagination, one light idea of it chills the blood and plunges the soul into trembling.
Oh, if only I and all sinners would always remember this abandonment of unrepentant sinners by God, especially when sin tempts us, and everyone would flee from sin more than from a snake, than from a bloodthirsty beast, than from a cruel enemy.
Oh, then there would be many more people escaping; then the earth would not be struck by terrible disasters for the sins of man: crop failures, floods, destructive earthquakes affecting thousands of human lives, widespread diseases, damage to fruits, destructive fires. Then it would be God's paradise, abounding in truth and all the natural gifts of God. Then there would be peace and security on earth; there would not have been these terrible atrocities, among which we recently saw the most terrible of the terrible, the brazen and vicious murder of a peace-loving and loving king, meek in broad daylight.
Oh, how the world is now filled with lawless men and iniquities! But how long will it continue to exist, this sinful world, this land - the dwelling place of sin, stained with the blood of innocent victims, this accumulation of all sorts of abominations? Isn’t the time of worldwide fiery cleansing already approaching? Yes, it is certainly close. If the Apostles in their time spoke about its proximity, then we can speak even more decisively about the proximity of the end of the age.
Brothers and sisters! While we still have time, let us approach the Savior of the world with fervent repentance and kiss His wounds suffered for us with love and tears. Let us love truth, let us love mercy, that we may receive mercy. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.