Patristic Wisdom for Good Friday

O God, my God, hear me; why have You forsaken me?
The words of my transgressions are far from my salvation.

Psalm 22:1 LXX

Peter Paul Rubens

When He says: Look upon me, He begs that the aid of the resurrection may appear most swiftly for Him. Next comes: Why have You forsaken me? The word why is known to introduce a question; so the Master of consubstantial wisdom, the Spokesman of the Father is so confused by the impending death of His flesh that in apparent ignorance He asks the Father why He has been abandoned by Him. These and similar expressions seek to express His humanity, but we must not believe that divinity was absent to Him even at the passion, since the apostle says: If they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. Though He was impassible, He suffered through the humanity which He assumed, and which could suffer. He was immortal, but He died; He never dies, but He rose again. On this topic, Father Cyril expressed this beautiful thought: “Through the grace of God He tasted death for all, surrendering His body though by nature He was life and the resurrection of the dead.” Similarly blessed Ambrose says: “He both suffered and did not suffer, died and did not die, was buried and was not buried, rose again and did not rise again.” In the same way we say that man too even today suffers, dies and is buried, though his soul is not circumscribed by any end. So He attests that He was forsaken when He was interrogated, though in fact He could not have been consigned to the hands of wicked men if the power of His majesty had not allowed such things to happen. In the gospel-words: You would not have any power against me, unless it had been given you from above. He also broadcasts the experiences of the humanity which He assumed, repelling words of blasphemy and impious speech, for He says that words begotten by sins are far from Him. The salvation of His sacred soul was not to embrace the speech of sinners, but gladly to endure by the virtue of patience what He suffered through God’s dispensation. As He Himself says in the gospel: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Then He added: Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will. He also speaks of the words of my sins when they belong to His members. He who was without sins called our sins His, just as in another psalm He is to say: O God, You know my foolishness, and my offenses are not hidden from You. So let us hear from the Head’s lips the words of the members, and realize that He has rightly spoken in our name, for He offered Himself as victim for the salvation of all. Hence Paul says: Him who knew no sin to be sin for us.

Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms 22