Psalm Reflection: Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion - Cycle A

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” - Psalm 22

The craziest things happen on middle school retreats.

At 19 years old I was somehow entrusted with the well-being of two dozen middle-schoolers for three days. My only goal was simply that everyone survived. If we were able to talk about Jesus on top of that, it would be a bonus.

On this particular retreat, we were talking about trusting in God, and I had the idea to do trust falls. If you have never done a trust fall before, it involves falling backwards as stiff as a board with your arms tucked and eyes closed, trusting that all the people behind you will catch you. If you do it properly, your weight distributes evenly across everyone’s arms and they catch you, even if they are not particularly strong. However, if you flinch, move your arms, or buckle your body, you will fall through their grasp and you will likely hurt yourself and multiple other people in the process. Everyone has to trust in the physics and in each other for it to work.

So, I gave very meticulous instructions to the middle schoolers about how this was going to work with a scripted call and response countdown for safety. When I was confident everyone knew how it worked, I asked if anyone wanted to go first. 

No one volunteered. 

No one had done this before and everyone was too scared.

I realized that I had to go first. 

I had to trust that the handful of delicately built middle schoolers had listened, would follow my instructions exactly, and would catch me as my 200-pound body fell off of a picnic table and hurdled toward the ground.

I will never forget standing on that picnic table and falling backward right as all the other leaders and chaperones walked out of the cabin to meet us. Seeing their eyes widen and their mouths drop in slow motion was both hilarious and terrifying at the same time. 

I fell back exactly like I was supposed to, not knowing at all how it was going to go, trusting that no one would get hurt, but also mentally preparing to hit the ground in case something went wrong.

But they caught me.

Once they saw me trust and lead the way, every single one of them had the confidence to do it. They knew if they could catch someone twice their size, they would be just fine.

In this week’s Psalm, we hear the words that Jesus cries out on the cross. Jesus is not doubting God’s presence or feeling abandoned, He knows God is with Him. He is teaching us how to trust and cry out to God when we feel abandoned. He is being the example for us so we never have to be afraid.

The Catechism says that one of the reasons Jesus became man was “to be our model of holiness” (CCC 459). He came to show us how to trust and pursue God, even in moments of intense pain, suffering and darkness.

Jesus is quoting this Psalm, Psalm 22, on the cross, and everyone would have recognized the words. Jesus quotes the book of Psalms more than any book in the Old Testament. He knew it well and so did every faithful Jewish person alive at that time. It was their common book of prayer that was used in the temple, in synagogues and during all of their annual pilgrimage feasts. Just as we say “Our Father…” or “Hail Mary…” and can finish the prayer without a second thought, the Jewish people would have heard Jesus begin Psalm 22 and would have been able to recite the rest in their heads.

Though the Psalm begins with these words of abandonment, it is only a few verses later in Psalm 22, in the very same prayer, that we read these words:

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;

you are the glory of Israel.

In you our fathers trusted;

they trusted and you rescued them.

To you they cried out and they escaped;

in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

(Psalm 22:4-6)

Every faithful Jewish person listening to Jesus’ words would have recognized his words and would have known that the verse he uttered is followed by the verses above, verses that proclaim God’s faithfulness and trustworthiness.

When we hear these words, let us too be reminded that Jesus knows the depths of human despair and abandonment, and yet He chose in His darkest and most painful moment to remind us that we can trust God.

If He can trust in the midst of the worst suffering ever endured, so can we.

This week, write down at least one unique way you feel the presence of God with you every day. Maybe it is in the warmth of the sun on your face, in the smell of the rain, in laughter with friends, in the contagious smile of a child, in the embrace of a loved one, or in a really good meal. Whatever you experience that is loving, good, true or beautiful, remind yourself that is the presence of God at work in your life, that He has never abandoned you, and He never will (Matthew 28:20).

As Saint Joan of Arc was preparing to begin her mission to save France, a woman asked her: “How can you make such a journey when there are soldiers on every side?” Joan replied: “I do not fear the soldiers, for my road is made open to me; and if the soldiers come, I have God, my Lord, who will know how to clear the route… It was for this that I was born!” 

When you feel afraid, abandoned, alone or doubtful, know that God is with you. He will reveal a path before you when the time is right, and that path always leads to love, belonging, truth, goodness and beauty (Romans 8:28, 1 Corinthians 10:13). So whatever your struggles or doubts may be this week, remember that you never face them alone.

I am praying of you, please pray for me, and I will see you in the Eucharist.

Matt