Col. 1, 24

“Eli, Eli, Lemá Sabactaní”
- Mat. 27, 46

"JESUS! YOU are now atoning for those moments when we are neither hot nor cold, members neither of heaven nor of earth, for now YOU are suffering between the two: Rejected by the one, abandoned by the other.

Because YOU would not give up sinful humanity, Your Heavenly FATHER hid His face from YOU. Because YOU would not give up Your Heavenly FATHER, sinful humanity turned its back on YOU, and thus in holy fellowship YOU found a way to unite us both. No longer can anyone say that GOD does not know what a heart suffers in abandonment, for now YOU are abandoned.

No longer can anyone complain that GOD does not know the Wounds of an inquiring Heart which feels not the Divine Presence, for now that sweet Presence is seemingly hid from YOU as well. JESUS, now I understand pain, abandonment, and suffering, for I see that even the sun has its eclipse.

But JESUS, why do I not learn? Teach me that just as YOU did not make Your own Cross, neither shall I make my own. Teach me to accept the one that YOU have made for me. Teach me that everything in the world is Yours, except one thing, and that is my own will; and since that is mine, it is the only and real true gift that I can ever bestow.

Teach me to say, "Not my will, but Yours be done, O Lord." Even when I see YOU not, grant me the grace to believe and "although YOU slay me, yet will I trust YOU."

Tell me, how long, how long, O Lord, will I keep YOU writhing on the Cross?"

-CARD. FULTON SHEEN

("The Seven Last Words")