In the days when Christ was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
Hebrews 5:7-9
In the incarnation, Jesus became fully human and became one with us in all our experiences. On the cross, he entered into the extreme experience of human hopelessness: the sense of having been abandoned by God.
He became one with us in all those situations where we cry out in darkness and despair: “Where are you God, why are you absent?”
EUGENE RECOGNIZED JESUS FORSAKEN
Eugene knew darkness and seeming-hopelessness many times in his life. Yet he recognized that in these dark moments, his Savior was present, and he attests to this in constantly in his writings. Just one example from a situation of darkness:
It is true that I have always put all my confidence in the goodness of God.
Letter to Henri Tempier, 16 February 1826, EO VII n 224
THE OBLATE FAMILY RECOGNIZES JESUS FORSAKEN
As we embrace Jesus Forsaken on this Good Friday, let us embrace the door that he opened through his suffering and death: his resurrection and ours.
“The cross of Jesus Christ is central to our mission… Through the eyes of our crucified Saviour we see the world which he redeemed with his blood, desiring that those in whom he continues to suffer will know also the power of his resurrection (cf. Phil 3: 10).”
Constitution 4