psalm 22: learning from the passion - tuesday 4th week

Today we get our reflection from our responsorial psalm, Psalm 22.  This psalm is a psalm that speaks of the passion of Jesus.  That is why this is read during Good Friday.  Two lines from the psalm has been quoted by Jesus himself when he was dying on the cross:  My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, which is from the first line of the psalm; and the words, It is finished, which is the last words of the psalm. And the gospels show so many similarities as they narrate the passion of Jesus and quote also directly from this psalm, two of which are, "they pierced my hands and my feet" and  "they divide my garments, and for my clothing they cast lots."  One author says that the details between psalm 22 and the passion of Jesus has astounding similarities and to think that the psalm was written by David a thousand years before Christ.  It is as if David, by composing this psalm, prefigures already a future event.

Our responsorial psalm today reads the last part of the psalm when David prophesied that because of what God has done to his people, all the nations, not just Israel, but all the ends of the earth shall worship and bow down before him.  And this is fulfilled today in our time when Jesus is worshipped all over the world by all peoples for sacrificing himself for our salvation in obedience to the Father.

  Many times, we have taken for granted this great act of redemption, that this singular act of Jesus speaks volumes about God and about ourselves.  That is why St. Thomas Aquinas said that he has learned more by just looking at the crucifix than by reading a lot of books.  I am not saying that we should no longer read in order to learn.  We should.  But there is so much to learn from the cross of Jesus and we should not just put this on our altar to ward off evil from our homes and offices or just to simply decorate our house or our bodies.  Our crucifixes should always remind us of God's great love for each one of us, the offering that he did in order to make us his children and heirs of the kingdom of heaven.   In looking at the crucifix saint and sinner, rich and poor can find only love.  This is what psalm 22 is teaching us when it says that the lowly shall eat their fill; they who seek the LORD shall praise him: "May your hearts be ever merry!" In the cross of Jesus we will find contentment because in the cross of Jesus we find what all men are looking for – acceptance, forgiveness, compassion, and above all, love.