Dear Parishioners of Mary Immaculate and Saint Rose,
This week the words of Jesus from the cross are the plaintive cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
This is the only time the same quote from Jesus appears in two different Gospels.  Both Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 have Jesus crying out from the cross with the same words. These words are heart-wrenching, as Jesus seems to be crying out to a Father who has abandoned Him.
It is ironic that these words find an echo in our own hearts as we face the crisis of COVID-19. It is difficult not to fall into a cry of despair and to wonder who God does not deliver us from this huge calamity. We know that even as Jesus cries out in what seems to be abandonment and despair, God is still with him. The miracle of Easter morning cannot happen without the pain, sorrow and despair of Good Friday.
This cry of Jesus is actually a direct quote of the first line of Psalm 22.  Jesus is doing what we all do in a time of deep sorrow and pain: He is falling back on His religion.  Most Catholics do not recite a Psalm in a moment of need, but we do fall back on our religion. Many an emergency room, funeral home, or accident site rings with the words of the Hail Mary, Memorare, or Our Father.
Psalm 22 is a song of lament. It is the cry of a person in distress. So in making reference to the first line, Jesus reminds us to look at the entire Psalm.  It is the prayer of one who is not given an answer. God seems far away.  The writer is calling for help, but no one comes. And yet the Psalm changes from a cry of agony to a song of praise. Even in the midst of sorrow and abandonment the psalmist finds a reason to sing praise to God. In other words, he finds a reason to hope.  So Jesus, even though He does not say all these words, but quoting this Psalm He calls us to hope. 
Even in this time of fear and distress, let us call on the name of the Lord and hope in Him!
Psalm 22:28
All the ends of the earth                                                                                    
shall remember and turn to the Lord.                                                                
All the families of the nations                                                                         
shall bow down before Him.
Msgr. Cox
Christ on the Cross. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1670)