.
But I am a worm and no man,
scorned by men, despised by the people.
All who see me deride me.
They curl their lips, they toss their heads.
"He trusted in the Lord, let Him save him;
let Him release him if this is His friend."
So deeply had
the Seraphic Patriarch penetrated Psalm 22, so alive was his faith and
so alert his love for his suffering Lord that the early biographers tell
us:
Even for worms [Francis] had a tender love,
since he had read this text about the Savior: I am a worm and not a man.
That is why he used to pick them up from the road and put them in a safe
place so that they would not be crushed by the footsteps of passersby.
(Friar Thomas
of Celano, THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS)
A Lenten psalm, a Holy Week psalm, a Friday psalm-Psalm 22
offers us an opportunity to go deeper into the mystery of our Lord's
Passion. It enables us not only to put on the mind of Christ but also
to enter directly into the prayer of Christ at the culmination on His
mission on earth. In times of personal suffering, it is a reminder that we
are not alone and that every great
WHY can be the start of a
life-giving dialogue because, like Jesus, we are speaking to Someone - and
that Someone always answers!
St. Francis of
Assisi saw Psalm 22 as THE prayer of Jesus Crucified. The Little Poor
Man quotes from Psalm 22 thirteen times in the opening section of his
devotional Office of the Passion. Francis' heart overflowed with
compassion for the suffering Savior,
scorned, despised and derided.
He envisioned
Jesus, bound and imprisoned, thinking of His Mother:
Yes, it was You who took me from my mother's
womb, entrusted me to my mother's breast. To You I was committed from my
birth, from my mother's womb You have been my God.
The call of the
desolate Christ:
Do not leave me alone... come close,
became Francis'
own.
Even Jesus
asked:
Why? For centuries saints, theologians, scholars and mystics have
pondered this heart-rending cry wrung from the Crucified. Generations of
Christians have paused in silence to ponder the mystery of God's Son, dying
pain-racked and forsaken. Jesus' praying the first verse of Psalm 22 invites
even those who are distant from God to draw near to Him who has plumbed the
abyss of human suffering. The CATECHISM declares:
In the
redeeming love that always united Him to the Father, Jesus assumed us in
the state of our waywardness of sin to the point where He could say in
our name from the Cross: My God, my God, why have You forsaken
me?
(#603)
So deeply had
the Seraphic Patriarch penetrated Psalm 22, so alive was his faith and
so alert his love for his suffering Lord that the early biographers tell
us:
Even for worms [Francis] had a tender love,
since he had read this text about the Savior: I am a worm and not a man.
That is why he used to pick them up from the road and put them in a safe
place so that they would not be crushed by the footsteps of passersby.
(Friar Thomas
of Celano, THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS)
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
You are far from my plea and the cry of my distress.
0 my God, I call by day and You give no reply;
I call by night and I find no peace.
Yet You, 0 God, are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In You our fathers put their trust;
they trusted and You set them free.
When they cried to You, they escaped.
In You they trusted and never in vain.
Yes, it was You who took me from the womb,
entrusted me to my mother's breast.
To You I was committed from my birth,
from my mother's womb You have been my God.
Do not leave me alone in my distress;
come close, there is none else to help.
The Great "Why?"
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a
loud voice:
"My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?"
Matt. 27:46
PART 26
