I thirst

Jesus entered his last moments facing the pain of hell. they were the moments when God was absolutely absent for him. That emptiness is an indescribable brokenness and crisis. Yet, 'why have you abandoned me' still holds a hope in such a a presence. we find the voice of hope of life even in the emptiness in the words, "into your hands, Lord, I commend my Spirit." It may have been the most painful and conflicting moments than any temptations. It is the thirst for the communion in love that cannot be broken, but now absent, that extends his heart towards the Father. The cry in "I thirst" is a continuation of "why have you abandoned me?"

 
The same communion of love is the true motivation for our relationship with Christ. The sentimentality formed in response to the cruelty and humiliations suffered by Christ can only bring a change that cannot take roots in Christ. (The exaggerated media representations of the sufferings of Christ produce a kind of anti-nonchristian inimical tendencies on one side and a victim mentality within Christians on another side). Christ continued to be on the cross despite the scornful challenges to come down form the cross to prove that he was truly the Son of God. That was the assurance of his love for us. If he had come down from the cross with all his divine power, it would have emptied the interior grace and truth of the stand he took for justice, mercy and love. Because they were to be lived by his followers in love for one another.


Social and cosmic extend of Christ needs to be reflected deeply if Christianity has to find its significance in the future. "Why have you crucified me? "why are you persecuting me" surely come in the line with "you did not give me food to eat and water to drink." We have not meditated sufficiently on our making of the body of christ mutually building through love, service, and communion, and through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Christ was made an adorable great something, and the living Christ among us was kept aside. Persons, religions, nations, cultures, all kinds of others seek today mercy from the other.