" My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46

The darkness of the hour matched the darkness of Jesus spirit.  Not only did darkness come over the whole land, Jesus himself experienced a sense of inner darkness. This inner darkness may have begun when Jesus agonized the Garden.  The prophet Amos prophesied centuries before: "Day of doom, says the Lord God, when there shall be sunset at noon, and earth shall be overshadowed under the full light." Now, He felt alone with the weight of sin upon him. Lifting up his blood filled eyes, Jesus looked to the heavens. From the depth of his bowels and with a quivering body, laced with pain, he cried: My God, My God.

This is the height of his agony. He is feeling the full weight of the sins of the world that he has come to take away. He senses the effect of sin, not his, but of everyone who had or will sin. It is a deep, interior sense of abandonment, as when a person is separated from God because of sin. We can never fully understand this moment nor why Jesus had to experienced this moment. But we can make the decision never to separate ourselves from God. And if we do, never to remain in alienation, but to be reconciled through Jesus' suffering and death. Jesus, I am sorry for causing you so much pain.