In today’s Gospel we hear the final words that Jesus speaks to his followers as they recline at table for the Last Supper. Jesus tells his disciples that one of them will betray him: “Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” Moreover, Jesus announces that another one of them will deny him: “Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three times.” Yet Jesus also proclaims that in the midst of this betrayal and denial both he and God are glorified.
Jesus is both fully human and divine. Since he is fully human, he truly experiences and suffers the physical pain of the scourging and crucifixion but also the psychological pain of betrayal and even the spiritual pain of abandonment by God: “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani…My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). These words of Jesus on the cross are both words of despair and words of faith and of trust in God since they are words of prayer (Psalm 22). Jesus ends his human life not in despair but in trust: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46).
This week as we walk the way of the cross with Jesus and his disciples, we bring our own suffering be they physical, psychological, or spiritual. The Passion Story tells us that Jesus bears our pains with us and that Jesus not only suffers for us but also with us. This week we also walk the Way of the Cross with the Ukrainian people as they suffer senseless and terrible pain. We pray for peace and we pray that God may turn the hearts of the Russian leaders away from their way of hatred and violence. We pray: “My God, my God why have you abandoned the Ukrainian people? My God, my God into your hands we entrust and commend the Ukrainian people.”