476 JESUS PRAYS FACING DEATH

YOUCAT Lesson 476

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

476  How did Jesus pray as he was facing his death?

When face to face with death, Jesus experienced the utmost depths of human fear.  Yet he found the strength even in that hour to trust his heavenly Father: “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you; remove this chalice from me; yet not what I will, but what you will (be done)” (Mark 14:36). 

This is the facial feature on the Turin Shroud enshrined at Turin, Italy and revered by many to be that of Jesus. At left is a modern photo of the face which is imprinted on the burial cloth. When the image is reversed and digitally enhance, a recognizable image appears as seen on the right. The photography and digital image work was done by Dianelos Georgoudis. …..476

“Times of need teach us to pray.”  Almost everyone experiences that in his life.  How did Jesus pray when he was threatened by death?  What guided him in those hours was his absolute willingness to entrust himself to the love and care of his Father.  Yet Jesus recited the most unfathomable prayer of all, which he took from the Jewish prayers for the dying: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34, citing Psalm 22:1).  All the despair, all the laments, all the cries of mankind in all times, and yearning for God’s helping hand are contained in this word of the Crucified.  With the words, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46), he breathed forth his spirit.  In them we hear his boundless trust in his Father, whose power knows the way to conquer death.  Thus Jesus’ prayer in the midst of dying already anticipates the Easter victory of his Resurrection.  100

“Jesus prays Psalm 22 which begins with the words: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He takes to himself the whole suffering people of Israel, all of suffering humanity, the drama of God’s darkness, and he makes God present in the very place where he seems definitively vanquished and absent.”  Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI, Good Friday, 2005

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy novena 9th Day intention given by Jesus to Saint Faustina reads: “Today bring to Me souls who have become lukewarm and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy.  These souls wound My Heart most painfully.  My soul suffered the most dreadful loathing in the Garden of Olives because of lukewarm souls.  They were the reason I cried out: ‘Father, take this cup away from Me, if it be Your will.’  For them the last hope of salvation is to run to My mercy.”