In that darkest hour, Christ is shrouded in abandonment—forsaken by everyone and everything.
Hanging on the Cross, He cries out:
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Psalm 22)
Yet from within this profound darkness—this loneliness and utter forsakenness—the divine, uncreated light, transfiguring all things, breaks forth.
The Cross, once a symbol of death, becomes the new Tree of Life, drawing Jew and Gentile into the mystery of the new creation— the Church.