“Despair or Confidence? Christ’s Cry of Abandonment from the Cross”

Description:

At first glance, Christ’s cry of dereliction from the cross–”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”–would seem the ultimate validation of all despair and hopelessness. After all, if the Son of God himself, faced with the full power of evil, is driven to despair, how could we possibly cling to hope? Yet by exploring the interpretation of the cry offered by St. Hilary of Poitiers, a 4th-century doctor and Father of the Church, this talk will show that the cry is a revelation not only of Christ’s complete solidarity with our suffering, but of his remaining utterly confident in the Father all the while, offering us a model for hope.

Biography:

Fr. Vincent Dávila, OP is a Dominican friar of the Province of St. Albert the Great (Central Province). Originally from Spain, he immigrated as a child and grew up with three siblings in central Indiana. He studied mechanical engineering at Purdue University and there encountered the Dominican friars who ran the campus ministry. Compelled by their way of life, he entered the Dominicans immediately after graduating. After pursuing his initial theological formation at Aquinas Institute of Theology, he was ordained a priest and assigned to teach theology and serve as a chaplain at the University of St. Thomas and St Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota. From there he was assigned to pursue doctoral studies in theology at the University of Notre Dame, where he wrote a dissertation entitled, “Glorious Abandonment: Christ’s Cry of Dereliction in Hilary of Poitiers.” He teaches systematic theology at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri and is the Regent of Studies of the Province of St. Albert the Great.

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