When he does not hesitate to leave the two beloved women in Bethany without an answer and apparently in the lurch, he demonstrates in advance that on the Cross he will feel forsaken by his Father, although he knew beforehand that “the hour is already here in which you will leave me alone… But I am not alone, for the Father is with me” (Jn 16:32; cf. 8:29). When from the viewpoint of this world it would seem that God abandons us, even and precisely then he does not.
Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988)