Stations of the Cross a Contemplative Journey

Stations of the Cross, is one of the more familiar Catholic devotional exercises, in which participants focus their prayer on representations of fourteen scenes of Christ’s Passion. The Stations of the Cross are commonly part of parish Lenten devotions. It origins are ultimately traceable to pilgrims’ visiting the various sites in Jerusalem associated with Christ’s suffering and death. Modern liturgist have emphasized that devotion to the Passion is incomplete without reference to the Resurrection and to this end have fostered the addition of a “fifteenth Station”.   

While the meaning of this exercise may vary from parish to parish, most participants will recognize its deeper message that not only does Jesus completely identify with our suffering he is totally present in every step of journey to wholeness. 

Recently a friend presented me with a unique contemplative application to bring us via the Stations of the Cross even closer to the suffering of Christ and that of own or someone we love.   This healing imagery could easily be adopted by any parish for reasons explained by this dear and anonymous friend.    

A Contemplative Journey

By way of introduction,  I would like to express my sentiments solely, that this reflection is not entirely about death of the body, but rather life of the spirit.  Let it be known however that suffering (sometimes even death) may be necessary to raise us to the next spiritual plateau. 

While sitting, in a quiet moment of reflection on Monday night at adoration, my friend Trebert suddenly came to mind.  He has been diagnosed with cancer and I was wondering if I could help him on his journey of discovery.  I looked around the church and noticed the first station of the Cross.  Jesus was on a journey (a mission if you like) to save all of mankind in a most unselfish act of sacrifice and love.  Then it hit me!  I could substitute the image of Jesus and replace Him with Trebert, or any of us for that matter. 

Jesus was condemned not so much for what He did but for what He didn’t do.  Trebert also did nothing to merit condemnation but found himself on the same journey.  Jesus accepts and takes up his cross and Trebert has done the same.  Jesus shows human weakness when he falls under his heavy burden and we shall do the same.  The important element here is not that we have fallen but that we are willing to get up.  As He is lying on the ground he gazes into a source of strength and resolve – His mother’s face who now knows this journey is both necessary and unavoidable.  She represents the goodness of all of humanity.  We too must become like Mary and assist Trebert on his spiritual Journey.  Jesus cannot carry his cross alone so Simon now carries it with Him.  The contrast here is that Simon and Jesus both need each other to accomplish the task at hand.  By compassion and caring we can also help Trebert along his journey. 

Jesus’ brow is wiped with a cloth by Veronica and His image is transformed onto it.  It is a lasting impression of what He will leave behind - His spirit of love.  Trebert has written many wonderful insights into church teaching and will no doubt continue to do so and this is what he leaves for us. 

Jesus falls a second time expressing failure in human existence.  It is part of our human frailty and we should be alright with that.  Again He rises!  He meets the women of Jerusalem who are crying and sobbing for his sake but Jesus enlightens them that they too shall carry a “cross” of their own.  Jesus falls a final time.  It is interesting to note that failure is part of our D.N.A but it is our resolve to “try” and to accept Gods will that is significant for our own spiritual journey. 

The soldiers now strip Jesus of His clothes and dignity.  But what do we need to be stripped of?  Jesus is telling us to rid ourselves of pride, prejudice, hatred, and judgmental attitudes and clothe ourselves instead with love, compassion, and understanding for all.  When Jesus is nailed to the cross it is the culmination of good and evil co-existing together – for a while. 

The evil of sin and the innocent Victim are bonded together by the nails of the cross.  They struggle incessantly until one is annihilated.  Jesus dies and it would appear that sin us victorious.  While Jesus’ body is still fastened to the cross, hanging lifeless and broken, His spirit has gone to the father.  His resurrection was imminent but not just yet, the three day prophecy had to be fulfilled.  Jesus is now taken down from the cross symbolic that good and evil go their separate ways.  For us, this could be the death of our own ego as we continue to “live” in our earthly existence.  Jesus is placed in the tomb until His resurrection.  Allegorically speaking we remain in the tomb unless transformation of our ego to God’s will is achieved.  If indeed this happens, then we too can resurrect as Christ did on Easter Sunday.  - Anonymous

The Stations of the Cross

1 - Jesus is condemned to death

2 - Jesus carries his cross
3 - Jesus falls for the first time
4 - Jesus meets his afflicted mother
5 - Simon helps Jesus carry his cross
6 - Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
7 - Jesus falls the second time
8 - Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
9 - Jesus falls a third time
10 - Jesus is stripped of his clothes
11 - Jesus is nailed to the cross
12 - Jesus dies on the cross
13 - Jesus is taken down from the cross
14 - Jesus is laid in the tomb

15 - Jesus rises from the dead on the third day

Benedict XVI on God’s punishment

Church of Santa Sabina 

The Catholic NewsService reporting on Pope Benedict’s homily for the first day of Lent at Rome’s Church of Santa Sabina was filled with some incredibly dark images based on his  frequent literal   rather then interpretative interpretation of Scripture.

In his opening remarks the Pope said . . .   "In the Catholic liturgy, ashes are "one of those material signs that bring the cosmos into the liturgy," he said. They recall both the fact that God created human beings out of the dust of the earth and breathed divine life into them, but also that after Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed the ground and made it bring forth thistles and thorns.  Only by giving this passage a simple literal interpretation could any  reader deduce that it was God who cursed the ground.  Again in clear contradiction of scripture should we not recall that at the end of the sixth day “God looked at everything he had made, and he was very pleased”!  Could it be this passage marks the very first time man tried to create God in his image?

Speaking about the sins of Adam and Eve, Benedict went on to say. . .  “while God punishes people for their sins, his punishment is ‘medicinal’ because God is good and loving' . . . This was followed by an even more challenging theological interpretation as Benedict announced that . . . ‘God sent his son ‘to our earth devastated by sin so that we, prodigal sons and daughters, could return repentant and redeemed by his mercy to our true homeland" in heaven” . . .          

The Pope’s reference to God’s punishment reminds this blogger that our Pope is not only a  theologian with dark fundamentalist (Jansemism) views which sets back Catholicism centuries to the days of the Inquisition, crusades, witch-hunts, and the persecution of Jews but also why he is able to justify his unusual focus on the sexual sins of so many these days.  Our God does not punish, reward, demand, or play favourites - we do.  

The Pope's further suggestion that . . .  "God sent his son was because “our earth was devastated by sin”  . . . . offers yet another clear contradiction.  It ignores  Jesus’ message “I came so that you might have life to be lived in all its fullness’!  (John 10:10) God sent his son because he loves all of his creation.  No greater sacrifice could be made than to die for another, i.e., us!  The Pope’s fear based message is hardly likely to heal anyone’s image of a loving God.  His Augustinian view of the world makes a mockery of God’s unconditional love. (readers may be interested to learn that St. Augustine is Benedict's favourite Saint). BTW the word 'bless' and variations thereof appears more than 85 times in the book of Genesis.   Should that not tell us something about the true nature of God?  

Let us celebrate Lent with the knowledge that God does not punish, reward, demand or send anyone to hell.  God is only interested in blessing us.  Perhaps we could open our hearts to his many blessings and spend the next forty days reflecting on Jesus’ rejection of the only Satan that exists and that is our EGO. Of course as anyone knows that takes true humility and a change of heart. 

Who killed Jesus?

Who killed Jesus? A simple question perhaps; but there are many people among us who will be quick to blame others. Some believe it was the Jews, others think it was Judas and still others will lay the final blame on a brutal Roman empire. It is a well known and documented fact that our Jewish brothers and sisters have paid the highest price in history for having been made the scapegoat and accused of killing the Christ. You do not have to go on a long and arduous journey or become a religious scholar to discover who the real culprit is. It is you and I and we're still doing it day after day!

In fact the act of killing God is repeated daily - over and over, and over. Just pick-up any newspaper, watch CNN News or witness the growing list of violent games and movies available on every street corner and home. It is found in religious circles and among the non religious. It is found in just about every form of political and cultural life. One of the more subtle forms of killing Jesus is to think of yourself as less, a failure or somehow unimportant, uninteresting, unworthy, imperfect, inferior, defective, weak, etc., etc., and finally to think of yourself as a victim to be pitied.

Whenever we recognize this great truth we will no longer need to ask 'where was God when this or that great tragedy struck?' or 'how could God allow this to happen to me or them?'

Jesus was crucified by an empire. With all due respect for Mel Gibson's drama The Passion of the Christ, he was not killed so that his suffering would expiate our sins, a very bad piece of theology that turns God into a sadistic monster who tortured his son to death in order to make up for sins of other people. No, Jesus was crucified as a rebel against empire. - Daniel C. Maguire, A Moral Creed for All Christians.

If we want God to change unhappy circumstances, be it feelings of sadness, pain or suffering we need only to search the source of that negative energy. Before Jesus began his ministry he first confronted the enemy [his ego] in the desert. Instead of letting Lent be forty days of denial perhaps it could be better spent in thirty nine days of dropping the ego and sharing the gift of God's loving presence within. Perhaps even daring to reflect on how God sees you - rather than how we often see ourselves.

Christ has no body now but yours

no hands, no feet but yours

Yours are the eyes through which He looks

compassion on this world

Christ has no body now but yours

- St. Teresa of Avila

A special Lenten fast

Give up harsh words: use generous ones.

Give up unhappiness: take up gratitude.

Give up anger: take up gentleness and patience.

Give up pessimism: take up hope and optimism.

Give up worrying: take up trust in God.

Give up complaining: value what you have.

Give up stress: take up prayer.

Give up judging others: discover Jesus within them.

Give up sorrow and bitterness: fill your heart with joy/

Give up selfishness: take up compassion for others.

Give up being unforgiving: learn reconciliation.

Give up words: fill yourself with silence, and listen to others.

Anonymous - Latin America

Note: the point is not necessarily to "give up something for Lent" but to loosen your tendency to cling to things, people and circumstances.