Just eight days before Pope John Paul II crossed the threshold to the Father’s house on April 2, 2005, he clutched a crucifix in his private chapel during the Good Friday Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum which he watched via video. Unable to attend due to his failing health, John Paul embraced his own suffering united to Christ’s in what would be his final Good Friday. Earlier in March, the Pope had asked Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to prepare the Way of The Cross meditations and prayers.
Those prayers and meditations form the core of the following Way Of The Cross. They are supported with St. John Paul II’s writing from “On The Christian Meaning of Suffering” (Salvifici Doloris).
Opening Prayer
MY LORD, JESUS CHRIST, You have made this
journey
to die for me with unspeakable love; and I have so many times ungratefully abandoned You. But
now I love
You with all my heart; and, because I love You, I am sincerely sorry for ever having offended
You.
Pardon me, my God, and permit me to accompany You on this journey. You go to die for love of me;
I want,
my beloved Redeemer, to die for love of You. My Jesus, I will live and die always united to
You.
1st STATION: Jesus is Condemned to Death
V/. We adore
thee, O Christ and we bless thee.
(Genuflect)
R/. Because by thy holy cross you
have redeemed the
world.
Matthew
27:22-23,26
Pilate said to them, “Then what should I
do with
Jesus who is called the Messiah?” All of them said, “Let him be crucified!” Then he asked, “Why,
what
evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!” So he released
Barabbas for
them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.
Meditation
The Judge of the
world, who will come
again to
judge us all, stands there, dishonoured and defenceless before the earthly judge. Pilate is not
utterly
evil. He knows that the condemned man is innocent… But his heart is divided… Nor are the men who
are
shouting and demanding the death of Jesus utterly evil. Many of them, on the day of Pentecost,
will feel
“cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37), when Peter will say to
them: “Jesus
of
Nazareth, a man attested to you by God… you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside
the law”
(Acts 2:22ff.). But at that moment
they are
caught up in
the crowd. They are shouting because everyone else is shouting, and they are shouting the same
thing
that everyone else is shouting. And in this way, justice is trampled underfoot by weakness,
cowardice
and fear of the diktat of the ruling mindset. The quiet voice of conscience is drowned out by
the cries
of the crowd. Evil draws its power from indecision and concern for what other people
think.
Prayer
Lord, you were
condemned to death because
fear of
what other people may think suppressed the voice of conscience. So too, throughout history, the
innocent
have always been maltreated, condemned and killed. How many times have we ourselves preferred
success to
the truth, our reputation to justice? Strengthen the quiet voice of our conscience, your own
voice, in
our lives. Look at me as you looked at Peter after his denial. Let your gaze penetrate our
hearts and
indicate the direction our lives must take. On the day of Pentecost, you stirred the hearts of
those
who, on Good Friday, clamoured for your death, and you brought them to conversion. In this way,
you gave
hope to all. Grant us, ever anew, the grace of conversion.
St. John Paul II
Christ does not explain
in the
abstract the reasons for suffering, but before all else, he says: “Follow me!”. Come! Take part
through
your suffering in this work of saving the world, a salvation achieved through my suffering!
(#26)
Our Father…
Through
her heart, His sorrow
sharing
All His
bitter
anguish bearing
Now
at length
the sword has passed
2nd STATION: Jesus takes up his cross
V/. We adore
thee, O Christ and we bless thee.
(Genuflect)
R/. Because by thy holy cross you
have redeemed the
world.
Matthew.
27:27-31
Then the soldiers of the governor took
Jesus into
the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put
a
scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his
head. They
put a reed in his right hand
and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spat on him, and
took the
reed and struck him on the head. After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own
clothes on
him. Then
they led
him away to crucify him.
Meditation
Jesus, condemned as
an imposter king, is
mocked,
but this very mockery lays bare a painful truth… How often are the symbols of power, borne by
the great
ones of this world, an affront to truth, to justice and to the dignity of man! It is because Jesus is mocked
and wears
the crown
of suffering that he appears as the true King. His sceptre is justice (cf.
Ps
45:7). The price
of justice in this world is
suffering:
Jesus, the true King, does not reign through violence, but through a love which suffers for us
and with
us. He takes up
the Cross, our cross, the
burden of
being human, the burden of the world…
Prayer
Lord, you willingly
subjected yourself to
mockery
and scorn. Help us not to ally ourselves with those who look down on the weak and suffering.
Help us to
acknowledge your face in the lowly and the outcast. May we never lose heart when faced with the
contempt
of this world, which ridicules our obedience to your will. You carried your own Cross and you
ask us to
follow you on this path (cf. Mt 10:38). Help us to take up the
Cross, and
not to
shun it. May we never complain or become discouraged by life’s trials. Help us to follow the
path of
love and, in submitting to its demands, to find true joy.
St. John Paul II
Salvation means
liberation from
evil, and for this reason it is closely bound up with the problem of suffering. According to the
words
spoken to Nicodemus, God gives his Son to “the world” to free man from evil, which bears within
itself
the definitive and absolute perspective on suffering. (#14)
Our Father…
O, how sad
and sore
depressed
Was that
Mother highly
blessed
Of the sole
Begotten
One
3rd STATION: Jesus falls for the first time
V/. We adore
thee, O Christ and we bless thee.
(Genuflect)
R/. Because by thy holy cross you
have redeemed the
world.
Isaiah.
53:4-6
Surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed
him
stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for
our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are
healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has
laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Meditation
In Jesus’s fall
beneath the weight of the
Cross,
the meaning of his whole life is seen: his voluntary abasement, which lifts us up from the
depths of our
pride. The nature of our pride is also revealed: it is that arrogance which makes us want to be
liberated from God and left alone to ourselves, the arrogance which makes us think that we do
not need
his eternal love, but can be the masters of our own lives. In this rebellion against truth, in
this
attempt to be our own god, creator and judge, we fall headlong and plunge into self-destruction.
The
humility of Jesus is the surmounting of our pride; by his basement, he lifts us up. Let us allow
Him to
lift us up. Let us strip away our sense of self-sufficiency, our false illusions of
independence, and
learn from him, the One who humbled himself, to discover our true greatness by bending low
before God
and before our downtrodden brothers and sisters.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, the weight
of the cross made
you fall
to the ground. The weight of our sin, the weight of our pride, brought you down. But your fall
is not a
tragedy or mere human weakness. You came to us when, in our pride, we were laid low. The
arrogance that
makes us think that we ourselves can create human beings has turned man into a kind of
merchandise, to
be bought and sold, or stored to provide parts for experimentation. In doing this, we hope to
conquer
death by our own efforts, yet in reality we are profoundly debasing human dignity. Lord help us;
we have
fallen. Help us to abandon our destructive pride and, by learning from your humility, to rise
again.
St. John Paul II
By his salvific work,
the
only-begotten Son liberates man from sin and death. First of all he blots out from human history
the
dominion of sin, which took root under the influence of the evil Spirit, beginning with Original
Sin,
and then he gives man the possibility of living in Sanctifying Grace. In the wake of his victory
over
sin, he also takes away the dominion of death, by his Resurrection beginning the process of the
future
resurrection of the body. (#15)
Our Father…
Is there one
who would not
weep,
‘whelmed in
miseries so
deep
Christ’s dear
Mother to
behold.
4th STATION: Jesus
meets
his mother
V/. We adore
thee, O Christ and we bless thee.
(Genuflect)
R/. Because by thy holy cross you
have redeemed the
world.
Luke. 2:34-35,51
Simon blessed them and said to Mary his mother: “Behold,
this
child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against
(and a
sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be
revealed”. And
his mother kept all these things in her heart.
Meditation
On Jesus’ Way of
the Cross, we also find
Mary, his
Mother. During his public life, she had to step aside, to make place for the birth of Jesus’ new
family,
the family of his disciples. She also had to hear the words: “Who is my mother and who are my
brothers?…
Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is brother, and sister and mother” (Mt 12:48-50).
Now we
see her as the Mother of Jesus, not only physically, but also in her heart.
Even before she conceived him bodily,
through her
obedience she conceived him in her heart. It was said to Mary: “And behold, you will conceive in
your
womb and bear a son. He will be great and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father
David”
(Lk 1:31ff.). And she would hear from the mouth of the elderly Simeon: “A sword will pierce
through your
own soul” (Lk 2:35). She would then recall the words of the prophets, words like these: “He was
oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was like a lamb that is led to
slaughter.”
Now it all
takes
place. In her heart, she had kept the words of the angel, spoken to her in the beginning: “Do
not be
afraid, Mary” (Lk 1:30). The disciples fled, yet
she did not
flee.
She stayed there, with a Mother’s courage, a Mother’s fidelity, a Mother’s goodness, and a faith
which
did not waver in the hour of darkness: “Blessed is she who believed” (Lk 1:45).
Prayer
Holy Mary, Mother of
the Lord, you
remained
faithful when the disciples fled. Just as you believed the angel’s incredible message – that you
would
become the Mother of the Most High, so too you believed at the hour of his greatest abasement.
In this
way, at the hour of the Cross, at the hour of the world’s darkest night, you became the Mother
of all
believers, the Mother of the Church. We beg you: teach us to believe, and grant that our faith
may bear
fruit in courageous service and be the sign of a love ever ready to share suffering and to offer
assistance.
St. John Paul II
God the Father has
loved the
only-begotten Son, that is, he loves him in a lasting way; and then in time, precisely through
this
all-surpassing love, he “gives” this Son, that he may strike at the very roots of human evil and
thus
draw close in a salvific way to the whole world of suffering in which man shares. (#15)
Our Father…
Can the human
heart
refrain
From
partaking in her pain
In that Mother’s pain
untold?
5th STATION: The Cyrenian helps Jesus carry his cross
V/. We adore
thee, O Christ and we bless thee.
(Genuflect)
R/. Because by thy holy cross you
have redeemed the
world.
Matthew. 27:32;
16:24
As they went out, they came upon a man of
Cyrene,
Simon by name; this man they compelled to carry his cross. Jesus told his disciples, “If any man
would
come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Meditation
Simon of Cyrene is on
his way home, returning from work,
when he
comes upon the sad procession of those condemned – for him, perhaps, it was a common sight. The
soldiers
force this rugged man from the country to carry the Cross on his own shoulders. From this chance
encounter, faith was born. The mystery of Jesus, silent and suffering, touched his heart. Jesus,
whose
divine love alone can redeem all humanity, wants us to share his Cross so that we can complete
what is
still lacking in his suffering (cf. Col
1:24). Whenever we show kindness to the suffering, the
persecuted
and defenceless, and share in their sufferings, we help to carry that same Cross of Jesus. In
this way,
we obtain salvation and help contribute to the salvation of the world.
Prayer
Lord, you opened the
eyes and heart of Simon of Cyrene,
and you
gave him, by his share in your Cross, the grace of faith. Help us to aid our neighbours in need,
even
when this interferes with our own plans and desires. Help us to realize that it is a grace to be
able to
share the cross of others and, in this way, know that we are walking with you along the way.
Help us to
appreciate with joy that, when we share in your suffering and the sufferings of this world, we
become
servants of salvation and are able to help build up your Body, the Church.
St. John Paul II
Christ drew close above
all to
the world of human suffering through the fact of having taken this suffering upon his very
self…Precisely by means of this suffering, he must bring it about “that man should not perish,
but have
eternal life”. Precisely by means of his Cross, he must strike at the roots of evil, planted in
the
history of man and in human souls. Precisely by means of his Cross he must accomplish the work
of
salvation. (#16)
Our Father…
For the sins
of His own
nation,
She saw Jesus
wracked
with torment,
All
with
scourges rent
6th STATION: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
V/. We adore
thee, O Christ and we bless thee.
(Genuflect)
R/. Because by thy holy cross you
have redeemed the
world.
Psalms. 27:8-9
You have said,
“Seek
my face”. My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek”. Hide not your face from me. Turn
not your
servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Cast me not off, forsake me not, O God of my
salvation.
Meditation
She is the image of
that good woman, who,
amid
turmoil and dismay, shows the courage born of goodness and does not allow her heart to be
bewildered. At
first, Veronica saw only a buffeted and pain-filled face. Yet her act of love impressed the true
image
of Jesus on her heart: on his human face, bloodied and bruised, she saw the face of God and his
goodness, which accompanies us even in our deepest sorrows. Only with the heart can we see
Jesus. Only
love purifies us and gives us the ability to see. Only love enables us to recognize the God who
is love
itself.
Prayer
Lord, grant us restless
hearts, hearts
which seek
your face. Keep us from the blindness of heart which sees only the surface of things. Give us
the
simplicity and purity which allow us to recognize your presence in the world. When we are not
able to
accomplish great things, grant us the courage which is born of humility and goodness. Impress
your face
on our hearts. May we encounter you along the way and show your image to the world.
St. John Paul II
In the light of the
verses of
Isaiah, the Passion of Christ becomes almost more expressive and touching than in the
descriptions of
the Evangelists themselves. Behold, the true Man of Sorrows presents himself before us:
All we like sheep
have gone
astray
we have turned
every
one to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity
of us
all.
“The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all”: all human sin in its breadth and depth becomes the true cause of the Redeemer’s suffering. If the suffering “is measured” by the evil suffered, then the words of the Prophet enable us to understand the extent of this evil and suffering with which Christ burdened himself. (#17)
Our Father…
She beheld
her tender
Child,
Saw Him hang
in desolation,
Till
His spirit forth He sent.
7th STATION: Jesus falls a second time
V/. We adore
thee, O Christ and we bless thee.
(Genuflect)
R/. Because by thy holy cross you
have redeemed the
world.
Lamentations.
3:1-2,9,16
I am the man who has seen affliction
under the
rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light. He has blocked
my way
with hewn stones, he has made my paths crooked. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made
me cower
in ashes.
Meditation
Throughout history
the fall of man
constantly
takes on new forms. In his First Letter, Saint John speaks of a threefold fall: lust of the
flesh, lust
of the eyes and the pride of life. He thus interprets the fall of man and humanity against the
backdrop
of the vices of his own time, with all its excesses and perversions. But we can also think, in
more
recent times, of how a Christianity which has grown weary of faith has abandoned the Lord: the
great
ideologies, and the banal existence of those who, no longer believing in anything, simply drift
through
life, have built a new and worse paganism, which in its attempt to do away with God once and for
all,
have ended up doing away with man. And so man lies fallen in the dust. The Lord bears this
burden and
falls, over and over again, in order to meet us. He gazes on us, he touches our hearts; he falls
in
order to raise us up.
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, you
have borne all our
burdens
and you continue to carry us. Our weight has made you fall. Lift us up, for by ourselves we
cannot rise
from the dust. Free us from the bonds of lust. In place of a heart of stone, give us a heart of
flesh, a
heart capable of seeing. Lay low the power of ideologies, so that all may see that they are a
web of
lies. Do not let the wall of materialism become unsurmountable. Make us aware of your presence.
Keep us
sober and vigilant, capable of resisting the forces of evil. Help us to recognise the spiritual
and
material needs of others, and to give them the help they need. Lift us up, so that we may lift
others
up. Give us hope at every moment of darkness, so that we may bring your hope to the
world.
St. John Paul II
Christ suffers
voluntarily and
suffers innocently… Christ gives the answer to the question about suffering and the meaning of
suffering
not only by his teaching, that is by the Good News, but most of all by his own suffering, which
is
integrated with this teaching of the Good News in an organic and indissoluble way. And this is
the
final, definitive word of this teaching: “the word of the Cross”, as Saint Paul one day will say
[The message of the cross is
foolishness
to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Cor 1:18).]
(#18)
Our Father…
8th STATION: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem who weep for him
V/. We adore
thee, O Christ and we bless thee.
(Genuflect)
R/. Because by thy holy cross you
have redeemed the
world.
Luke. 23:28-31
Jesus turning
to them
said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your
children. For
behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that
never bore,
and the breasts that never gave suck!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on
us’; and
to the hills, ‘Cover us’. For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it
is
dry?”
Meditation
“Daughters of
Jerusalem, do not
weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children (Luke 23:28-31). Hearing Jesus reproach the women of
Jerusalem who
follow him and weep for him ought to make us reflect. How should we understand his words? Are
they not
directed at a piety which is purely sentimental, one which fails to lead to conversion and
living faith?
It is no use to lament the sufferings of this world if our life goes on as usual. And so the
Lord warns
us of the danger in which we find ourselves. He shows us both the seriousness of sin and the
seriousness
of judgement. Can it be that, despite all our expressions of consternation in the face of evil
and
innocent suffering, we are all too prepared to trivialize the mystery of evil? Have we accepted
only the
gentleness and love of God and Jesus, and quietly set aside the word of judgement? “How can God
be so
concerned with our weaknesses?”, we say. “We are only human!” Yet as we contemplate the
sufferings of
the Son, we see more clearly the seriousness of sin, and how it needs to be fully atoned if it
is to be
overcome. Before the image of the suffering Lord, evil can no longer be trivialized. To us too,
he says:
“Do not weep for me, weep for yourselves… if they do this when the wood is green, what will
happen when
it is dry?”.
Prayer
Lord, to the weeping
women you spoke of
repentance
and the Day of Judgement when all of us will stand before your face: before you, the Judge of
the world.
You show us the seriousness of our responsibility, the danger of our being found guilty and
without
excuse on the Day of Judgement. Grant that we may not simply walk at your side, with nothing to
offer
other than compassionate words. Convert us and give us new life. Grant that in the end, we will
not be
dry wood, but living branches in you, the true vine, bearing fruit for eternal life (cf.
Jn 15:1-10).
St. John Paul II
The words: “My Father,
if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt”(Mt. 26:39),
and
later: “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, thy will be done”(Mt.26: 42), have a
manifold
eloquence. They prove the truth of that love which the only-begotten Son gives to the Father in
his
obedience…Christ’s words confirm with all simplicity this human truth of suffering, to its very
depths:
suffering is the undergoing of evil before which man shudders. He says: let it pass from me”,
just as
Christ says in Gethsemane.
(#18)
Our Father…
O thou Mother! fount of
love!
Touch my
spirit from above,
make my heart with
thine
accord.
9th STATION: Jesus falls for the third time
V/. We adore
thee, O Christ and we bless thee.
(Genuflect)
R/. Because by thy holy cross you
have redeemed the
world.
Lamentations.
3:27-32
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke
in his
youth. Let him sit alone in silence when he has laid it on him; let him put his mouth in the
dust –
there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the smiter, and be filled with insults. For the
Lord
will not cast off for ever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion, according to
the
abundance of his steadfast love.
Meditation
What can the third
fall of Jesus under the
Cross
say to us? We have considered the fall of man in general, and the falling of many Christians
away from
Christ and into a godless secularism. Should we not also think of how much Christ suffers in his
own
Church? How often is the holy sacrament of his Presence abused, how often must he enter empty
and evil
hearts! How often do we celebrate only ourselves, without even realizing that he is there! How
often is
his Word twisted and misused! What little faith is present behind so many theories, so many
empty words!
How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to
belong
entirely to him! How much pride, how much self-complacency! What little respect we pay to the
Sacrament
of Reconciliation, where he waits for us, ready to raise us up whenever we fall! All this is
present in
his Passion. His betrayal by his disciples, their unworthy reception of his Body and Blood, is
certainly
the greatest suffering endured by the Redeemer; it pierces his heart. We can only call to him
from the
depths of our hearts: Kyrie Eleison – Lord, save us (cf. Mt 8: 25).
Prayer
Lord, your Church often
seems
like a boat about to sink, a boat taking in water on every side. In your field, we see more
weeds than
wheat. The soiled garments and face of your Church throw us into confusion. Yet it is we
ourselves who
have soiled them! It is we who betray you time and time again, after all our lofty words and
grand
gestures. Have mercy on your Church; within her too, Adam continues to fall. When we fall, we
drag you
down to earth, and Satan laughs, for he hopes that you will not be able to rise from that fall;
he hopes
that being dragged down in the fall of your Church, you will remain prostrate and overpowered.
But you
will rise again. You stood up, you arose and you can also raise us up. Save and sanctify your
Church.
Save and sanctify us all.
St. John Paul II
When Christ
says: “My God, My God, why
have you
abandoned me?”, his words are not only an expression of that abandonment which many times found
expression in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms and in particular in that Psalm 22
from which
come the words quoted. One can say that these words on abandonment are born at the level of that
inseparable union of the Son with the Father, and are born because the Father “laid on him the
iniquity
of us all”(Is. 53:6).
Together with this horrible weight, encompassing the “entire” evil of the turning away from God which is contained in sin, Christ, through the divine depth of his filial union with the Father, perceives in a humanly inexpressible way this suffering which is the separation, the rejection by the Father, the estrangement from God. But precisely through this suffering he accomplishes the Redemption and can say as he breathes his last: “It is finished”(Jn 19:30).
Our Father…
Make me feel as
thou
hast
felt;
make my
soul to glow and melt
with the love
of Christ
my
Lord.
10th STATION: Jesus is stripped of his garments
V/. We adore
thee, O Christ and we bless thee.
(Genuflect)
R/. Because by thy holy cross you
have redeemed the
world.
Matthew. 27:33-36
And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means
the
place of a skull), they offered him wine to drink, mingled with gall, but when he tasted it, he
would
not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting
lots;
then they sat down and kept watch over him there.
Meditation
The moment of the
stripping reminds us of
the
expulsion from Paradise: God’s splendour has fallen away from man, who now stands naked and
exposed,
unclad and ashamed. And so Jesus once more takes on the condition of fallen man. Stripped of his
garments, he reminds us that we have all lost the “first garment” that is God’s splendour. At
the foot
of the Cross, the soldiers draw lots to divide his paltry possessions, his clothes. The
Evangelists
describe the scene with words drawn from Psalm 22:19; by doing so they tell us the same thing
that Jesus
would tell his disciples on the road to Emmaus: that everything takes place “according to the
Scriptures”. The Lord passes through all the stages and steps of man’s fall from grace, yet each
of
these steps, for all its bitterness, becomes a step towards our redemption: this is how he
carries home
the lost sheep.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you were
stripped of your
garments,
exposed to shame, cast out of society. You took upon yourself the shame of Adam, and you healed
it. You
also take upon yourself the sufferings and the needs of the poor, the outcasts of our world. And
in this
very way, you fulfil the words of the prophets. This is how you bring meaning into apparent
meaninglessness. This is how you make us realize that your Father holds you, us, and the whole
world in
his hands. Give us a profound respect for man at every stage of his existence, and in all the
situations
in which we encounter him. Clothe us in the light of your grace.
St. John Paul II
One can say that with
the
Passion of Christ all human suffering has found itself in a new situation. And it is as though
Job has
foreseen this when he said: “I know that my Redeemer lives …”, and as though he had directed
towards it
his own suffering, which without the Redemption could not have revealed to him the fullness of
its
meaning. (# 19)
Our Father…
Holy Mother! pierce me
through,
in my
heart each wound renew
of my Savior
crucified.
11th STATION: Jesus is nailed to the cross
V/. We adore
thee, O Christ and we bless thee.
(Genuflect)
R/. Because by thy holy cross you
have redeemed the
world.
Matthew 27:37-42
And over his head they put the charge against him, which
read,
“This is Jesus the King of the Jews”. Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right
hand
and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You
who would
destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come
down from
the Cross”. So also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him, saying, “He saved
others;
he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the Cross and we
will
believe in him”.
Meditation
“He saved others; he
cannot
save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the Cross and we will believe
in him”
(Matt. 27:42). The shroud of Turin
gives us an
idea of the unbelievable cruelty of this procedure. Jesus does not drink the numbing gall
offered to
him: he deliberately takes upon himself all the pain of the Crucifixion. His whole body is
racked; the
words of the Psalm have come to pass: “But I am a worm and no man, scorned by men, rejected by
the
people” (Ps 22:7). “As one from
whom men
hide their faces, he was despised… surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Is
53:3f.).
Let us look upon him at times of trial and tribulation, and realize that it is then that we are
closest
to God. Let us try to see his face in the people we might look down upon.
Ignatius of Antioch, a prisoner in chains for his faith in the Lord, praised the Christians of Smyrna for their invincible faith: he says that they were, so to speak, nailed with flesh and blood to the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ (1:1). Let us nail ourselves to him, resisting the temptation to stand apart, or to join others in mocking him.
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, you
let yourself be
nailed to
the Cross, accepting the terrible cruelty of this suffering, the destruction of your body and
your
dignity. You allowed yourself to be nailed fast; you did not try to escape or to lessen your
suffering.
May we never flee from what we are called to do. Help us to remain faithful to you. Help us to
unmask
the false freedom which would distance us from you. Help us to accept your “binding” freedom,
and,
“bound” fast to you, to discover true freedom.
St. John Paul II
In bringing about the
Redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering
to the
level of the Redemption… But if at the same time in this weakness there is accomplished
his lifting
up, confirmed by the power
of the
Resurrection, then this means that the weaknesses of all human sufferings are capable of being
infused
with the same power of God manifested in Christ’s Cross… In him God has confirmed his desire to
act
especially through suffering, which is man’s weakness and emptying of self, and he wishes to
make his
power known precisely in this weakness and emptying of self. (#23)
Our Father…
Let me share
with you His
pain,
Who for all our
sins
was slain,
Who for me
in
torments died.
12th STATION: Jesus dies on the cross
V/. We adore
thee, O Christ and we bless thee.
(Genuflect)
R/. Because by thy holy cross you
have redeemed the
world.
Matthew 27:45-50,54
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the
land
until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lama
sabachthani?” That is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders
hearing it
said, “This man is calling Elijah”. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it
with
vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us
see
whether Elijah will come to save him”. And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up
his
spirit”. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the
earthquake
and what took place, they were filled with awe, and said, “Truly this was the Son of
God!”
Meditation
Jesus prays Psalm 22,
which begins with the words: “My
God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?” (Ps 22:2).
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. The Cross of Jesus is a cosmic event. The world is
darkened, when the Son of God is given up to death. The earth trembles. And on the Cross, the
Church of
the Gentiles is born. The Roman centurion understands this and acknowledges Jesus as the Son of
God.
From the Cross he triumphs – ever anew.
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, at
the hour of your
death the
sun was darkened. Ever anew you are being nailed to the Cross. At this present hour of history,
we are
living in God’s darkness. Through your great sufferings and the wickedness of men, the face of
God, your
face, seems obscured, unrecognizable. And yet, on the Cross, you have revealed yourself.
Precisely by
being the one who suffers and loves, you are exalted. From the Cross on high, you have
triumphed. Help
us to recognize your face at this hour of darkness and tribulation. Help us to believe in you
and to
follow you in our hour of darkness and need. Show yourself once more to the world at this hour.
Reveal
to us your salvation.
St. John Paul II
Christ did not
conceal from his
listeners the need for
suffering. He said very clearly:
“If any
man would come after me… let him take up his cross daily ”(Luke 9:23)…Suffering is, in itself,
an
experience of evil. But Christ has made suffering the firmest basis of the definitive good,
namely the
good of eternal salvation. By his suffering on the Cross, Christ reached the very roots of evil,
of sin
and death. He conquered the author of evil, Satan, and his permanent rebellion against the
Creator
(#25,26).
Our Father…
Christ above
in torment
hangs
She beneath
beholds the pangs
Of
her dying, glorious Son.
13th STATION: Jesus is taken down from the cross and given to his mother
V/. We adore
thee, O Christ and we bless thee.
(Genuflect)
R/. Because by thy holy cross you
have redeemed the
world.
Matthew 27:54-55
When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping
watch
over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe, and said, “Truly
this was
the Son of God!” There were also many women there, looking on from afar, who had followed Jesus
from
Galilee, ministering to him.
Meditation
Jesus is dead. From
his heart, pierced by
the
lance of the Roman soldier, flow blood and water: a mysterious image of the stream of the
sacraments,
Baptism and the Eucharist, by which the Church is constantly reborn from the opened heart of the
Lord… Under the
Cross stand Mary, his Mother,
the sister
of his Mother, Mary, Mary Magdalen and the disciple whom he loved. A wealthy man, Joseph of
Arimathea,
appears on the scene: a rich man is able to pass through the eye of a needle, for God has given
him the
grace. He buries Jesus in his own empty tomb, in a garden.
At Jesus’s burial, the cemetery becomes a garden, the garden from which Adam was cast out when he abandoned the fullness of life, his Creator. The garden tomb symbolizes that the dominion of death is about to end. A member of the Sanhedrin also comes along, Nicodemus, to whom Jesus had proclaimed the mystery of rebirth by water and the Spirit. Even in the Sanhedrin, which decreed his death, there is a believer, someone who knows and recognizes Jesus after his death. In this hour of immense grief, of darkness and despair, the light of hope is mysteriously present. The hidden God continues to be the God of life, ever near. Even in the night of death, the Lord continues to be our Lord and Saviour. The Church of Jesus Christ, his new family, begins to take shape.
Prayer
Lord, you descended
into the darkness of
death.
How easy it is for us to step back and say to ourselves: “God is dead”. In the hour of darkness,
help us
to know that you are still there. Do not abandon us when we are tempted to lose heart. Help us
not to
leave you alone. Give us the fidelity to withstand moments of confusion and a love ready to
embrace you
in your utter helplessness, like your Mother, who once more holds you to her breast.
St. John Paul II
Down through the
centuries… it
has been seen that in suffering there is concealed a
particular power that draws a
person
interiorly close to Christ, a special
grace… This discovery is a
particular
confirmation of the spiritual greatness which in man surpasses the body in a way that is
completely
beyond compare. When this body is gravely ill, totally incapacitated, and the person is almost
incapable
of living and acting, all the more do interior maturity and spiritual
greatness become evident,
constituting a
touching lesson to those who are healthy and normal.
To the suffering brother or sister Christ discloses and gradually reveals the horizons of the Kingdom of God: the horizons of a world converted to the Creator, of a world free from sin, a world being built on the saving power of love. And slowly but effectively, Christ leads into this world, into this Kingdom of the Father, suffering man, in a certain sense through the very heart of his suffering. For suffering cannot be transformed and changed by a grace from outside, but from within. And Christ through his own salvific suffering is very much present in every human suffering and can act from within that suffering by the powers of his Spirit of truth, his consoling Spirit. (#26,27)
Our Father…
Let me mingle
tears with
thee
Mourning Him who
mourned for
me,
All the days that
I may
live.
14th STATION: Jesus is laid in the tomb
V/. We adore
thee, O Christ and we bless thee.
(Genuflect)
R/. Because by thy holy cross you
have redeemed the
world.
Matthew 27:59-61
Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen
shroud,
and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to
the door
of the tomb, and departed. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the
sepulchre.
Meditation
Jesus, disgraced
and mistreated, is
honourably
buried in a new tomb. Nicodemus brings a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds
weight,
which gives off a precious scent. In the Son’s self-offering, as at his anointing in Bethany, we
see an
“excess” which evokes God’s generous and superabundant love… If God’s measure is superabundance,
then we
for our part should consider nothing too much for God. This is the teaching of Jesus himself, in
the
Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:20). But we should also
remember the
words of
Saint Paul, who says that God “through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ
everywhere.
We are the aroma of Christ” (2 Cor 2:14ff.). Amid the decay of
ideologies,
our faith
needs once more to be the fragrance which returns us to the path of life. At the very moment of
his
burial, Jesus’ words are fulfilled: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls
to the
earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jn 12:24). Jesus is the grain of
wheat which
dies.
From that lifeless grain of wheat comes forth the great multiplication of bread which will
endure until
the end of the world. Jesus is the bread of life which can satisfy superabundantly the hunger of
all
humanity and provide its deepest nourishment. Through his Cross and Resurrection, the eternal
Word of
God became flesh and bread for us. The mystery of the Eucharist already shines forth in the
burial of
Jesus.
Prayer
Through the death of
the grain of wheat,
you give
us yourself, so that we too can dare to lose our life in order to find it, so that we too can
trust the
promise of the grain of wheat. Help us grow in love and veneration for your Eucharistic mystery
– to
make you, the Bread of heaven, the source of our life. Help us to become your “fragrance”, and
to make
known in this world the mysterious traces of your life. Like the grain of wheat which rises from
the
earth, putting forth its stalk and then its ear, you could not remain enclosed in the tomb: the
tomb is
empty because he – the Father – “did not abandon you to the nether world, nor let your flesh see
corruption” (Acts 2:31; Ps 16:10 LXX). No, you did not see
corruption. You
have risen, and have made a place for our transfigured flesh in the very heart of God. Help us
to
rejoice in this hope and bring it joyfully to the world. Help us to become witnesses of your
resurrection.
St. John Paul II
It is suffering, more
than
anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls. Suffering, more
than
anything else, makes present in the history of humanity the powers of the Redemption. The Gospel
of
suffering is being written unceasingly, and it speaks unceasingly with the words of this strange
paradox: the springs of divine power gush forth precisely in the midst of human weakness. Those
who
share in the sufferings of Christ preserve in their own sufferings a very special particle of
the infinite
treasure of the world’s
Redemption, and
can share this treasure with others. (#27)
By the cross
with you to
stay
There with you
to weep and
pray
Is all I ask of
you to
give.
Prayer To Jesus Christ
Crucified
MY GOOD AND DEAR JESUS, I
kneel before
You, asking You most earnestly to engrave upon my heart a deep and lively faith, hope, and
charity, with
true repentance for my sins, and a firm resolve to make amends. As I reflect upon Your five
wounds, and
dwell upon them with deep compassion and grief, I recall, good Jesus, the words the Prophet
David spoke
long ago concerning Yourself: “They pierced My hands and My feet; they have numbered all My
bones.