The Fourteenth Station: Jesus Is Laid In The Tomb

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R/. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

“He was crucified, died and was buried...”
The lifeless body of Christ has been laid in the tomb. But the stone of the tomb is not the final seal on his work. 

The last word belongs not to falsehood, hatred and violence. 

The last word will be spoken by Love, which is stronger than death. 

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jn 12:24). 

The tomb is the last stage of Christ’s dying through the whole course of his earthly life; it is the sign of his supreme sacrifice for us and for our salvation. 

Very soon this tomb will become the first proclamation of praise and exaltation of the Son of God in the glory of the Father. 

“He was crucified, died and was buried,. . . on the third day he rose from the dead.”

Once the lifeless body of Jesus is laid in the tomb, at the foot of Golgotha, the Church begins the vigil of Holy Saturday. 

The Thirteenth Station: Jesus Is Taken Down From The Cross And Given To His Mother

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

O quam tristis et afflicta
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater Unigeniti.

In the arms of his Mother they have placed the lifeless body of the Son. The Gospels say nothing of what she felt at that moment.
It is as though by their silence the Evangelists wished to respect her sorrow, her feelings and her memories. Or that they simply felt incapable of expressing them.

It is only the devotion of the centuries that has preserved the figure of the “Pietà”, providing Christian memory with the most sorrowful image of the ineffable bond of love which blossomed in the Mother’s heart on the day of the Annunciation and ripened as she waited for the birth of her divine Son.

That love was revealed in the cave at Bethlehem
and was tested already during the Presentation in the Temple.
It grew deeper as Mary stored and pondered in her heart all that was happening (cf. Lk 2:51). 

The Twelfth Station: Jesus Dies On The Cross

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34). 

At the height of his Passion, Christ does not forget man, especially those who are directly responsible for his suffering. Jesus knows that more than anything else man needs love; he needs the mercy which at this moment is being poured out on the world. 

“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43). 

This is how Jesus replies to the plea of the criminal hanging on his right: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Lk 23:42). 

The promise of a new life. This is the first fruit of the Passion and imminent Death of Christ. A word of hope to man. 

At the foot of the Cross stood Mary, and beside her the disciple, John the Evangelist. Jesus says: “Woman, behold your son!” and to the disciple: “Behold your mother!” (Jn 19:26-27). 

“And from that moment the disciple took her to his own home” (Jn 19:27). 

This is his bequest to those dearest to his heart.

His legacy to the Church. 

The desire of Jesus as he dies is that the maternal love of Mary should embrace all those for whom he is giving his life, the whole of humanity. 

The Eleventh Station: Jesus Is Nailed To The Cross

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

“They tear holes in my hands and my feet; I can count every one of my bones” (Ps 21:17- 18). 

The words of the Prophet are fulfilled.
The execution begins.
The torturers’ blows crush the hands and feet of the Condemned One against the wood of the Cross.
The nails are driven violently into his wrists. Those nails will hold the condemned man as he hangs in the midst of the inexpressible torments of his agony.
In his body and his supremely sensitive spirit, Christ suffers in a way beyond words.
With him there are crucified two real criminals, one on his right, the other on his left. The prophecy is fulfilled: “He was numbered among the transgressors” (Is 53:12).
Once the torturers raise the Cross, there will begin an agony that will last three hours. This word too must be fulfilled: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself” (Jn 12:32).

What is it that “draws” us to the Condemned One in agony on the Cross?
Certainly the sight of such intense suffering stirs compassion. But compassion is not enough to lead us to bind our very life to the One who hangs on the Cross.
How is it that, generation after generation, this appalling sight has drawn countless hosts of people who have made the Cross the hallmark of their faith?
Hosts of men and women who for centuries have lived and given their lives looking to this sign? 

The Tenth Station: Jesus Is Stripped And Offered Gall And Vinegar To Drink

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

“When he tasted it, he would not drink it” (Mt 27:34). 

He did not want a sedative, which would have dulled his consciousness during the agony.
He wanted to be fully aware as he suffered on the Cross, accomplishing the mission he had received from the Father. 

That was not what the soldiers in charge of the execution were used to. Since they had to nail the condemned man to the Cross, they tried to dull his senses and his consciousness.
But with Christ this could not be. Jesus knows that his death on the Cross must be a sacrifice of expiation. 

This is why he wants to remain alert to the very end. 

Without consciousness, he could not, in complete freedom, accept the full measure of suffering.
Behold, he must mount the Cross, in order to offer the sacrifice of the New Covenant.

He is the Priest. By means of his own blood, he must enter the eternal dwelling-places, having accomplished the world’s redemption (cf. Heb 9:12). 

The Ninth Station: Jesus Falls the Third Time

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

Once more Christ has fallen to the ground under the weight of the Cross. The crowd watches, wondering whether he will have the strength to rise again.

Saint Paul writes: “Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a servant, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a Cross” (Phil 2:6-8).

The third fall seems to express just this:

the self-emptying, the kenosis of the Son of God,

his humiliation beneath the Cross.

Jesus had said to the disciples that he had come not to be served but to serve (cf. Mt 20:28).

In the Upper Room, bending low to the ground and washing their feet, he sought, as it were, to prepare them for this humiliation of his.

The Eighth Station: Jesus Speaks To The Women Of Jerusalem

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

“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?” (Lk 23:28-31).

These are the words of Jesus to the women of Jerusalem who were weeping with compassion for the Condemned One.

“Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” At the time it was certainly difficult to understand the meaning of these words. They contained a prophecy that would soon come to pass.

Shortly before, Jesus had wept over Jerusalem, foretelling the terrible fate that awaited the city.

Now he seems to be referring again to that fate: “Weep for your children . . .”

Weep, because these, your very children, will be witnesses and will share in the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jerusalem which “did not know the time of her visitation” (cf. Lk 19:44).

The Seventh Station: Jesus Falls The Second Time

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

“I am a worm, and no man; scorned by men, and despised by the people” (Ps 22:6).

These words of the Psalm come to mind as we see Jesus fall to the ground a second time under the Cross. Here in the dust of the earth lies the Condemned One. Crushed by the weight of his Cross. His strength drains away from him more and more. But with great effort he gets up again to continue his march.

To us sinners, what does this second fall say? More than the first one, it seems to urge us to get up, to get up again on our way of the cross.

Cyprian Norwid wrote: “Not behind us with the Saviour’s Cross, but behind the Saviour with our own Cross.” A brief saying, but one that conveys much truth. It explains how Christianity is the religion of the Cross.

The Sixth Station: Veronica Wipes The Face of Jesus

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

Veronica does not appear in the Gospels. Her name is not mentioned, even though the names of other women who accompanied Jesus do appear.

It is possible, therefore, that the name refers more to what the woman did. In fact, according to tradition, on the road to Calvary a woman pushed her way through the soldiers escorting Jesus and with a veil wiped the sweat and blood from the Lord’s face. That face remained imprinted on the veil, a faithful reflection, a “true icon.” This would be the reason for the name Veronica.

If this is so, the name which evokes the memory of what this woman did carries with it the deepest truth about her.

One day, Jesus drew the criticism of onlookers when he defended a sinful woman who had poured perfumed oil on his feet and dried them with her hair. To those who objected, he replied: “Why do you trouble this woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me . . . In pouring this ointment on my body she has done it to prepare me for burial” (Mt 26:10, 12). These words could likewise be applied to Veronica.

Thus we see the profound eloquence of this event.

The Fifth Station: Simon Of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry His Cross

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

They compelled Simon (cf. Mk 15:21).

The Roman soldiers did this because they feared that in his exhaustion the Condemned Man would not be able to carry the Cross as far as Golgotha. Then they would not be able to carry out the sentence of crucifixion.

They were looking for someone to help carry the Cross.

Their eyes fell on Simon. They compelled him to take the weight upon his shoulders. We can imagine that Simon did not want to do this and objected. Carrying the cross together with a convict could be considered an act offensive to the dignity of a free man.

Although unwilling, Simon took up the Cross to help Jesus.

In a Lenten hymn we hear the words: “Under the weight of the Cross Jesus welcomes the Cyrenean.” These words allow us to discern a total change of perspective: the divine Condemned One is someone who, in a certain sense, “makes a gift” of his Cross.

Was it not he who said: “He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Mt 10:38)?

Simon receives a gift.

He has become “worthy” of it. 

The Fourth Station: Jesus Meets His Mother

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and his kingdom will have no end” (Lk 1:30-33).

Mary remembered these words. She often returned to them in the secret of her heart.

When she met her Son on the way of the Cross, perhaps these very words came to her mind. With particular force.

“He will reign... His kingdom will have no end,” the heavenly messenger had said.

Now, as she watches her Son, condemned to death, carrying the Cross on which he must die, she might ask herself, all too humanly: So how can these words be fulfilled? In what way will he reign over the House of David? And how can it be that his kingdom will have no end?

Humanly speaking, these are reasonable questions.

But Mary remembered that, when she first heard the Angel’s message, she had replied: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).

The Third Station: Jesus Falls the First Time

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. “God laid on him the sins of us all” (cf. Is 53:6). “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” (Is 53:6). Jesus falls under the Cross. This will happen three times along the comparatively short stretch of the “via dolorosa”. Exhaustion makes him fall. His body is stained with blood from the scourging, his head is crowned with thorns. All this causes his strength to fail. So he falls, and the weight of the Cross crushes him to the ground. We must go back to the words of the Prophet, who foresaw this fall centuries earlier. It is as though he were contemplating it with his own eyes: seeing the Servant of the Lord, on the ground under the weight of the Cross, he tells us the real cause of his fall. It is this: “God laid on him the sins of us all”.

The Second Station: Jesus Takes Up His Cross

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

The cross. The instrument of a shameful death.
It was not lawful to condemn a Roman citizen to death by crucifixion: it was too humiliating. The moment that Jesus of Nazareth took up the Cross in order to carry it to Calvary marked a turning-point in the history of the cross.

The symbol of a shameful death, reserved for the lowest classes, the cross becomes a key. From now on, with the help of this key, man will open the door of the deepest mystery of God.

Through Christ’s acceptance of the Cross, the instrument of his own self-emptying, men will come to know that God is love. 

Love without limits: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). 

This truth about God was revealed in the Cross.
Could it not have been revealed in some other way?
Perhaps. But God chose the Cross. 

The First Station: Jesus Is Condemned To Death

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

“Are you the King of the Jews?” (Jn 18:33).
“My Kingdom is not of this world; if my Kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my Kingdom is not from the world” (Jn18:36).

Pilate said to him:
- “So you are a king?”
Jesus answered:
- “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.”
Pilate said in answer:
“What is truth?”
At this point, the Roman Procurator saw no need for further questions. He went to the Jews and told them: “I find no crime in him” (cf. Jn 18:37-38). 

The tragedy of Pilate is hidden in the question: What is truth?

Way of the Cross Continues to Speak

In his opening prayer for the Stations of the Cross, Blessed John Paul II began:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
R. Amen.

“If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24).

Good Friday evening.
For twenty centuries
the Church has gathered on this evening
to remember and to re-live
the events of the final stage
of the earthly journey of the Son of God.
Once again this year,
the Church in Rome
meets…to follow the footsteps of Jesus,
who “went out, carrying his cross,
to the place called the place of the skull,
which is called in Hebrew Golgotha” (Jn 19:17).

We are here
because we are convinced that the Way of the Cross of the Son of God
was not simply a journey
to the place of execution.
We believe that every step of the Condemned Christ,
every action and every word,
as well as everything felt and done
by those who took part in this tragic drama,
continues to speak to us.
In his suffering and death too,
Christ reveals to us the truth about God and man.

Scaling the Mountain

On this Ash Wednesday, the Church embarks on the liturgical season of Lent. During these 40 days of fasting in preparation for Easter, Pope Benedict XVI calls us to meditate on the relationship between faith and charity. In his Lenten Message, he writes:

Lent invites us, through the traditional practices of the Christian life, to nourish our faith by careful and extended listening to the word of God and by receiving the sacraments, and at the same time to grow in charity and in love for God and neighbor, not least through the specific practices of fasting, penance and almsgiving.

One way to nourish our faith is by reflecting on the final earthly journey of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. We face His Passion and Death every time we gaze upon the Crucifix, but during the penitential season of Lent, it is fitting that we become more familiar with the loving sacrifice Jesus made for us during His final test.

We will meditate on the Stations of the Cross here on Open Wide the Doors throughout these next 40 Days, following the steps of Blessed John Paul II in the Holy Year 2000.  Reflecting on Our Lord’s Passion will nourish our faith and give us the strength to “cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light…” (Rom 13: 12). In his Lenten message, Pope Benedict says:

The Christian life consists in continuously scaling the mountain to meet God and then coming back down, bearing the love and strength drawn from him, so as to serve our brothers and sisters with God’s own love.

Lets us scale the mountain together, then, so that we may bear the love and strength drawn from Our God.