Prayerful meditation through the STATIONS OF THE CROSS is a particular devotion during Lent and on Fridays throughout the year, leading up to the commemoration of Christ’s Crucifixion on Good Friday. The devotion may be performed individually or in a group..
WHERE DID IT BEGIN? An ancient tradition has it that Mary the Mother of Jesus followed Jesus as He carried His cross to Calvary. She was the first to accompany Jesus along His Via Dolorosa (sorrowful way) and it wasn’t long before pilgrims imitated her. By the reign of Emperor Constantine various churches and markers were set up at specific points on Jesus’ way through Jerusalem to Calvary. Pilgrims travelled to the Holy Land for many centuries to visit these sacred sites.
In 1342 the Franciscans were appointed special guardians of the sacred sites in the Holy Land, and soon after there is the first mention of the word “stations” to denote the various stops along the way of Jesus’ passion. The origin of the devotion in its present form is not clear. The number of stations originally observed in Jerusalem was considerably smaller than 14, but traditionally extended from what was believed to be Pilate’s House to Calvary.
Travel to and within the Holy Land was not easy, and Jerusalem has remained a hotspot of religious tension for millennia, preventing many would-be pilgrims from making the journey. In lieu of travelling to these holy sites, the Franciscans and others throughout Europe created shrines and replicas in various locations. The goal was to help the faithful enter into Jesus’ Passion without having to make a life-threatening trip. There were even attempts to reproduce the exact distances between the original sacred spots so that the replicas were as true to Jerusalem as could be.
By the 17th century the Franciscans wanted to begin erecting these “stations” within churches, and asked Rome for permission. Pope Innocent XI recognised the need and granted their request. Realizing that few persons were able to make a personal pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Innocent XI, in 1686, granted to the Franciscans the right to erect Stations in all their churches. In 1731 Clement XII fixed the number of Stations at fourteen.
Both St. Francis of Assisi and St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote devotional guides for the Stations of the Cross that remain popular, the latter reproduced in “The Sunday Missal” from Redemptorist Publications.
STATION ONE - JESUS IS CONDEMNED
Jesus was betrayed by Judas. He was captured at night,
taken away by soldiers, stripped of his garments,
interrogated, tortured, mocked, crowned with sharp thorns
and now handed over to be condemned to death by Pontius Pilate.
Jesus is condemned unjustly. What was His crime?
Pilate thought He was unhinged. Quaint. A harmless nuisance.
This was a Jewish problem, not Pilate's.
Pilate washed his hands of Him.
Lord, we do not wash our hands of you with water anymore,
but with indifference.
We continue to condemn people unjustly,
because of their race, their beliefs, their background,
because they don’t conform.
And it wasn’t just Pilate – the crowd outside his palace
condemned Jesus in the face of no evidence,
without a trial.
"So Pilate, wishing to please the crowd, releases for them Barabbas.
And having Jesus scourged, he delivered him to be crucified."
How easy for Pilate to wash his hands and to say,
“I am innocent of the blood of this man!”
And how many Pilates stand before you
in Russian prisons, in the ruins of Gaza, and prison camps,
in courts of your own making, in the judgements of others,
as you are reduced to being a choice, or a burden on society,
as you are stigmatized by public opinion.
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.
Crowd Member - “I don’t know what got into us that day! I look back in wonder – how could we have been so fickle? “Hosanna” one minute, “Crucify!” the next!.
It was partly the disappointment. We thought he was going to be The Messiah,
the promised deliverer to set us free from the yoke of Roman oppression.
That was a blow for many of us, me included. But the ugly fact is this: we followed the crowd, caught up in the hysteria of the moment.
One minute we were all sane, rational, the next moment all sanity was suspended.
No question he was special, but no-one in their right mind would have gone that far
had they seen us that day. Pilate washed his hands of the whole affair.
Jesus' hands were tied behind his back.
We adore you O Christ, and we praise you,
because by your Holy Cross
you have redeemed the world.
Deliver us, O God, from politics without principles, from wealth without work,
from pleasure without conscience, from knowledge without character,
from commerce without morality, from worship without sacrifice,
and from science without humanity.
Mahatma Gandhi.
Comments