Yesterday on Good Friday, I livestreamed the Stations of the Cross from the Knock Shrine in Ireland. There are a number of variants of the Stations of the Cross. Knock, being Ireland’s National Marian Shrine, used a version of the stations that reflects on things from Mary’s perspective. I really enjoyed meditating on the stations in this way, but during the prayer, my mind seemed to focus on the roles of several other people or groups of people who appear in the stations – specifically the “crowd”, Simon, and Veronica.
Although I sometimes have trouble focusing while praying devotionals like the Rosary and the Stations of the Cross as my mind seems to be all over the place, in some way this is a result of the fact that these prayers are meant for use to encounter Jesus and Mary in the moment and not just a be a rote, static repetition of prayers. As I’ve heard preached, when you struggle with prayer, that’s when it has the most merit. I can only hope so.
As I think about the crowd yelling “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” I wonder what I would have done if I were in the crowd that day in Jerusalem two millennia ago. Would I have gone along with the crowd, not simply to just conform with the crowd, but perhaps because I was a pious Jew and viewed Jesus as a blaspheming as the chief priests claimed? I also think like this when I think about issues like other historical injustices like slavery. What would I have done in a place and time where slavery was not only the norm, but also accepted at the highest levels of governments and religious institutions? It’s more than just a question of would I have chosen right from wrong, but a question of whether or not I would have even seen the injustice in what has occurring.
It’s easy to sit here in our present time with the perspective of almost 2000 years in Jesus’s case and several hundred years in the case of slavery and condemn everyone who participated in these horrific injustices. From our perspective here in 2021, they are heinous wrongs. But I also wonder how much of our judgement is a true assessment of what we would have done in the circumstances at the time and not just an artifact of our perspective of looking back in time from a safe distance. Would I have had the courage to do anything? But perhaps, even more disconcerting is the question of whether or not I would have even recognized the injustice.
When I look at how we judge historical figures in today’s culture, I often think about what I or any of those measuring out condemnation would have done and why do we have the right to pass judgement on others, especially those distant in time and place, in the first place — “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3) How will future generations judge us?
When I think of Jesus’s suffering and death and contemplate how I would have acted if I were there, I have to do no more than look at my own thoughts and actions 2000 years later in the present time. Given all I know and believe, I still contribute to the suffering He endured when I constantly choose not to follow the way of love that He has set out before me.
I watched the video from the Word on Fire Pivotal Players series on Bartolomè de las Casas last week. Bartolomè de las Casas was a Spanish Dominican friar who lived in the time of Columbus. His father sailed on one of Columbus’s voyages and the younger de las Casas made his way to the new world as a young adult to run a plantation utilizing Native American slaves (prior to becoming a priest and then a Dominican friar). Over time, due to the atrocities that he witnessed first-hand against the Native Americans, he gave up his slaves and became an ardent activist for the rights of the natives and a political thorn in the sides of the Spanish colonizers. Although las Casas made some progress in advancing the rights and upholding the dignity of the Native Americans, it wasn’t until much after his death that real advances were made. He, however, set the groundwork for what was to come.
Las Casas called out these injustices when the Spanish government did not even recognize the Native Americans as people. And he went about doing something about it. But las Casas was one of a very few advocating on behalf of the natives. Even so, he is often viewed as a controversial figure today. Although he clearly saw the injustices being perpetrated against the Native Americans with whom he lived and worked, he at one point advocated for the use of African slaves instead of Natives in the West Indian colonies. Although he retracted this position later in life, recognizing both forms of slavery as equally wrong, even someone like las Casas could not clearly see injustice (African slavery) in the midst of the prevailing times. My point is not to in anyway justify any of these injustices, but only to question how easy it was to recognize at the time things that we now see so clearly with the perspective of hundreds of years as clearly cruel and inhumane. I pray not only that I would have recognized the injustices at those times and places and tried to do something about them, but that I do the same in the present – as this is the time and place that our Creator God chose to insert me into his creation.
The second figure in the stations that I contemplated was Simon the Cyrene. The Gospel accounts present Simon as a passerby who was pressed into service to help and exhausted and beaten Jesus carry his cross. Perhaps, he was just a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although it does not seem like a very commendable act of charity due to the fact that he was forced by the Romans into carrying Jesus’s cross, he was the only one who actually helped Jesus and this is the reason why we still remember his name to this day. We can only speculate that Simon’s heart opened in love as he struggled with the cross for Jesus, for no one encounters Jesus without experiencing an infinite outflowing of grace.
Jesus gives each of us a cross to follow Him in love. Jesus tells us “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6). He doesn’t say there are many ways. There is one way and one way only and that way is the way of the cross. None of us likes our cross. I, like everyone else, runs away from my cross. We want to have any other cross (although not really if you honestly think about it). But our cross is custom-made by God for us. Love, in our broken world, requires suffering. Jesus shows us this by His example. He, who is almighty God and creator of all things, entered into creation in solidarity with us to show us the way to eternal life in God. Jesus never abandons us, but is always there to help us carry our cross.
I, like Simon, often (more like all the time) don’t accept my cross willingly. But I pray that even if I don’t accept my cross initially in love of Jesus, which I don’t seem to ever do, that I like Simon grow in love for Jesus as I carry my cross. We’re all given crosses that we don’t ask for and don’t desire. Like Simon, we’re handed a cross at the worst possible time (as if there ever is a good time). Although easy to say, but hard to live out, I know that Jesus gives us our crosses out of love. He loves us most when we suffer as we resemble Him most in our suffering.
Finally I thought about Veronica wiping the face of Jesus. Veronica saw Jesus’s bloodied and pain filled face and came out of the crowd to wipe his face and comfort him. When I think about Veronica, I think about her compassion in the midst of brutality. A simple gesture that on the surface was fairly insignificant, as it only gave Jesus a few seconds of consolation in the midst of unbearable pain and suffering, but in reality was so much more.
When I look at the world around us the problems, challenges and injustices seem insurmountable. And they are from a human perspective. What can I do? How can I make a difference? Why even bother then?
I often come face to face with this dilemma in my ministry work in Kenya. I’ve had several people even tell me that some things can’t be fixed and that it’s just the way things are. However, I try not to accept that as an answer. I may not be able to solve world hunger or even address the small issues that I run up against, but I can at least try. I know for sure that if I don’t try, nothing will change. However, if I make even the smallest effort, I know that our loving God can work through me to do what I can’t do on my own. Like Veronica, all I need to do is to reach out in love. God will do the rest for “in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.” (Colossians 1:24) What could possibly be lacking in the infinite and perfect sacrifice of Jesus’s passion and death? Nothing. But in His infinite wisdom, God wills us to participate in our redemption in and through Christ. God could fix all the ills of the world in the blink of an eye, but that is not what He desires in accordance with His plan for us. He always respects our free will and allows us to choose evil and even to reject Him.
Like Veronica, I strive to reach out to others in compassion and love, although not always charitable as I should be. I seek to give what little I can in the midst of seemingly insurmountable challenges and injustices. I have trust in the Lord and His ability to use my meager efforts to achieve His ends. I also know that as Jesus left the imprint of His face on the cloth that Veronica offered Jesus, Jesus also leaves His imprint on me and all who reach out to others in love like Veronica.
Although Jesus you now on this Holy Saturday rest in the tomb after your ignominious suffering and death, we know how the story ends. Alleluia.
God is good.
Rich
thanks for sharing
Happy Easter
Ann Hart
I found the read very comforting. I’m so glad I waited till Easter Sunday to read it. Keep up Gods work.