Lent: The way of the Cross

As we move into deep Lent, with Passiontide and Holy Week approaching, our eyes are drawn to the fourteen Stations or Way of the Cross, that depicts the journey of Christ from judgement to calvary.

The way of the cross developed out of pilgrims retracing Christ's last journey on the "Via Dolorosa" in Jerusalem. In churches and other places reproductions of that way of sorrows were set up. Saint Leonard of Port Maurice promoted the devotion widely in the Eighteenth Century and now we find the Stations in all our churches.

Meditating on the Passion

In recent years an optional set has been approved, concluding with the Resurrection. In my opinion, the Resurrection seems to be tacked on, as an anticlimax. The traditional fourteen Stations, on the other hand, embody the wisdom of centuries of experience, reflection and prayer. With sacred patience they keep us within the Lenten season and do not jump ahead. They maintain the slow pace of Christ's final journey.

The real outcome is hidden in the fourteen Stations. We are all "in on the secret". We know there will be a happy ending - the happiest ending in all history - after the journey. But now, at this point of Lent, we enter the work of Redemption: the passion and death of the Lord Jesus. We concentrate on his falls, his personal encounters, his inner anguish, his constant love for us.

The Scandal of the Cross

The Stations and, more clearly, the altar crucifix remind us of one hard fact. There is no Christianity without the cross.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen insisted on this in his last years, the 'Seventies, a time of confusion in Church and society. He was ironic about people wanting the risen Lord without the cross, like some "modern" churches where a cheerful risen Christ floats above the altar but his cross is tucked away.

Such exaggeration and a so-called "creation spirituality" may be a dangerous over-reaction to morbid piety. It implies revulsion against the atoning death of Jesus, because the cross is not "nice". Religion without the cross might feel "nice", propped up by pop psychology: "I'm OK. You're OK." But it tells lies. Everything is not OK. We live in a world of sin, death, pain, suffering, evil and we have just come out of the most blood-drenched century in history.

Pull all the "nasty bits" out of Christianity and what is left? Irrelevance. What is the point of God becoming one of us, in this kind of world, if not as our merciful Redeemer and courageous Saviour?

The Cost of the Incarnation

God Incarnate has to enter Auschwitz - or he is just a visitor, "only passing through", unscathed, untouched by the world of heroin, abortion, genocide, family break-ups, spite, cruelty, selfish greed and despair. God who became our brother must walk with us "through the valley of the shadow of death" - or he is not our brother. God in our flesh and bones must penetrate the depths of human experience, even death itself. There is a relentless law. When perfect Love takes flesh in a world gone wrong, Love must be revealed in suffering. This is the self-giving love of the cross.

His Redemption is not something happening "up there" on a cross. It penetrates our lives, our sins, fears, doubts. Jesus forsaken walks with us on our many personal ways of the cross. No suffering Christian can look at a crucifix and say, "God does not understand." He is here with us, on the way.

The Last Station

God in solidarity with was ultimately reduced to nothing. Misjudged, tortured, stripped naked, crucified and rejected, Jesus forsaken ended up in a borrowed tomb, the last Station of the Cross.

In the Byzantine Liturgy, Joseph of Arimathea begs for the corpse of Jesus in an evocative hymn:

"Give me that Stranger who since his youth has wandered as a stranger… Give me that Stranger, upon whom I look with wonder, seeing him a guest of death…..
Give me that Stranger that I may bury him in a tomb, who being a stranger has no place to lay his head………"

The Work of Redemption

We reflect on the Way of the Cross, but it remains a great mystery. The Church has never defined exactly how Jesus redeemed us from sin through his passion and death.

The mystery of his redeeming work may be described in different ways. Jesus is our representative, our High Priest. Yet he is the Victim, the sacrificed lamb, innocent for the guilty, "handed over" and "given up" for us. He takes our guilt upon himself, bearer of burdens, scapegoat. As Paul put it, he "became sin" for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), taking our place on the cross. Others killed him in history, yet we are all accomplices.

He reconciles us to the Father. He atones for our sins. He ransoms us from sin and death. He conquers sin and death. He liberates us from the kingdom of darkness. He restores creation. He is the price of our sins. He is our acquittal. He is our peace and pardon. And all these statements resound with the words "for us..", that is for all humanity. Yet not all who have been redeemed accept his offer of salvation.

We can reach out in faith to this personal Lord and Saviour. We can invite him into our lives. We can repent and welcome him, because his blood outpoured is our cleansing, his broken body is our healing. His body and blood are our sacrifice of peace, the food of restored communion with God.

In gratitude for his redeeming work, let us join Jesus on his Way of the Cross. Let us walk that last kilometre to Calvary. It is the least we can do.