Contemplating God’s Love In The Way Of The Cross – Part 1

The Season of Lent 2022 now draws to an end. Mother Church has presented us with opportunities to communally participate in the devotion of the Way of the Cross every Friday for 5 weeks preceding Palm Sunday, which ushers us into the Holy Week. One more communal Way of the Cross will take place on Good Friday. Many people contemplate the suffering of Christ when they pray this devotion.

This year was a little different for me. I found myself drawn more and more to contemplate God’s Love while praying the Way of the Cross. I must say that there have been moments when I have experienced God’s love in body and spirit while making the way of the Cross. In each Station of the Cross, we discern a characteristic of God’s Love. As St. John teaches, God is Love (cf. 1 John 4: 8 &16). A study of His Love is thus a study of the character of God. It is usually hard to understand that suffering helps us to experience the love of God.

Many people associate God’s Love with success, well-being, comfort, riches, positions in society, and very rarely if ever when they face discomfort, sorrow, or loss. Nonetheless, deeper attention paid to the events depicted in the Way of the Cross, which in every essence are a reflection of various states in our lives, presents us with the prospect of recognizing and embracing God’s love in that situation.

Station 1: Jesus is Condemned to Death

Jesus is condemned to death on a Cross out of a hatred prompted by His work which pointed to the fact that He partook of the power and authority of God Himself (cf. John 10:33). The Lord Jesus did many things that provoked the tunnel-visioned leaders of the time and culminated in a hastily constituted meeting of the Council that condemned him as deserving death (cf. Mark 14:64). Without belaboring how eventually both Jews and Gentiles contributed to the condemnation of their Saviour, let us focus on how the acceptance of this judgment by the Lord expresses God’s love for us.

God is Redeeming Love

Jesus is condemned for being Himself; for revealing to humanity who He is. His work was to deliver mankind from the pit of Hell and bring us back into the family of God. The prophet Isaiah wrote about our transgressions being blotted out like a cloud and our sins like a mist so that we may return to God for He has redeemed us (cf. Isaiah 44:22). St. Paul does a great job at reminding us that we are not our own, for we were bought with a price (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:19b-20a). Since Christ bought us with the price of His own blood, we cannot be slaves of human beings or slaves of sin (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:23).

God is Ransoming Love

On his part, St. Peter powerfully states that we could never be redeemed by perishable things. He adds that no matter how much silver or gold we may have, it would not be enough to take away or pay for our sins. Instead, we were ransomed from the futility of the wrath that was to come because of our sins. Despite the wages of sin being death, in Christ Jesus we have the gracious gift of God – eternal life (cf. Rom 6:23) and the ransom price was the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot (cf. 1 Peter 1:18-19).

Station 2: Jesus Carries His Cross

The carrying of the Cross is reported in all canonical gospels (cf. Matthew 27:31–33, Mark 15:20–22, Luke 23:26–32, and John 19:16–18) but without much detail. It is only St. John who expressly says that Jesus carried His own Cross (cf. John 19:17). This is how the Lord Jesus deals with His burdens and problems – He carries His Cross. In his reflection on Christ receiving the Cross(Via Crucis, 2000), Pope St John Paul II observes that it was not lawful to condemn a Roman citizen to death by crucifixion because the act was just too humiliating. And yet, the very moment that the Lord Jesus took up the Cross to carry it to Calvary marked a turning point in the history of the cross. This presents us with a lesson of love…

God is Sacrificial Love

From a symbol of a shameful death that was reserved for the lowest classes, the cross now becomes a key that helps man to open the door of the deepest mystery of God. Through Christ’s acceptance of the Cross, we come to know God’s love that is without limits. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). God is salvific love. This truth is revealed in the Cross that the Father chooses for His only begotten Son. The Son looks up at the Father and receives the Cross from the Roman soldier. He embraces it, shoulders it, and carries it off to mount Calvary, to offer His life on it.

God is Suffering Love

Since we are created in the image of God and after His very likeness, this is the way to understand the revelation of the Cross. If there is so much suffering in the world, then the Lord God must also be suffering. The Lord Jesus does not observe human suffering from a distance, He is at the center of human suffering. In carrying the Cross, the Lord Jesus shows us that He is with us and for us. As all creation groans in one great act of giving birth so are our sufferings included in the co-redemption of the world (Romans 8:22). We are somehow partners with the divine and we make up in our bodies all that still has to be undergone for the sake of the Whole Body. This is despite the inability of our rational minds to fully surrender to this mystery so that our minds can be led by our soul and our spirit. As St. Paul puts it,

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I am supplementing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions in behalf of His body, which is the church (Colossians 1:24).

Station 3: Jesus Falls the First Time

In the past, man has fallen; and in the present, man continues to fall. My falls make me distortions of myself. I am no longer the image of God, but the derision of the Creator. In this Station, the Lord Jesus falls under the weight of the Cross and hits the ground. He could have resorted to his superhuman powers or called out to the power of the angels (cf. Matthew 26:53), but He does not ask for that. Having accepted the cup from the Father’s hands (Mark 14:36) He resolved to drink it to the end. This He does as He wills it.

God is Enduring Love

It is inconceivable that the Lord Jesus accepts these provocations, which seem to undermine the whole meaning of His mission, His teaching, and His miracles. But He accepts them all because He is determined not to combat them. He wills to take all insults for our sakes. He wills to stagger along and to fall under the weight of Cross, bearing our all. Despite everything, He remains faithful down to the bitter end. He endures it all because the Lord God will bring forth the salvation of humanity from Christ’s falling beneath the weight of the Cross. This is what He wills.

And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.” (Mark 14:3).

God is Compassionate Love

Jesus falls and rises to continue on the journey to Calvary. He must be hungry, thirsty, tired, and in pain; but He thinks only of us and our afflictions. He understands that only He can compassionate us. This is why He continues, even when His body can no longer bear His weight. His compassionate love asks us to likewise look beyond ourselves (cf. Psalm 86:15). The fall of Jesus reminds us to be compassionate people. As St. Paul teaches, we are to follow Christ’s example in carrying each other’s burdens and, in this way, will fulfill the law of Christ (cf. Galatians 6:2). In Prophet Isaiah’s words, when mountains seem to have been removed, and the hills to be shaken, the favor of the Lord will not be removed from us. Neither will His covenant of peace be shaken, for the Lord is compassionate love (cf. Isaiah 54:10).

Station 4: Jesus Meets His Sorrowful Mother

During the public life of the Lord Jesus, His mother Mary had to step aside to make place for Jesus’ new family comprising His disciples (cf. Matthew 12:48-50). On the Way of the Cross, she steps up not only physically, but also in her heart. She did it before his birth and she does it again before His death. This moment makes her to now go back to the many things that she treasured in her heart (cf. Luke 2:19). The sword prophesied by elderly Simeon pierces through her soul (cf. Luke 2:35). At the same time, she recalls that Isaiah had written of this moment.

He was oppressed and afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth (Isaiah 53:7).

God is Comforting Love

But the treasures she kept hidden in her heart surface in the words that the angel had spoken to her in the beginning, “Do not be afraid, Mary” (Luke 1:30). She notices that all the disciples have fled; yet, she did not flee. She stayed there with a mother’s courage, a mother’s fidelity, a mother’s goodness, and unwavering faith in the hour of darkness. She steps forward to comfort her Son only in the way that a mother can. She demonstrates to us how God responds to us in the hour of our darkness.

God is Encouraging Love

When the Lord Jesus falls the first time, He must have felt so alone. But when He sees His mother, He recalls the very encouraging words that Isaiah had written.

For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion, I will gather you (Isaiah 54:7).

The distraction to think about his friends who betrayed, abandoned, and denied Him is dissipated with the presence of His very first disciple, His mother. The Lord Jesus is encouraged that when the Son of man comes, he will surely find faith on earth (cf.  Luke 18:8). This is His greatest encouragement. He is strengthened to continue carrying His Cross. Jesus seeing His mother is reminded why He is doing this – God is Love! And He is encouraged because greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends (cf. John 15:13)

This meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Way of the Cross reminds us that when we are on the verge of giving up, we must remember God’s encouraging love. As Isaiah says,

Shout for joy, you heavens! And rejoice, you earth!
Break forth into joyful shouting, mountains!
For the Lord has comforted His people
And will have compassion on His afflicted (Isaiah 49:13).