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

After the meeting with Mary, the next few stations show us God’s interactive love with a number of His beings – Simon, Veronica, and the weeping women of Jerusalem. The Old Testament is filled with stories of how God interacted with His people – from the time of the creation with Adam in the garden, to walking with Enoch, to sojourning with Abraham, to calling Israel from out of Egypt. We are His people and God wants to live with us. These interactions are made very personal.

Station 5: Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry His Cross

The experience of Simon was one of instant discipleship. It is recorded in the synoptic Gospels (cf. Luke 23:26, Matthew 27:32 & Mark 1:21). Having traveled a long way from Cyrene, Simon found himself in a crowded Jerusalem, jammed with pilgrims who like himself, had come to celebrate the Passover Feast. He had no option but to set up camp in the countryside. While going into the city, he notices from the distance what looked like a procession of sorts. He drew near, only to stumble upon a horrifying scene of a man, who was badly beaten up and was barely carrying the cross that was strapped on his soldiers to the place where He would eventually be crucified, on the very cross. Whether Simon knew the Lord Jesus before this, is not clear. However, before he could recover from this horror, Simon finds himself pressed into action.

God is Searching Love

The Roman soldiers recognized that Jesus didn’t have sufficient strength to carry His cross by Himself. They seized Simon and demanded that he carry the cross instead. I can imagine Simon initially hesitating for fear that he could end up sharing in the fate of Jesus. No matter what persuasion the soldiers used, Simon nonetheless knew enough not to provoke them. And so, he took the cross as ordered and carried it behind Jesus. Nonetheless, this surprise meeting face-to-face with God can happen to any of us. While we are going about doing our thing, God searches us out in His own sometimes not very humorous way. For Simon it was to walk behind the Lord; to follow Him while bearing His Cross; to be a disciple in the moment.

The lesson here is that God searches out His people when they least expect it. God surprises us in this searching love with His presence. Sometimes we see it, and sometimes we don’t. I want to believe Simon did, although we don’t get to hear much more about him for lack of a further record in the bible. He completely disappears from the biblical record at this point. While walking beside Jesus and sharing the burden of the Cross, Simon came to see that it was a grace to be able to accompany the Lord to His crucifixion and to help Him. The mystery of Jesus’ suffering silently touched his heart. The lesson for us is that Divine Love alone can redeem humanity. And we share His Cross so that we can complete what is still lacking in His suffering (cf. Colossians 1:24).

God is Inviting Love

So, Simon only helped to carry the Cross of Jesus and was not actually crucified with Him. Nevertheless, this encounter with the Lord Jesus is what St. Paul so passionately writes about. To the Galatians, St. Paul writes about being crucified with Christ and no longer him living but Christ living in him (cf. Galatians 2: 20a). God invites us to put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by sharing in His Death. Not literally dying physically but dying to sin. God invites us to let our old self be crucified so that we might be set free from our bondage to sin. In this way, the life we live in the flesh is by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20b). Thus, we are alive in Christ, who lives in us.

Much as we want to identify with Simon, nonetheless, our circumstances are a tad different. When we take up the Cross of Christ, we will lose our lives, only to discover that we have found true life in Him. Unlike Simon, we are not forced to pick up the Cross of Christ. The Lord Jesus invites us to follow Him. Even though He is our Lord, He doesn’t force us against our will to join Him. He rather beckons to us. He calls us to take up our cross (not His Cross) and offers abundant life in return (cf. Luke 9:23-24). Faith was born from this chance encounter of Simon with the Lord Jesus. A faith that Simon must have passed on to his children, since Simon’s children, Alexander and Rufus, became members of the Christian Community.

Station 6: Veronica wipes the Face of Jesus 

Although Veronica is not mentioned in the Bible, she nonetheless represents a bystander who takes kindness to a person who so needs it. In that street, Veronica living the words of Isaiah 52:3, saw a man despised and abandoned by men. She saw a man of great pain and familiar with sickness.  And like one from whom people would hide their faces. He was despised, and no one had any regard for Him. She takes courage and does the unexpected, Stepping forward with a jar of water, she offers Him some water to drink. The soldiers do not allow it and kick the jar away from her hands. She, however, doesn’t give up. She does the next best thing to wipe away the sweat and blood from His face, at least to clear His eyes so that He can see where He is going. Veronica’s seemingly simple act of wiping the face of Jesus has many lessons for us about God’s Love.

God is Rewarding Love

In his caring for us, there are moments when God the Father sends us momentary help. There is a universal yearning of the devout men and women of the Old Testament and the yearning of all believers, to see the Face of God. This is nicely embodied in Veronica’s act of human kindness where she holds out a facecloth to Jesus. Undeterred by the brutality of the soldiers or the fear which gripped the disciples and caused them to flee, she rises to the challenge. Stepping forward, she presents the image of that good woman, who, amid turmoil and dismay, shows the courage that is born of goodness and does not allow her heart to be bewildered. She lives the blessedness that the Lord preached about in the Sermon. Her purity of heart meant she got to see the Face of God ( cf. Matthew 5:8). Her simple act of love is rewarded by the buffeted and pain-filled face with an impression of the true Image of Jesus emblazoned on her heart. On the bloodied and bruised human face of Jesus, she saw the Face of God and His goodness, which accompanies us even in our deepest sorrows. It is only with this heart that we can see Jesus. It is only God’s rewarding love that purifies us and gives us the ability to see His Face. It is only love that enables us to recognize God, who is Love.

Station 7: Jesus Falls a Second Time

The Cross grows heavier and Jesus grows weaker. He nonetheless continues up the road, but eventually falls a second time. He continues to struggle and try until He gets up and walks again. He does not give up. His apparent weakness turns out to be unparalleled strength.

God is Strengthening  Love

Sometimes I am like a child who allows things to get me down. It seems like others find things easier to do or to learn. The more I fail, the more it gets harder to keep trying. Other times I am this adult, who thinks I should know more than I do. So, I become impatient with myself and find it hard to believe in myself when things don’t go as planned. It is easy to despair over small things, and yes, sometimes I do. In this second fall, the Lord teaches us that when things seem difficult or when it is hard, His strengthening love will help us to get up and keep trying as He did. He will help us to be our best without comparing ourselves with others.

God is Resilient Love

We often judge situations by appearances and are wrong most of the time. This makes us look down upon those who apparently are failures despite their very best efforts. We see here that the Lord’s greatest moment was His weakest; His greatest triumph was in His apparent failure. We find His greatest love in His desolation, and the greatest show of power is in that sheer lack of strength that threw Him to the ground. When we sin, we beat Him to the ground beneath the Cross. But His resilient love is the efficacious means of grace to help us never to fall again. Even more, His resilient love enables us to get up again when we slip and fall.

Station 8: Jesus Consoles the Weeping Women of Jerusalem

According to St. Luke, there was a large crowd of people following Jesus. Among them were women who were mourning and grieving for Him. But Jesus turned to them and reproached them (cf. Luke 23: 27-28)! Why was this?

God is Caring Love

The point here is that purely sentimental piety will fail to lead to conversion and living faith. Human emotions often cause us to react in ways that are far from the promises of God’s truth. But God is fully aware of what is happening. He knows our form and is mindful that we are nothing but dust (cf. Psalm 103:14). There is no use lamenting the sufferings of this world if life still goes on as usual. God’s caring love warns us of the danger we might find ourselves in. The reproach of Jesus shows both the seriousness of sin and the seriousness of judgment. There is a danger of trivializing the mystery of evil with the display of bewilderment in the face of evil and innocent suffering. Sometimes we accept only the gentleness and love of God but quietly set aside the word of judgment. Yet, the only way to overcome sin is to fully atone for it. This is why we should hear Him when He tells us to weep for ourselves and our children!

God is Consoling Love

God understands when we fall apart and why we have sadness, fear, or frustration and can’t seem to stop. Nevertheless, the goodness of God wants to help us walk through the valley of the shadow of death without stumbling (cf. Psalm 23:4). You have a purpose in this Christian life to become like Jesus. There is no better way for that to happen than for you to trust Him amidst adversity. You are foreknown and you are also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son (cf. Romans 8:28-29). The longer you walk with Jesus, the wiser and more experienced you will become. He has so many wonderful blessings in store for you. Yours is only to accept them. You must demonstrate to Him that you are placing your attention on your Heavenly calling and not focussing on your earthly circumstances.

Take-Home

Praying the Stations of the Cross should encourage you to interact more with God. Our interaction with God should be a two-way relationship. We must let Him grow us in responding to Him, and this being out of love for Him. We must allow the Holy Spirit to open our hearts more to see and hear Him with our spiritual eyes and ears.