On this Friday of Lent, we recover the Way of the Cross from WYD Madrid 2011, celebrated in the capital of Spain under the presidency of Benedict XVI. A text of profound sobriety and spiritual content, which accompanies the reader in the contemplation of Christ’s path to the Cross and which regains full relevance as an aid to prayer in these central days of the Lenten season.
First Station
Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples
And taking bread, after pronouncing the thanksgiving, he broke it and gave it to them, saying: «This is my body, which is given for you; do this in memory of me». After supper, he did the same with the cup, saying: «This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you» (Lk 22, 19–20).
Jesus, before taking the bread in his hands, welcomes with love all those seated at his table. Excluding no one: neither the traitor, nor the one who will deny him, nor those who will flee. He has chosen them as the new people of God. The Church, called to be one.
Jesus dies to gather the scattered children of God (Jn 11, 52). «I do not pray for them alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that all may be one» (Jn 17, 20–21). Love strengthens unity. And he tells them: «Love one another» (Jn 13, 34). Faithful love is humble: «You also ought to wash one another’s feet» (Jn 13, 14).
United in the prayer of Christ, let us pray that, in the land of the Lord, the Church may live united and in peace, that all persecution and discrimination on account of faith may cease, and that all who believe in the one God may live fraternity in justice, until God grants us to sit around his one table.
Second Station
The kiss of Judas
«And having dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. Behind the bread, Satan entered him» (Jn 13, 26).
«He approached Jesus… and kissed him. But Jesus said to him, “Friend, why are you here?”» (Mt 26, 49–50).
At the Supper, a breath of sacred mystery is breathed. Christ is serene, thoughtful, suffering. He had said: «I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer» (Lk 22, 15). And now, in a low voice, he lets slip his deepest feeling: «Truly, truly, I say to you: one of you will betray me» (Jn 13, 21).
Judas feels bad, his ambition has changed, at the price of betrayal, the God of Love for the idol of money. Jesus looks at him and he averts his gaze. He calls his attention by offering him bread with sauce. And he says to him: «What you are going to do, do quickly» (Jn 13, 27). Judas’s heart had narrowed and he went to count his money, to later deliver Jesus with a kiss. And Christ, feeling the cold of the traitorous kiss, does not reproach him, he says to him: Friend. If you are feeling in your flesh the cold of betrayal, or the terrible suffering caused by division among brothers and fratricidal struggle, go to Jesus, who, in the kiss of Judas, made his own the painful betrayals.
Third Station
Peter’s denial
«Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you: the rooster will not crow before you have denied me three times» (Jn 13, 37).
«And he went out and wept bitterly» (Lk 22, 62).
A Christian must be brave. And being brave is not not having fears, but knowing how to overcome them.
The brave Christian does not hide out of shame to manifest his faith in public. Jesus warned Peter: «Satan has asked for you to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you» (Lk 22, 31). «I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know me» (Lk 22, 34). And the apostle, out of fear of some servants, denied him saying: «I do not know him» (Lk 22, 57). As Jesus passed through one of the courtyards, he looked at him…, he shuddered remembering his words…, and wept bitterly for his betrayal. The gaze of God changes the heart. But one must allow oneself to be gazed upon.
With Peter’s gaze, the Lord has set his eyes on Christians who are ashamed of their faith, who have human respect, who lack courage to defend life from its beginning to its natural end, or who want to fit in with non-evangelical criteria. The Lord looks at them so that, like Peter, they may gather courage and be convinced witnesses of what they believe.
Fourth Station
Jesus, sentenced to death
«He is deserving of death» (Mt 26, 66).
«Then he handed him over to be crucified» (Jn 19, 16).
The greatest injustice is to condemn a defenseless innocent. And one day, evil judged and condemned Innocence to death. Why did they condemn Jesus? Because Jesus made his own all the pain of the world. By becoming incarnate, he assumes our humanity and, with it, the wounds of sin. He bore their crimes (Is 53, 11), to heal us by the sacrifice of the Cross. Like a man of sorrows, accustomed to suffering (Is 53, 3), he exposed his life to death (Is 53, 12).
What impresses most is the silence of Jesus. He does not excuse himself, he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1, 29), he was scourged, crushed, sacrificed. He was silent and did not open his mouth (Is 53, 7).
In the silence of God, all the innocent victims of wars that ravage peoples and sow hatreds that are hard to heal are present. Jesus is silent in the heart of many people who, in silence, await God’s salvation.
Fifth Station
Jesus takes up his cross
«When they had finished mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him» (Mk 15, 20).
«Carrying the cross himself, he went out to the place called “the Skull”» (Jn 19, 17).
Cross does not only mean wood. Cross is everything that makes life difficult. Among the crosses, the deepest and most painful one is rooted in the interior of man. It is sin that hardens the heart and perverts human relationships. «For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies» (Mt 15, 19). The cross that Jesus carried on his shoulders to die on it is the cross of all the sins of the entire Humanity. Mine too. He bore our sins in his body (1 Pe 2, 24). Jesus dies to reconcile men with God. That is why he makes the cross redemptive. But the cross by itself does not save us. The Crucified saves us.
Christ made his own the weariness, exhaustion, and hopelessness of those who cannot find work, as well as of immigrants who receive undignified or inhuman job offers, who suffer racist attitudes or die in the effort to achieve a more just and dignified life.
Sixth Station
Jesus falls under the weight of the cross
«Crushed for our crimes» (Is 53, 5).
Jesus fell under the weight of the cross several times on the way to Calvary (Tradition of the Church of Jerusalem).
Sacred Scripture does not refer to Jesus’ falls, but it is logical that he lost his balance many times. The loss of blood from the tearing of the skin in the scourging, the unbearable muscle pains, the torture of the crown of thorns, the weight of the wood…, there are no words to describe the pain that Christ must have experienced. All of us, at some point, have stumbled and fallen to the ground. How quickly we get up to avoid looking ridiculous. Contemplate Jesus on the ground and everyone around him laughing mockingly and giving him kicks to make him get up. How ridiculous, what humiliation, my God. The psalm says: «But I am a worm, not a man, the reproach of men and despised by the people; all who see me mock me, they make mouths at me, they shake their heads» (Ps 22, 7–8). Jesus suffers with all those who stumble in life and fall powerless victims of alcohol, drugs, and other vices that make them slaves, so that, supported by Him, and by those who help them, they may rise.
Seventh Station
The Cyrene helps carry the cross
«As they led him away, they seized a certain Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country» (Lk 23, 26). «And they forced him to carry his cross» (Mt 27, 32).
Simon was a farmer coming from working in the field. They forced him to carry our Lord’s cross, not moved by compassion, but by fear that he would die on the way. Simon resists, but the imposition by the soldiers is categorical. He had to accept by force. Upon contact with Jesus, the attitude of his heart changes and he ends up sharing the situation of that unknown condemned man who, in silence, carries a weight greater than his weak strength. How important it is for Christians to discover what is happening around us, and to become aware of the people who need us.
Jesus felt relieved thanks to the help of the Cyrene. Thousands of young people marginalized by society, of every race, condition, and creed, find every day Cyrines who, in generous self-giving, walk with them embracing the same cross.
Eighth Station
Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
«Jesus turned to them and said: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, weep for yourselves and for your children”» (Lk 23, 27–28).
«The Lord preserves him and keeps him alive, so that he may be happy on earth, and does not deliver him to the will of his enemies» (Ps 41, 3).
A multitude of the people and a group of women who beat their breasts and lamented weeping followed him. Jesus turned and said to them: «Do not weep for me, weep for yourselves and for your children». Weep, not with a cry of sadness that hardens the heart and predisposes it to produce new crimes… Weep with a gentle cry of supplication, asking heaven for mercy and forgiveness. One of the women, moved upon seeing the Lord’s face full of blood, dirt, and spittle, bravely dodged the soldiers and reached him. She took off her veil and gently wiped his face. A soldier violently pulled her away, but upon looking at the veil, he saw that it bore the imprint of Christ’s bloodied and suffering face.
Jesus has compassion on the women of Jerusalem, and on Veronica’s cloth he leaves imprinted his face, which evokes that of so many men who have been disfigured by atheistic regimes that destroy the person and deprive them of their dignity.
Ninth Station
Jesus is stripped of his garments
«They crucified him and divided his garments, casting lots for them» (Mk 15, 24).
«From the sole of the foot to the head there is no sound part» (Is 1, 6).
While they prepare the nails and ropes to crucify him, Jesus remains standing. A ruthless soldier approaches and, pulling his tunic, takes it off. The wounds began to bleed again causing him terrible pain. Then they divided the garments. Jesus is left naked before the crowd. They have stripped him of everything and make him an object of mockery. There is no greater humiliation, nor greater contempt.
Garments not only cover the body, but also the interior of the person, their intimacy, their dignity. Jesus went through this shame because he wanted to bear all the sins against integrity and purity, and he died to take away the sins of all (Hb 9, 28).
Jesus suffers with the sufferings of the victims of human genocides, where man rages with brutal violence, in rapes and sexual abuses, in crimes against children and adults. How many people stripped of their dignity, of their innocence, of their trust in man.
Tenth Station
Jesus is nailed to the cross
And when they came to the place called «The Skull», they crucified him there, him and the evildoers, one on the right and the other on the left (Lk 23, 33).
They had led Jesus to Golgotha. He was not alone, two thieves who would also be crucified accompanied him. They crucified him; and with him, two others, one on each side, and in the middle, Jesus (Jn 19, 18). What a symbolic image. The Lamb who takes away the sin of the world becomes sin and pays for others. The great sin of the world is Satan’s lie, and Jesus is condemned for declaring the Truth: his being Son of God. Truth is the argument to justify the crucifixion. It is impossible to describe what Christ’s body suffered physically hanging from the cross, what he suffered morally upon seeing himself naked crucified between two evildoers and sentimentally, upon finding himself abandoned by his own.
Jesus on the cross welcomes the suffering of all those who live nailed to painful situations, like so many fathers and mothers of families, and so many young people, who, due to lack of work, live in precariousness, in poverty and hopelessness, without the necessary resources to support their families and lead a dignified life.
Eleventh Station
Jesus dies on the cross
«Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”. And having said this, he breathed his last» (Lk 23, 46).
«But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs» (Jn 19, 33).
It was the Sabbath, the day of preparation for the Passover feast. Pilate authorized them to break their legs to hasten their death and not leave them hanging during the feast. Jesus had already died, and a soldier, to make sure, pierced his heart with a spear. Thus the Scriptures were fulfilled: They shall not break a bone of him.
The sun darkened and the veil of the Temple was torn in two. The earth trembled… It is a sacred moment of contemplation. It is a moment of adoration, of placing oneself before the body of our Redeemer: lifeless, crushed, pulverized, hanging…, paying the price of our wickedness, of my wickedness…
Lord, I have sinned, have mercy on me, a sinner. Amen.
Jesus dies for me. Jesus obtains the Father’s mercy for me. Jesus pays all that I owed. What do I do for him?
Before the drama of so many people crucified by different disabilities, do I fight to extend and proclaim the dignity of the person and the Gospel of life?
Twelfth Station
The descent from the cross
«Pilate ordered that it be given to him» (Mt 27, 57).
«Joseph took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth» (Mt 27, 59).
Christ has died and he must be taken down from the cross. Let us approach the Virgin and share her pain. What must have gone through her mind. «Who will take him down for me? Where will I place him?» And she would repeat again as in Nazareth: «Let it be done». But now she is more united to the unconditional surrender of her Son: «It is finished». Then Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus appeared, who, although belonging to the Sanhedrin, had not taken part in the Lord’s death. It is they who ask Pilate for the Master’s body to place it in a new tomb, his own property, which was near Calvary.
Christ has failed, making his own all the failures of Humanity. The Son of man has been eliminated and has shared the fate of those who, for various reasons, have been considered the scum of Humanity, because they do not know, cannot, are not worth it. They are, among others, the victims of AIDS, who, with the sores of their cross, await someone to care for them.
Thirteenth Station
Jesus in the arms of his mother
«A sword will pierce your soul» (Lk 2, 34).
«See if there is any sorrow like the sorrow that torments me» (Lam 2, 12).
Although we are all guilty of Jesus’ death, in these so painful moments the Virgin needs our love and closeness. Our conscience as repentant sinners will serve her as consolation.
With filial attitude, let us place ourselves at her side, and learn to receive Jesus with the tenderness and love with which she received in her arms the broken and lifeless body of her Son. «Is there pain like my pain?»
And, while they prepared the Lord’s body as is customary to bury among the Jews (Jn 19, 40) to give it burial, Mary, adoring the Mystery that she had kept in her heart without understanding it, would repeat moved with the prophet: «My people, what have I done to you, how have I wearied you? Answer me!» (Mi 6, 3).
In contemplating the Virgin’s pain, we remember the pain and loneliness of so many fathers and mothers who have lost their children to hunger, while opulent societies, swallowed by the dragon of consumerism, of materialistic perversion, sink into the nihilism of the emptiness of their life.
Fourteenth Station
Jesus is placed in the tomb
«And since it was the day of Preparation for the Jews, and the tomb was nearby, they put Jesus there» (Jn 19, 42).
«Joseph of Arimathea rolled a large stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away» (Mt 27, 60).
Due to the proximity of the feast, they hurried to prepare the Lord’s body to place it in the tomb offered by Joseph and Nicodemus. The tomb was new, no one had been buried in it.
Once the body was placed on the rock, Joseph rolled the stone of the door, leaving the entrance completely closed. Unless a grain of wheat dies…
And, after the noise of the stone closing the access to the tomb, Mary, in the silence of her solitude, clutches the ear of wheat that she already carries in her heart as the first fruits of the Resurrection.
In this ear of wheat we remember the humble and sacrificed work of so many lives spent in sacrificed self-giving in the service of God and neighbor, of so many lives that await to be fruitful by uniting themselves to Jesus’ death.
We remember the good Samaritans, who appear in any corner of the earth to share the consequences of the forces of nature: earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis…
Prayer to the Virgin
«Our Mother and Lady, who remained firm in faith, united to the Passion of your Son: at the end of this Way of the Cross, we place our gaze and our heart in you. Although we are not worthy, we welcome you into our home, as the apostle John did, and we receive you as our Mother. We accompany you in your solitude and offer you our company to continue supporting the pain of so many of our brothers who complete in their flesh what is lacking in the Passion of Christ, for his body, which is the Church. Look upon them with a mother’s love, wipe away their tears, heal their wounds and increase their hope, so that they may always experience that the Cross is the way to glory, and the Passion, the prelude to the Resurrection».