Stations of the Cross

Stations of the Cross

This ancient practice, observed especially on Good Friday, serves more than one purpose. It walks us through the events of Jesus’ betrayal, torture and death on the cross. It also invites reflection on the way suffering continues among the innocent, inflicted by the ignorant—the way, as Catholic writer Caryll Houselander put it, the Christ-life continues in the world.

Before attending a service this morning at which we walked the stations of the cross, I read the headlines. “We”—the American military by order of the president—dropped a 20,000 pound bomb in Afghanistan. Eighteen fighters in Syria, allies of the U.S., were killed in a U.S. airstrike. More than 8 million Syrian children are in immediate need of aid. And regulations in U.S. prisons designed to protect the rights and safety of immigrants being detained are being loosened or lifted for greater efficiency in processing greater numbers of prisoners.

I carried the morning’s news with me into the church. I listened, grateful, to the prayers, each followed by the Trisagion: “Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us.” I also found myself, at each station, imagining Christ suffering in each of the many who suffer even as we walk through these high holy days, bringing them with me. These are my prayers for them today.

1. Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane. And we pray still to spare the innocent the bitter cup of suffering, violence, trauma. Where they do suffer, we pray that healing light will surround them and that in your mysterious will and ways they will be sustained, comforted, and healed.

2. Jesus is betrayed and arrested. May all those betrayed and arrested—refugees who find no welcome, kids on the streets without kindly guidance, people whose lands have been stolen or homes destroyed, find refuge, restitution, and justice. And may we be instruments of that justice.

3. Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin. May we seek help for and support those who help all who suffer from systemic injustice, corruption in high places, and bigotry born of ignorance.

4. Jesus is denied by Peter. We recognize and repent of our own betrayals, and ask pardon, as Peter did. And may that pardon fuel lasting care for the safety, health, and spiritual healing of all who have been abandoned.

5. Jesus is judged by Pilate. May all judges, administrators, social workers, wardens, and those to whose care the marginalized are consigned receive the courage and clarity required to deal honestly and compassionately especially with those who stand powerless before them.

6. Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns. May all victims of torture find swift healing and compassionate care, even in the unlikeliest of places, and may all who engage in torture be convinced of its evil, repent, and make all possible amends.

7. Jesus takes up his cross. May all who carry heavy burdens—laborers, victims of violence whose families are shattered, prisoners whose efforts seem futile, caregivers with few resources and little rest—be sustained on their journeys. And may we be the hands and feet of the Sustainer.

8. Jesus is helped by Simon of Cyrene to carry his cross.   May we, when we witness others’ suffering, have the will and the courage to offer immediate and unstinting help, even when our efforts involve risk.

9. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem. May we, indeed, weep for ourselves and for our children, seeing Christ’s own suffering among and around us, keeping our hearts and imaginations open to their pain. May our tears deepen our motivation to seek peace, offer shelter, and sit with those who mourn.

10. Jesus is nailed to the cross. May we recognize in his death the cost and magnitude of redemptive love, “broader than he measures of the mind,” amazing and mysterious and new every morning, even in this troubled world.

11. Mary and the beloved disciple stand at the foot of the cross. May we love those given into our care, widen our sense of family, and receive all guests, refugees, strangers, and friends as God’s own.

12. Jesus dies on the cross. May the rent veil remind us of the One who witnesses all our wanderings, all our errors, all our evil impulses and acts, and remains utterly and ultimately faithful.

13. Jesus’ body is taken down from the cross. May we deal tenderly with the dead and those who mourn them. In each death may we remember that we live into a promise, that the story we are given, by the grace of God, continues.

14. Jesus is laid in the tomb. May no death be in vain, but each one a teaching, an occasion to learn trust, and a time to remember, await, and practice resurrection. Amen.