XII Station: Jesus Dies on the Cross

We adore you O Christ and we praise you

For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world

Source

“Father forgive them for they know not what they do”

Lk 23:28

After having been scourged, lacerated with wounds, crowned with thorns, insulted and nailed to the cross, Jesus could say “ Father forgive them for they know not what they do” The Roman soldiers were degrading themselves more than Jesus.

Surely their very humanity should have prevented them from inflicting upon another what they could not have faced themselves.

That man should be so cruel to man and we see it daily in man’s inhumanity to man, the Roman soldiers were no better, their training had made them ruthless and very cruel. Yet Jesus prays ‘ Father forgive them……………………..’

In all our lives there are actions, sins and wrong doings that needs forgiveness. If only we could hear clearly and within us that we have been forgiven by this loving Jesus. He knew those soldiers but they did not know Him or ask His forgiveness, He loved them and He forgave them. 

Our faith our trust and love for Him must lead us during this Lent to an even greater response of love towards ourselves and towards others.

Sisters of Nazareth, Johannesburg.