6th March 2015 - The Stations of the Cross - 4th Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday)

On this weeks programme as we journey through the joyous holy season of Lent, we provide a pause moment on this weeks programme to reflect on the Stations of the Cross with reflections from fourteen contributors aged from 7 to 77 on this traditional Lenten devotion. We also have music and prayer spaces from the Divine Mercy Conference which was held in Dublin recently.

You can listen to the podcast of the full programme HERE.

Sunday is Laetare Sunday, also known as Mothering Sunday (Mother's Day in Ireland), Refreshment Sunday, Mid-Lent Sunday (in French mi-carême), and Rose Sunday (either because the golden rose sent by the popes to Catholic sovereigns used to be blessed at this time or because the use of rose-colored vestments instead of violet ones was permitted). Historically it was also once known as "the Sunday of the Five Loaves," from the traditional Gospel reading for the... day, the story of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, which was, before the adoption of the modern "common" lectionaries, the Gospel reading for this Sunday in the Lutheran, Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Old Catholic churches. Laetare, a Latin word, means to Rejoice and it takes its name from the Opening antiphon which we hear in Mass this Sunday «Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her, rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult.'


The Stations of the Cross

This week we reflect on the Stations of the Cross, the traditional Franciscan devotion which has spread from the Holy Land around the world to walk the journey of Jesus during his Passion in Jerusalem to Calvary and to the tomb.

This week we have a number of contributors reflecting on the Stations of the Cross with some original pieces, others reading reflections on the Stations composed by Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP.

You can listen to this weeks reflections excerpted from the main programme HERE. If you wish to get a copy of a cd of these recordings, please do not hesitate to contact any member of the SS102fm team.

Over the last number of years, SS102fm has done a number of programmes on the Stations of the Cross and we have post various reflections on the Stations individually on the blog also including previous years reflections from Rome as well as a series of reflections which we asked contributors to make in 2012.

The 2012 series of blog reflections on the Stations of the Cross are here.

Our recording of Mary's Stations of the Cross from 2013 is here.

I - Jesus is condemned to death

II - Jesus receives his cross

III - Jesus falls the first time

IV - Jesus meets his mother

V - Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry his cross

VI - Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

VI - Jesus falls the second time

VIII - Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

IX - Jesus falls the third time

X - Jesus is stripped of his garments

XI - Jesus is nailed to the cross

XII - Jesus dies on the cross

XIII - Jesus is taken from the cross

XIV - Jesus is laid in the tomb

Gospel - Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So to them Jesus addressed this parable:
“A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them.
After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.

When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any.
Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’
So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off,
his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;
I no longer deserve to be called your son.’ But his father ordered his servants, ‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’ Then the celebration began.
Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean.
The servant said to him, ‘Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf
because he has him back safe and sound.’ He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house,
his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes,
for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ He said to him,‘My son, you are here with me always;
everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’”

Reflections on this weeks gospel:

Word on Fire

Centre for Liturgy

Sunday Reflections

English Dominicans
iBenedictines

Liturgical odds & ends

Liturgy of the Hours: psalter week 4; 4th week of Lent

Saints of the Week (as commemorations during Lent)

March 7th - St Perpetua and Felicity (virgins, martyrs)

March 8th - St Senan

March 9th - Saint Dominic Savio

March 10th - Saint Silvester of Ireland

March 11th - St Aengus

March 12th - Feria



The Stations of the Cross

 

Many of our readers and listeners will be familiar with the traditional Catholic devotion known as the Stations of the Cross, a series of meditations on scenes from the Passion of Jesus, from his sentencing at the hands of Pilate to the laying of his body in the tomb.  Below we list some online links to various reflections on the stations for your use over Lent.

 

Previous posts by SS102fm on the Stations of the Cross

 

Pray as You Go - Stations of the Cross - There are fourteen standard stations, which can be found on the walls of just about any Catholic church in the world.  But some variations from this form exist, including one more closely following the scriptures, approved by Pope Benedict in 2007. 

 

The Stations of the Cross according to the method of St Francis

 

Patheos - The Stations of the Cross: A Devotional Guide for Lent and Holy Week

 

The Cross as a Journey - The Stations of the Cross for Protestant Worship

 

The Way of the Cross from Latin America, 1492 - 1992 - Stations of the Cross by Adolfo Perez Esquivel

Busted Halo - Virtual Stations of the Cross

13th April 2014 - Palm Sunday - Stations of the Cross - Updated

And so at last this year we begin the beginning of this most Holy of Weeks, an intense liturgical and reflective week which is the pinnacle of the Christian year; a celebration of the raison d'etre of why we are Christian - to mark the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord. To celebrate Palm Sunday SS102fm reflects on the Stations of the Cross to provide a moment of space and reflection.

You can listen to the full podcast of this weeks programme HERE.

Palm Sunday - SS102fm reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Palm Sunday, or Passion Sunday as it is also called, begins Holy Week. This week is the “holy of holies” of the Christian Church Year. For today we begin our observance of the last days of our Lord’s early sojourn, “for us and for our salvation,” as He enters in the very heart of darkness, sin and death itself. The triumph of the humble King who enters Jerusalem, humble and riding on a donkey, is marked on Sunday with a triumph: shouting crowds and exuberant shouts of welcome and celebration, but in only five days, the shouts of welcome turn to shouts of anger, hate and a call for his death. “O, Dearest Jesus, what law hast Thou broken?” as the old Lutheran hymn puts it. Let us then fix our hearts and minds on prayerful watching and waiting during these days, as we again are led by the Holy Spirit to see in our hearts, and our minds, the evil sinful nature and the thoughts, words and deeds, which put our Lord on the Cross. And repenting of them, despairing of ourselves, we turn once more to Christ the Crucified One, on whom is placed the sins of the world: your sins, my sins. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!”

"When Jesus and the disciples drew near Jerusalem
and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives,
Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them,
“Go into the village opposite you,
and immediately you will find an ass tethered,
and a colt with her.
Untie them and bring them here to me.
And if anyone should say anything to you, reply,
‘The master has need of them.’
Then he will send them at once.”
This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet
might be fulfilled:Say to daughter Zion,
“Behold, your king comes to you,
meek and riding on an ass,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”The disciples went and did as Jesus had ordered them.
They brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks over them,
and he sat upon them.
The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road,
while others cut branches from the trees
and strewed them on the road.
The crowds preceding him and those following
kept crying out and saying:
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
blessed is the he who comes in the name of the Lord;
hosanna in the highest.”
And when he entered Jerusalem
the whole city was shaken and asked, “Who is this?”
And the crowds replied,
“This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.” (Matthew 21:1-11)

Reflections on this weeks gospel:

Word on Fire

English Dominicans

Centre for Liturgy

Sunday Reflections

Update



This week we reflect on the Stations of the Cross. The Way of the Cross is the journey through the Passion and Death of Jesus through out the first Holy Week in the city of Jerusalem. To this day Christians of all denominations will walk the ancient streets of the Old City retracing that journey from the Mount of Olives to Calvary.

We reflect on the stations through the eyes of Mary as the mother of Jesus walks the road to Calvary. We take this opportunity to enter into an intimate journey of faith through a deep reflection that unites our pain and suffering with Jesus on the cross through the sorrowful heart of His Mother.

You can find the text of the reflections we used for this weeks programme HERE.

The podcast of the Stations of the Cross is available HERE.

You can read individual reflections on the Stations of the Cross from previous posts on SS102fm HERE.


"Let us resolve to make this week holy"

Let us resolve to make this week holy by claiming Christ’s redemptive grace and by living holy lives.

The Word became flesh and redeemed us by his holy life and holy death. This week especially, let us accept redemption by living grateful, faithful, prayerful, generous, just and holy lives.

Let us resolve to make this week holy by reading and meditating Holy Scripture.

So often, we get caught up in the hurry of daily living. As individuals and as families, reserve prime time to be with Jesus, to hear the cries of the children waving palm branches, to see the Son of Man riding on an ass' colt, to feel the press of the crowd, to be caught up in the "Hosannas” and to realize how the cries of acclamation will yield to the garden of suffering, to be there and watch as Jesus is sentenced by Pilate to Calvary, to see him rejected, mocked, spat upon, beaten and forced to carry a heavy cross, to hear the echo of the hammer, to feel the agony of the torn flesh and strained muscles, to know Mary’s anguish as he hung three hours before he died.

We recoil before the atrocities of war, gang crime, domestic violence and catastrophic illness. Unless we personally and immediately are touched by suffering, it is easy to read Scripture and to walk away without contacting the redemptive suffering that makes us holy. The reality of the Word falls on deaf ears.

Let us take time this week to be present to someone who suffers. Sharing the pain of a fellow human will enliven Scripture and help us enter into the holy mystery of the redemptive suffering of Christ.

Let us resolve to make this week holy by participating in the Holy Week services of the church, not just by attending, but also by preparing, by studying the readings, entering into the spirit, offering our services as ministers of the Word or Eucharist, decorating the church or preparing the environment for worship.

Let us sing, "Lord, have mercy," and "Hosanna." Let us praise the Lord with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength, uniting with the suffering church throughout the world -- in Rome and Ireland, in Syria and Lebanon, in South Africa and Angola, India and China, Nicaragua and El Salvador, in Washington, D.C., and Jackson, Mississippi.

Let us break bread together; let us relive the holy and redemptive mystery. Let us do it in memory of him, acknowledging in faith his real presence upon our altars.

Let us resolve to make this week holy by sharing holy peace and joy within our families, sharing family prayer on a regular basis, making every meal a holy meal where loving conversations bond family members in unity, sharing family work without grumbling, making love not war, asking forgiveness for past hurts and forgiving one another from the heart, seeking to go all the way for love as Jesus went all the way for love.

Let us resolve to make this week holy by sharing holy peace and joy with the needy, the alienated, the lonely, the sick and afflicted, the untouchable.

Let us unite our sufferings, inconveniences and annoyances with the suffering of Jesus. Let us stretch ourselves, going beyond our comfort zones to unite ourselves with Christ's redemptive work.

We unite ourselves with Christ's redemptive work when we reconcile, when we make peace, when we share the good news that God is in our lives, when we reflect to our brothers and sisters God's healing, God's forgiveness, God's unconditional love.

Let us be practical, reaching out across the boundaries of race and class and status to help somebody, to encourage and affirm somebody, offering to the young an incentive to learn and grow, offering to the downtrodden resources to help themselves.

May our fasting be the kind that saves and shares with the poor, that actually contacts the needy, that gives heart to heart, that touches and nourishes and heals.

During this Holy Week when Jesus gave his life for love, let us truly love one another

Limerick Diocese on Facebook

As posted earlier in the week, Limerick Diocese has joined Facebook with its own page and Noirin Lynch from LDPC came on to tell us all about it. You can listen to Noirin's interview excerpted from the main programme here.

Limerick Diocesan Facebook page.

Liturgical odds and ends

Holy Week is the pinnacle of the liturgical year and as such out ranks any commemoration of the saints that may occur during that time so we wont be posting the saints of the week this week.

Holy Thursday - Mass of the Lord's Supper - Reminder to bring back your Trocaire boxes/donations to your parish.

Good Friday - Passion Ceremony - Day of Fast & Abstinence (First Friday) - traditional to perform the Stations of the Cross and is also the date for the collection for support of the Holy Places.

Resources for Holy Week

The weekly diocesan newsletter from LDPC has had lots of notices and resources over the last couple of weeks for Holy Week. You can find the newsletters HERE.

Easter Ceremonies in the Diocese

You can find out about the diocesan celebration of Easter including the details of the Chrism Mass (Wednesday 17th at St Joseph's Church at 7.30pm) and the broadcast of the Easter ceremonies from St John's Cathedral on the diocesan website.

Time for celebrating the Easter Vigil in Limerick Diocese

The Easter Vigil must take place after sunset. As summer time commenced on Sunday 30th March the Easter Vigil in the diocese of Limerick is to be celebrated no earlier than 9.00p.m.

Celebrations with Pope Francis in Rome

You can find out the details of the ceremonies which Pope Francis will preside over in Rome during Holy Week here. As usual we will post the main homilies of the week and the Pope's "urbi et orbi".

Celebrations in the Holy Land

Anticipation for Easter is growing in the Holy Land. The most important week for the life of the Church will this year be celebrated simultaneously with other Christian churches as well as falling the same week as the Jewish Passover. You can follow events from the Holy Land on the website of the Custody of the Holy Land. Sadly we cannot embed videos from the site but head on over to watch and read the reflections and of course, please remember to be generous on Good Friday for the traditional collection taken up for the Holy Places.

Good Friday - Reflections and the Stations of the Cross

 

The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ from the gospel according to St John

Originally sourced online from Ignatian Spirituality quoting "Stages on the Way" from the Iona Community:

 

It was on the Friday that they ended it all.

Of course, they didn't do it one by one.

They weren't brave enough.

All the stones at the one time or no stones thrown at all.

 

They did it in crowds.... in crowds where you can feel safe

and lose yourself and shout things you would never shout

on your own, and do things you would never do if you felt

the camera was watching you.

 

It was a crowd in the church that did it,

and a crowd in the civil service that did it,

and a crowd in the street that did it,

and a crowd on the hill that did it.

 

And he said nothing.

 

He took the insults, the bruises, the spit on the face,

the thongs on the back, the curses in the ears.

He took the sight of his friends turning away,

running away.

 

And he said nothing.

 

He let them do their worst until their worst was done,

as on Friday they ended it all....

and would have finished themselves had he not cried,

"Father, forgive them all."

 

And the revolution began.

 

 

 

 

Last year we did a series of posts on the stations which you can find links to below. We also did a programme on Mary's Stations of the Cross which you can listen to HERE.

 

We adore you O Christ and we bless you

Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

I - Jesus is condemned to death

II - Jesus receives his cross

III - Jesus falls the first time

IV - Jesus meets his mother

V - Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry his cross

VI - Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

VI - Jesus falls the second time

VIII - Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

IX - Jesus falls the third time

X - Jesus is stripped of his garments

XI - Jesus is nailed to the cross

XII - Jesus dies on the cross

XIII - Jesus is taken from the cross

XIV - Jesus is laid in the tomb

 

Good Friday is the mirror held up by Jesus so that we can see ourselves in all our stark reality, and then it turns us to that cross and to his eyes and we hear these words, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." That is us! And so we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. We see in that cross a love so amazing so divine that it loves us even when we turn away from it, or spurn it, or crucify it. There is no faith in Jesus without understanding that on the cross we see into the heart of God and find it filled with mercy for the sinner whoever he or she may be.

- Sr Louise PDDM

What shall I give you, Lord, in return for all Your kindness?
Glory to You for Your love.
Glory to You for Your mercy.
Glory to You for Your patience.
Glory to You for forgiving us all our sins.
...Glory to You for coming to save our souls.
Glory to You for Your incarnation in the virgin's womb.
Glory to You for Your bonds.
Glory to You for receiving the cut of the lash.
Glory to You for accepting mockery.
Glory to You for Your crucifixion.
Glory to You for Your burial.
Glory to You for Your resurrection.
Glory to You who were preached to men and women.
Glory to You in whom they believed.
Glory to You who were taken up into heaven.
Glory to You who sit in great glory at the Father's right hand.
Glory to You whose will it is that the sinner should be saved through Your great mercy and compassion.

Ephraem of Syria (ca. 306-373)
 

On 15 March 2008 Liverpool Cathedral saw the World Premiere of Welsh composer Karl Jenkins' Stabat Mater, with the RLPO conducted by the composer himself."

 

Stabat Mater dolorosa
Iuxta crucem lacrimosa
Dum pendebat Filius

Cuius animam gementem
Contristatam et dolentem
Pertransivit gladius

O quam tristis et afflicta
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater unigeniti!

Quae moerebat et dolebat,
Et tremebat cum videbat
Nati poenas incliti

 

Lent - Stations of the Cross

Last Sunday we marked the beginning of the end of the Lenten season with Laetare Sunday. As we head closer to the pinnacle of the Christian year at Easter and the celebration of the Lords Passion, Death and Resurrection one of the traditional devotions is the Stations of the Cross.

Last year we did a series of posts on the stations which you can find links to below. We also did a programme on Mary's Stations of the Cross which you can listen to HERE.

 

We adore you O Christ and we bless you

Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

I - Jesus is condemned to death

II - Jesus receives his cross

III - Jesus falls the first time

IV - Jesus meets his mother

V - Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry his cross

VI - Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

VI - Jesus falls the second time

VIII - Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

IX - Jesus falls the third time

X - Jesus is stripped of his garments

XI - Jesus is nailed to the cross

XII - Jesus dies on the cross

XIII - Jesus is taken from the cross

XIV - Jesus is laid in the tomb

XIV Station: The Burial of Jesus

We adore You O Jesus and we praise You,

because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

XIV Station - the Burial of Jesus

"After this, Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. And Pilot permitted it. So he came and took the body. Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds." (John 19:38-42)

 

 

St. John does not mention people anecdotally. Each individual, by name or not, conveys something of the mystery of Jesus. Nicodemus first came at night. John takes us back to that night three years earlier. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews. He is seeking. "How can a person once grown old be born again? ... How can this happen?" Jesus gives a slight rebuke "You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?" Jesus says some of the most beloved words of Sacred Scripture to Nicodemus that night, among them: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son" (3:16). And Jesus, knowing Nicodemus, rewards him that night in advance: "whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God."

 

 

They took the body of Jesus and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom. St John will tells us in his first Letter "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked upon and touched with our hands..." (1 John 1:1). Nicodemus is graced to touch with a 100-pound mixture of myrrh and aloes the crucified body of Jesus before the Pascal night begins.

 

 

Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried. St John takes us back this time to the Garden of Eden. A garden brings to life what is hidden under the surface. This "new tomb" in fact brings us to Eternal Life in the Triune God.

Lillian

XIII Station: Jesus is taken down from the Cross

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.

Because by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.

Jesus is taken down from the Cross.

The Sabbath was near and Jesus’ had to be buried quickly. Both His mother Mary and His friends were poor and could not give him a proper burial. But Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus, both members of the Sanhedrin, came forward to give a tomb, linen and spices.

This is a scene of tragedy and glory.

A scene of tragedy: because Joseph and Nicodemus were both members of the Sanhedrin that had examined and formulated the charge against Jesus, but they were also secret disciples of Jesus. What a difference it would have been to Jesus to hear a voice of support or to see loyalty on a face among the hostility that surrounded him. But both Joseph and Nicodemus were afraid. We so often leave our tributes until people are dead. One flower in life is worth more than all the wreaths at the funeral. One word of love, praise and thanks in life is worth all the tributes in the world when life is gone.

A scene of glory: because no sooner was it when Jesus had died on the cross that Joseph and Nicodemus forgot their fear of being exposed as a follower of Jesus, asked the Roman governor for the body and paid tribute for everyone to see. The cowardice and the hesitation was gone.

Jesus had not been dead an hour when his own prophecy came true:

‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself ‘   (Jn. 12: 32).

KC

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.

XI Station: Jesus is nailed to the Cross

We adore you O Christ and we bless you,

For by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world

Jesus is nailed to the Cross

'I cannot believe in a God who metes out hurt for hurt, pain for pain, torture for torture. Nor do I believe that God invests human representatives with such power to torture and kill. The paths of history are stained with the blood of those who have fallen victim to "God's Avengers." Kings, popes, military generals, and heads of state have killed, claiming God's authority and God's blessing. I do not believe in such a God.'  (Sister Helen Prejeans' article 'Would Jesus pull the switch?'.) 

The topic of the death penalty or capital punishment always evokes very strong feelings.  The Bible has been used to support and oppose the death penalty.  Those who support the death penalty will argue an 'eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot' (Exodus 21:23) and those against the death penalty will say 'thou shall not kill' (Exodus 20:13).  Jesus himself spoke out against the death penalty when a woman who had been caught committing adultery was brought before him. (John 7:53-58)  Jesus asked those present if they had not sinned to throw the first stone, but no one did.  Jesus did not condemn her and told her to not to sin again.

Jesus was sentenced to death and was nailed to the cross for his crime, even though he was innocent.  What must it have been like for Jesus to carry his cross and then to be nailed to it.  The pain and suffering which he felt as each nail was driven in, must have been excruciating.  He must have felt was abandoned by the people who he loved as his apostles, his closest friends, had run away.

March 1st was International Death Penalty Abolition Day.  The death penalty or capital  punishment is against the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, article 3 states that  'Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.'[1]   Amnesty International states that as of December 2010 more than two thirds in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. [2]  In 2010, 23 countries carried out executions and 67 imposed death sentences in 2010. Methods of execution in 2010 included beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection and shooting.[3]

Sr. Helen Prejean passionately advocates the abolition of the death penalty.  Sr. Helen has watched as a prisoner was killed by the state and this has left a profound effect on her.  Below are her thoughts on the execution and not far from her thoughts was Jesus' crucifixion. 

'That night I walked with him, prayed with him through Isaiah 43, "I have called you by your name, you are mine." I played for him the tape "Be Not Afraid," which we had also played at the communion service we had before he died.

In his last words he expressed his sorrow to the victims' family. But then he said to the warden and to the unseen executioner behind the plywood panel, "but killing me is wrong, too."

At the end I was amazed at how ordinary the last moments were. He walked to the dark oak chair and sat in it. As guards were strapping his legs and arms and trunk he found my face and told me that he loved me. His last words of life were words of love and thankfulness. I took them in like a lightning rod.

I kept thinking of the execution of Jesus. I said to myself, "My God, how many times have I looked at that crucifix? How many times have we heard that story? How many times have we heard that Mary was there?"

I was watching a person being killed with an electrical current, in a few seconds. I couldn't imagine what it must have been for Jesus to be executed, hanging there on the cross, dying slowly. It gave me an entirely new awareness of what it means to have an executed criminal as a saviour. What a scandal that must have been!'[4]

ES

---

[1] http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

[2] http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/numbers

[3] http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/death-sentences-and-executions-in-2010

[4] http://salt.claretianpubs.org/issues/deathp/prejean.html

X Station: Jesus is stripped of his garments

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
For by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

 

From the Gospel according to Matthew. (27:33-36)

 

 

And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull), they offered him wine to drink, mingled with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots; then they sat down and kept watch over him there.

Meditation

Jesus is stripped, abused, and his clothes given away as he is now considered a ‘dead man walking’. There is no need here for politeness, for respect – in the eyes of those who are charged with his care, he is no longer their equal, no longer human. He is judged, decided upon, dismissed and ignored.

Why do we stop before such a bare and painful image? Why is this stage in Jesus’ passion marked and noted and prayed before? Surely we are not honuring shame, noting disrespect, praying before dismissal?

All scripture teaches us, informs us and blesses us. Therefore, this is not simply a moment of remembrance, but a learning moment. Stop and notice what is happening and how God is teaching us in this moment.

This painting by the German priest Sieger Koder is hepful to our reflection. See here Jesus’ garment, woven as one piece, held by people who all consider it sacred and carry it with honour and pride. Jesus is nearby but they miss him in their rush to the relic. Notice how the eagernes to possess might lead to the ripping of the robe woven as one piece – and that is not how it was created to be.

How often have we Christians been more interested in the outer garments of Christianity, than in the Lord himself present in our midst? We are sorry for our pettiness Lord, teach us to look more for you.

 

 

How often has our in-fighting about who gets what, distracted us from Jesus Christ presence and love? We recommitt to being one, as you have called us to be one.

 

 

Have we judged, dismissed, or stripped Jesus bare in our thoughts, words & deeds? What we do to the least of these my brothers and sister, this we do to Jesus. Open our eyes Lord to where we have disrespected or ignored you, so that we might start again, in your love.

 

 

PRAYER

 

 

Jesus – Renew my eyes & my heart: that I may see you here and now, for you are what really matters