ELEVENTH STATION
Jesus is nailed to the Cross
V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
“They tear holes in
my hands
and
my feet;
I can count
every one of my
bones”
(Ps 21:17- 18).
The words of the Prophet are
fulfilled.
The execution begins.
The torturers’ blows crush
the hands and feet of the
Condemned One against the
wood of the Cross.
The nails are driven violently into his wrists.
Those nails
will hold the condemned man
as he hangs in the midst of
the inexpressible
torments of
his agony.
In his body and
his supremely
sensitive spirit,
Christ
suffers
in a way beyond
words.
If you are the Son of God save youself and us!! |
With him there are crucified two real criminals, one on his
right, the other on his left.
The prophecy is fulfilled:
“He was numbered among the transgressors”
(Is 53:12).
Once the torturers
raise the Cross,
there will begin
an
agony
that will last three
hours. This word too
must be fulfilled:
“When I am lifted up from the
earth,
I will draw all people to
myself”
(Jn 12:32).
What is it that “draws” us to the
Condemned One
in agony on the Cross?
Condemned One
in agony on the Cross?
But compassion is not enough to lead us to bind our very life
to
the One who hangs on the Cross.
How is it
that,
generation
after
generation,
this
appalling
sight
Emperor Constantine and his mother St. Helena holding the true cross |
has drawn
countless hosts of
people who have
made the
Cross
the hallmark of
their faith?
St. Francis of Assisi bore the 'stigmata' the marks of Christ in his hands and feet |
Hosts of
men and women
who for
centuries
have lived
St. Therese of Liseaux |
and given their lives
looking to
this sign?
Blessed Pope John Paul II |
From the Cross,
Christ
draws us
by the power
of love,
Divine
Love,
which
did not recoil
from the total gift of self;
Infinite
Love,
which on
the tree
of the
Cross
raised
up
from the
earth
the
weight of
Christ’s
body,
to counterbalance
the weight of the first sin;
Boundless
Love,
which
has utterly filled
every absence of love
and
allowed humanity
to find refuge
once
more in the arms
of the Merciful Father.
May Christ lifted high on the Cross draw us too, the men and
women of the new millennium!
In the
shadow
of the
Cross
let us
“walk in love, as Christ
loved us and gave
himself up for us,
a fragrant offering
and sacrifice to God”
(Eph 5:2).
O Love crucified,
fill our hearts with
your love,
that we may see in your Cross
the sign of our redemption
and, drawn by your wounds,
we may live and die with you,
who live and reign
with the Father and the Spirit,
now and for ever.
Amen.
All:
Our Father ...
Stabat Mater:
Holy Mother,
pierce me through;
in my heart
each wound renew
of my Saviour crucified.
TWELFTH STATION
Jesus dies
on the Cross
V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
for they know not what they do”
(Lk 23:34).
At the height of his Passion, Christ does not forget man,
especially
those who are directly responsible for his suffering.
Jesus knows that more
than anything else man needs love;
he needs the mercy which at this moment is
being poured out
on the world.
This is how Jesus replies to
the plea of the criminal
hanging on his right:
“Jesus, remember me
when you come
into your
kingdom”
(Lk
23:42).
The promise of a new life.
This is the first fruit of the Passion
and imminent Death of Christ.
A word of hope to man.
At the foot of the Cross stood Mary, and beside her
the
disciple, John the Evangelist. Jesus says:
“Woman, behold your son!”
and to the
disciple:
“Behold your mother!”
Jn 19:26-27
“And from that moment the disciple took her to his own
home”
(Jn 19:27).
This is his bequest to those
dearest to his heart.
His legacy to the
Church.
The desire of Jesus as he dies is that
the maternal love of
Mary
should embrace all
those for
whom
he is giving his life,
the
whole of
humanity.
Immediately after, Jesus cries out:
“I am thirsty”
John
19:28
A word which describes the dreadful
burning which consumes
his whole
body.
It is the one word which refers
directly to his physical
suffering.
Then Jesus adds:
“My God, my God, why have you
abandoned me?”
(Mt 27:46; cf. Ps 22:2).
These words of the Psalm are
his prayer.
Despite their tone, these words
reveal
the depths of his union with
the Father.
In the last moments of his life
on earth,
Jesus thinks of the Father.
From this moment on,
the dialogue will only be
between
the dying Son and the Father
who accepts his sacrifice of
love.
When the ninth hour comes,
Jesus cries out:
“It is
accomplished!” (Jn 19:30).
Now the work of the redemption is complete.
The mission, for which he came on earth,
has reached its
goal.
The rest belongs to the Father:
“Father, into
your hands
I
commit
my spirit”
Lk 23:46
And having said this, he breathed his last.
of the
temple
was
torn
in two...”
(Mt 27:51).
The “Holy of Holies” of the
Jerusalem Temple
is opened at the moment when it is entered
by the Priest of the New and Eternal Covenant.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ,
in the moment of your agony
you were not
indifferent to humanity’s fate,
and with your last breath you entrusted to
the Father’s
mercy the men and
women of every age,
with all their weaknesses and sins.
Fill us and the generations yet to come
with your Spirit of
love,
so that our indifference will not render vain in us
the fruits of your death.
To you, crucified Jesus,
the wisdom and the power of God,
be honour and glory for ever and ever.
R. Amen.
Our Father ...
Stabat Mater:
She looked
upon her sweet
Son,
saw him hang
in desolation,
till his spirit
forth he sent.
THIRTEENTH STATION
Jesus is taken down from the Cross
and given to his Mother
R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
O quam tristis et afflicta
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater Unigeniti.
In the arms of his Mother
they have placed the
lifeless body
of the Son.
The Gospels say nothing
of what she felt at that moment.
It is as though by their silence the Evangelists
wished to
respect her sorrow,
her feelings and her memories.
Or that they simply felt
incapable
of expressing them.
and was tested already during the Presentation in the
Temple.
It grew deeper as Mary stored and pondered in her heart all
that was happening (cf. Lk 2:51).
Now this intimate bond of love must be transformed into a
union which transcends the boundary between life and death.
And thus it will be across the span of the centuries:
people
pause at Michelangelo’s statue of the Pietà, they
kneel before the
image of the loving and sorrowful Mother --
(Smetna Dobrodziejka) in the Church of
the Franciscans in
Kraków, before the Mother of the Seven Sorrows,
Patroness
of Slovakia -- they venerate Our Lady of Sorrows in countless
shrines in every part of the world.
And so they learn the difficult love which does not flee
from suffering, but surrenders trustingly to the tenderness of God, for whom
nothing is impossible (cf. Lk 1:37).
PRAYER
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiæ;
vita dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus...
illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte
et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exilium ostende.
Implore for us the grace of
faith,
hope and charity,
so that we, like you,
may stand without flinching
beneath the Cross
until our last breath.
To your Son, Jesus, our Saviour,
with the Father and the
Holy Spirit,
all honour and glory for ever and ever.
All:
Our Father . . .
Mater:
Let me mingle tears with you,
mourning him who mourned
for me,
all the days
that I may live.
FOURTEENTH STATION
V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R/. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.
died and was buried...”
The lifeless body of Christ has been laid in the tomb.
But
the stone of the tomb is not the final seal on his work.
The last word belongs not to falsehood, hatred and violence.
The last word will be spoken by
Love,
which is stronger than death.
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it
remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jn 12:24).
The tomb is the last stage of Christ’s dying through the
whole course of his earthly life; it is the sign of his supreme sacrifice for
us and for our salvation.
Very soon this tomb will become the first proclamation of
praise and exaltation of the Son of God in the glory of the
Father.
praise and exaltation of the Son of God in the glory of the
Father.
“He was crucified, died and was buried,. . . on the third
day he rose from the dead”.
Once the lifeless body of Jesus is laid in the tomb, at the
foot
of Golgotha, the Church begins the vigil of Holy Saturday.
of Golgotha, the Church begins the vigil of Holy Saturday.
In the depths of her heart, Mary stores and ponders the
Passion of her Son;
order to anoint Christ’s body with aromatic ointments; the
disciples gather
in the seclusion of the Upper Room, waiting for the Sabbath
to pass.
This vigil will end with the meeting at the tomb,
the empty
tomb of the Saviour.
Then the tomb, the
silent witness of the
Resurrection,
will speak.
The stone rolled back,
the inner chamber
empty, the cloths on
the ground,
the inner chamber
empty, the cloths on
the ground,
this will be what John sees when
he comes to the tomb with Peter:
he comes to the tomb with Peter:
“He saw and he believed”
John
20:8
And with him the Church
believed,
and from that moment she never
grows weary of
communicating to the world
this fundamental truth of her
faith:
“Christ has been raised from
the dead,
the first fruits of those
who have fallen asleep”
1 Cor 15:20
The
empty tomb is the sign of the definitive victory
of
truth over falsehood,
of
good over evil,
of
mercy over sin,
of
life over death.
The
empty tomb is the
sign of the hope which
“does not deceive”
Romans 5:5
“[Our]
hope is full of immortality”
(cf. Wis 3:4).
PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit,
you were
drawn by the Father
from the darkness of death
to the light of a new life in glory.
Grant that the sign of the empty tomb
may speak to us and to
future
generations and become a wellspring of living faith,
generous love, and unshakeable hope.
To you, O Jesus, whose presence, hidden and victorious,
fills the history of the
world,
be honour and glory for ever and ever
R. Amen.
All:
While my body
here decays,
may my soul your
goodness praise,
safe in paradise
with you. Amen.
The Holy Father addresses those present.
At the conclusion of his address the Holy Father imparts the
Apostolic Blessing.
V/. The Lord be with you.
R/. Now and forever.
V/. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
R/. Who made heaven and earth.
V/. May Almighty God bless you,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
R/. Amen.
Blessed John Paul II please pray for us and help us to follow Christ with our own crosses. Amen. |
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