A couple of years ago, Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" burst on the scene with attendant controversy and deep emotions. It was a new thing for a lot of Christians, but I would like to point out that the Church has been walking the Way of the Cross for centuries.
Did you know that every Friday night during Lent, The devotion of the Stations of the Cross is being held here in our Parish Church and available for all to attend? I just wanted to share that I attend, not because of a popular movie, but is because they are a visual and physical way for me to contemplate, and understand, the mystery of Jesus' gift of Himself to us. For me, one of the most meaningful Stations is number five, where Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry Jesus' cross.
How must that have been to be yanked from the crowd, by a hostile military, forced to pick up that bloody beam! I wonder.. how did it change him? Did he look in Jesus' eyes? When they got to Golgotha, and he was released, did Simon wipe His blood from his farmer's clothes?
So consider joining with an Episcopal or Catholic group near you, start a Stations group in your own Church, but join us, walking with Jesus on the Way of the Cross. It isn't simply a journey to the place of execution, we believe that every step of the Condemned Christ, every action and every word, as well as everything felt and done by those who took part in this tragic drama, continues to speak to us. In His suffering and death too, Christ reveals to us the Truth about God and man.
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