12th Station

 Every year one of the Stations of the Cross speaks to me more than another.  Sometimes it is only once, sometimes it is all through Lent, as my Parish does Stations each Friday.

This year it is the 12^th Station, Jesus dying on the cross.  In my life I have been with three people who have died while I held their hands.  My beloved wife, my younger brother and just last June, my Dad. The awful finality of that penultimate moment is beyond description.  I have seen a human body just stop, (and He was fully human)  I know, deep down what it means.  The depth of grief and loss simply endless.

 To know that my Jesus also went there, that He, Who made this world, died … yes literally died as we all must, on that rough hewn cross... it is simply something that I am only truly connecting with this year.

 How did his family and disciples feel?  Did they know that depth of loss and the unalterable finality that we all feel when someone we love slips from this world?

 Tonight, as the gathered Christians kneel before the 12^th Station, and journey with Jesus in His death, I will be thinking about those gathered around the foot of that Cross, and I will be there with them.

 O God, Who for our redemption gave Your only-begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by His glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with Him in the joy of His resurrection; Who lives and reigns now and for ever. Amen.

Comments

[Father John]

The Lord bless you and keep you.

[ben]

As a hospice chaplain I have had the chance to be with a number of people at their time of death. It is always a reminder to me of the death of Jesus, and more importantly of his overcoming death.

[luke]

I hear you man. I lost it at this particular station on Friday.

[Donald]

So many people we know die without our holding their hand. You are blessed.

On the other hand, so many dreams of what our life was going to be one day can die without our knowing when the death happens. We are blessed when we can watch with love, hail those dreams as they pass into a past that will not give them back.

Good Friday is the feast day of all of us who have watched those passings.

[Milly]

What a blessing for us to know Jesus