Thomas Griffin 3/1/24
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Each Friday this Lent we will investigate and reflect on two out of the fourteen Stations of the Cross. This is an ancient practice that desires to make contact with what it would have been like to walk with Jesus on that Good Friday two thousand years ago. Lent is all about gaining more access to the events of Jesus’ life, especially those that revolve around his suffering.
Traditionally, there has always been an invitation from the Church to make Fridays different for just that reason. Friday was the day that Christ died. It is a holy day that beckons to the world for notice. Not because God needs us to notice Him in order to be fulfilled but simply because ignorance of his passion leads to an empty life.
Today we will continue our journey by looking at the fifth and sixth Stations of the Cross where Jesus meets two strangers in an intimate way.
Fifth Station of the Cross: Simon Helps Jesus Carry the Cross
We are told that Simon of Cyrene is pressed into service to help Jesus carry his cross. Christ is exhausted and beaten down. He has been mocked and spat at by the soldiers and the crowds. The loss of blood would have been tremendous. Simon, a passerby, catches the eye of the soldiers and they grab him.
Simon doesn’t have a choice. You do not deny and turn your back on a Roman soldier.
We are not unlike Simon of Cyrene. We are all given crosses that we do not have the option of carrying. It could be a personal illness, a problematic relationship, or the death of a loved one. It could be the pain of enduring something in your life that appears unchangeable. Crosses are often not up to us. They are simply laid on our shoulders.
Simon teaches us that when we are given the chance to carry a cross that it is an opportunity to be united with Christ. When Simon is carrying the cross with Jesus he would have had the closest experience of being with the Son of God as he made his way to his death. Think about what it would have been like to look at Christ in the eyes as he carried the weight of sin and evil on his shoulders. Consider the insight that Simon was given into the heart of God.
Simon, and us, are given the chance to redeem the world by taking our crosses and uniting them to his. When we do this, we know that we are not alone in our suffering – we walk with the Lord.
Sixth Station of the Cross: Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
Veronica is the second stranger Jesus meets in a personal manner on the Way of the Cross. She must have seen Jesus and felt moved to do something to ease his pain. She must have been driven by a deep desire to let Jesus know that he was not alone as he was being beaten to death.
She, somehow, approaches Jesus and offers her veil for him to wipe his face. The blood would have been pouring out of his scalp from the large thorns that were driven into his scalp. His face was bloodied from the beating by the soldiers as well. Veronica does something deeply profound and borderline miraculous. Veronica consoles God.
The instinct of our personal prayer with God is to talk to Him about what we are going through and ask Him for help and guidance. We tell Him about the circumstances of our struggles and we ask Him to be with us as we navigate how to handle our situation. Veronica, and many saints, actually speak about the capacity for us to console the heart of Jesus. They write and experience Jesus’ desire for us to comfort him as he is suffering to death.
This has been made popular by the devotion of the Divine Mercy Chaplet but we also see it in the eyes of Veronica. Christ endures tremendous pain. The challenge of Veronica is to strive to be there with him as he is abandoned by his followers and beaten by the soldiers. As he struggles to walk and breathe, spend time showing Christ compassion.
Today, carry the cross like Simon and console Jesus like Veronica.
Thomas Griffin is the chairperson of the religion department at a Catholic high school on Long Island where he lives with his wife and two sons. He has a masters degree in theology and is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Empty Tomb Project: The Magazine.
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