Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
Living the Way of the Cross
The Way of the Cross, or the Stations of the Cross, a devotional prayer of the Catholic Church, has taken on new meaning for many of us during this past year—what many of us call not just a season of Lent, but also a YEAR of Lent! As I recall the events of this past year and hear the reading of the Passion of Jesus, I am reminded of the ways in which the Way of Jesus has come to focus in the grief and suffering of so many. For many of us, this year has awakened us. Like the disciples, we have fallen asleep to so much.
When I was teaching high school religion, I would ask my students to create their own Stations of the Cross using modern images of how we identify with suffering. Who and how are people today condemned to death? Who are their accusers? How are people today stripped of their dignity, called names, spat on, whipped, and tortured? In what ways do people fall, over and over again, being forced to “carry a cross?” Who are the persons who help to carry the cross? Who offers to “wipe the face of Jesus?” Who among us have been burying the dead? Who dies by execution today? Who keeps watch over the graves? Who stays with, persists in attention, and believes in resurrection?
In Jerusalem, people walk the Via Dolorosa, places designated as stopping points to pray and remember in the midst of all the busyness of the streets, the vendors, the residences, the churches. The way of the cross is in the midst of the realities of our lives.
Each Lent, I look for different versions of the Stations of the Cross—those that have meaning for me in the midst of life. This year I was caught sleeping about many ways of seeing others. Here are two that I suggest.
https://www.crsricebowl.org/stations-of-the-cross
April 2, 2021 at noon – Good Friday Stations of the Cross with FutureChurch Staff