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TENTH STATION
Jesus is stripped of his garments
From the Gospel according to John 19: 23–24
The soldiers took the garments of Jesus and made four parts, one for
each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was without seam, woven
from top to bottom; so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it
but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfil
the scripture, “They parted my garments among them, and for my
clothing they cast lots.”
MEDITATION
Jesus is stripped of his garments. We have reached the final act of
the tragedy, begun with the arrest in the Garden of Olives, in which
Jesus is stripped of his dignity as a human being, much less than as
God’s Son.
Jesus appears naked before the eyes of the inhabitants of Jerusalem
and the eyes of all humanity. In a profound way it is right that
this should be so. For he divested his very self in order to
sacrifice himself for our sake. So the gesture of being stripped of
his garments is is also the fulfilment of a prophecy of Holy
Scripture.
As we look upon Jesus naked on the cross, we feel deep within us a
compelling need to look upon our own nakedness, to stand spiritually
naked before ourselves, but first of all before God and before our
brothers and sisters in humanity. We need to be stripped of the
pretence of appearing better than we are, and to seek to be sincere
and transparent.
The way of acting that, perhaps more than any other, provoked
Jesus’s disdain was hypocrisy. How often did he tell his disciples
not to act “as the hypocrites do” (Mt 6:2, 5, 16). Or say to those
who impugned his good deeds: “Woe to you, hypocrites” (Mt 23:13, 15,
23, 25, 27, 29).
Lord Jesus, hanging naked on the cross, grant that I too may stand
naked before you.
ELEVENTH STATION
Jesus is nailed to the cross
From the Gospel according to Mark 15:25-27
And it was the third hour, when they crucified him. And the
inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”
And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on
his left.
MEDITATION
Jesus is nailed to the cross. An appalling form of torture. And as
he hangs on the cross, many of the passersby mock him and even try
to provoke him: “He saved others; he cannot save himself! … He
trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him; for he
said: ‘I am the Son of God!’” (Mt 27:42-43). Not only is his person
mocked, but also his saving mission, the mission that Jesus was
bringing to fulfilment upon the cross.
Yet deep within, Jesus knows an incomparably greater suffering,
which causes him to cry out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?” (Mk 15:34). These are the opening words of a Psalm which
concludes with a reaffirmation of complete trust in God. At the same
time they are words to be taken completely seriously, as expressing
the greatest test to which Jesus was subjected.
How many times, when we are tested, we think that we have been
forgotten or abandoned by God. Or are even tempted to decide that
God does not exist.
The Son of God, who drank his bitter chalice to the dregs and then
rose from the dead, tells us, instead, with his whole self, by his
life and by his death, that we ought to trust in God. We can believe
him.
TWELFTH STATION
Jesus dies on the cross
From the Gospel according to John 19:28-30
After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil
the scripture), “I thirst.” A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so
they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his
mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, “It is
finished”; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
MEDITATION
Whenever death comes after a painful illness, it is customary to say
with some relief, “He is no longer suffering”. In a certain sense,
these words also apply to Jesus. Yet these words are all too limited
and superficial in the face of any person’s death, and even more so
in the face of the death of that man who is the Son of God.
When Jesus dies, the veil of the Temple of Jerusalem is torn in two
and other signs occur, causing the Roman centurion to exclaim as he
stands guard beneath the cross, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
(cf. Mt 27:51-54).
In truth, nothing is as dark and mysterious as the death of the Son
of God, who with God the Father is the source and fullness of life.
Yet at the same time, nothing shines so brightly, for here the glory
of God shines forth, the glory of all-powerful and merciful Love.
In the face of Jesus’ death, our response is the silence of
adoration. In this way we entrust ourselves to him, we place
ourselves in his hands, and we beg him that nothing, in our life or
in our death, may ever separate us from him (cf. Rom 8:38-39).
THIRTEENTH STATION
Jesus is taken down from the cross and placed in the arms of his
Mother
From the Gospel according to John 2:1-5
There was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was
there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples.
When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have
no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “O woman, what have you to do with
me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do
whatever he tells you.”
MEDITATION
Now the hour of Jesus has been completed and Jesus is taken down
from the cross. Ready to receive him are the arms of his Mother.
After having tasted the loneliness of death to the bitter end, Jesus
immediately rediscovers – in his lifeless body – the strongest and
sweetest of his human bonds, the warmth of his Mother’s affection.
The greatest artists – we need but think for example of
Michelangelo’s Pietà – have been able to intuit and express the
depth and indestructible strength of this bond.
As we remember that Mary, standing at the foot of the cross, also
became the mother of each one of us, we ask her to put into our
hearts the feelings that unite her to Jesus. To be authentic
Christians, to follow Jesus truly, we need to be bound to him with
all that is within us: our minds, our will, our hearts, our daily
choices great and small.
Only in this way can God stand at the center of our lives. Only in
this way can he be something more than a source of consolation which
is ever close when needed, but without interfering with the concrete
interests governing our daily lives and decisions.
FOURTEENTH STATION
Jesus is placed in the tomb
From the Gospel according to Matthew 27:57-60
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named
Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and
asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to
him. And Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen
shroud, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the
rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and
departed.
MEDITATION
With the stone that seals the entrance to the tomb, it all appears
to be over. Yet could the Author of life remain a prisoner of death?
This is why the tomb of Jesus, from that time forward, has not only
been the object of the most intense devotion, but has also provoked
the deepest divisions of minds and hearts. Herein lies the parting
of the ways between those who believe in Christ and those who do
not, even if many of them consider him an extraordinary man.
Soon that tomb would remain empty, and it has never been possible to
find a convincing explanation for the fact of its being empty other
than the one given by the witnesses to Jesus’s resurrection from the
dead, from Mary Magdalen to Peter and the other Apostles.
Let us halt in prayer before the tomb of Jesus, asking God for the
eyes of faith so that we too can become witnesses of his
resurrection. Thus may the way of the cross become for us too a
wellspring of life.
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