Ok so I have been slightly preoccupied lately. I don't what this time of year is like for you, but as a farmer's wife it is kind of like hurry up and wait. We have to be ready if the weather turns around and starts to actually feel like spring now that the calendar says it is officially spring. But a few days in the 30s has given me some sure fire time to work on this blog again.
I am pulling double duty with part 3 and 4 of the stations, covering stations 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. That will leave us with 12, 13 and 14 during Holy week which seems much more planned than it actually was :)
Station 7: 2nd fall of Jesus
So we already discussed how difficult the situation is that Jesus has found himself in. Wrongly accused, beaten, and carrying his own execution device through a crowd of jeering people who only a few days earlier were cheering and treating him like a king. And if you will remember, station 4, 5, and 6 were the people God gives us in our lives to help us carry our cross. So the question is, why does Jesus fall again after receiving all of this help?
The answer is easy, and I bet you already know it. People here on earth are not enough. Just like Jesus fell the first time because as humans we cannot bear the burden alone, Jesus falls the second time because even with the help of his mother and Veronica restoring his dignity and Simon helping him carry the cross, only with the help of God are we able to carry our burdens.
And again, Jesus gets up again. No matter how many times we fall and fail, with God's help we can always get back up again.
Station 8: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
So here is Jesus. He has fallen twice and seen everyone he really cares to see on his death march. Then he comes upon this group of women who are standing there crying and wailing. Even in his exhausted state he reproaches them. He tells them that crying and wailing is the same as doing nothing and even worse they are giving a bad example to their children.
These women are held in deep contrast with Mary, Veronica and Simon. Those three did what they could. It may not have been much but it was something. The crying women are doing nothing but protecting themselves. By crying that act as if they are offending by what is happening, but they do not do anything about it. They do not speak out, they do not act out, they do not vote to change something, they stand back and wait.
We are called to do what we can to help those around us who face injustices. We don't all have the same gifts or talents, but we can all do something. We also have a responsibility to teach our children to speak out for others whether they be the unborn, the old, the disabled, the poor or any person who has had their dignity stripped from them. Act and your children will learn from your actions, so make sure they are good, just, virtuous actions.
Station 9: Jesus falls for the 3rd time
Is it any wonder he falls again? It is more marvelous to me that he can literally see the hilltop and what waits for him. He is moments away from death and instead of laying down in the street and waiting for it to come to him, he stands back up, he carries his cross a little further and he looks death in the face.
Two lessons from this one. 1- Get up even when what is in front of you looks worse than what you have just come from. 2- Don't fear or run from death. Embrace death because it brings us to our finish line, a finish line that we will never reach here on Earth.
Station 10: Jesus is Stripped of his clothes
This was done to humiliate him. He had a little dignity left and the soliders, in their desire to inflict humiliation on those sentenced to the type of death Jesus was, wanted to strip him of that little bit too. When we are stripped of our dignity, we require strength to endure it. When we strip someone else of their dignity, we require forgiveness to undo it.
There is an interesting second part to this station that I had never heard before the parish mission. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve are naked until they eat the fruit of the tree. In the loss of their innocence, they put on clothing to cover themselves. They are trying to hide the marks of guilt.
In the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus goes to pray before he is handed over, a man runs away from the skirmish naked. And of course on the cross Jesus is exposed completely naked. This loss of clothing is an uncovering of the guilt and a restoration of innocence.
The need for Jesus as savior originated during the fall of man in Genesis, in the Garden of Eden. The salvation of mankind was completed by Jesus's nakedness on the cross.
Station 11: Nailed to the Cross
We know what this station means for Jesus. He is stuck. He can't turn back. There is no where for him to go. Jesus accepted his mission willingly and lovingly. But we sometimes force a similar mission on people who are not willing and cannot lovingly accept their mission. This station for us is all about stereotypes. When we stereotype someone, we do not let them change. When we do this, we are nailing them to a cross.
We have all been unfairly nailed to a cross at some time in our lives. Someone made a snap judgement of us and never changed their mind. Or a single action we did as a teenager marked us for the rest of our life. Whether the title be cheater, stupid, liar, drama queen, immature, these titles may have been accurate then, but are far from accurate now.
We need to give people a chance to change before branding them with a title for life.
God Bless!
Hannah
The Farmer's Wife
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