In Lent we have the opportunity to pray together the stations of the cross. Leading the stations has been a rewarding experience, and some of the prayers have helped me re-contextualize my sins and failings in light of the redemptive work of Christ.
This re-contextualization is such an appropriate Lenten exercise. It allows us to see with new eyes and remember the story of which we are a part of. In experiencing this, separation is turned to union, frustration to rejoicing, and failure has been transformed into glory. I’d like to reflect on the prayers from the stations that have helped me experience this .
The first prayer comes from the fifth station, when Simon helps Jesus carry his cross:
Lord Jesus Christ, help us to see in the sufferings and shortcomings of our lives a share in Your Cross. Strengthen and console us in the belief that we bear all things in union with You, who have taken upon yourself even our guilt.
We bear all things in union with You…This union with Jesus is so important, and is in fact the basis of this right contextualization of our sins.
Union is the heart of Jesus’ motivation for going to the cross. Sin separates us from God, so the Cross is God’s descending down into the breach, removing that last obstacle that can separate us from Him. Jesus’ role on the cross is not a reaching down from Heaven to save us, but a descent into the depths of sin and our isolation, a going with us and in fact beneath us to the deepest depths of the breach between us and the Father. Christ takes our sin upon Himself and in doing so descends into our sinfulness so that in the depths of our misery we find Him with us. This is why the Church asks us to look at our sin and misery during Lent, not so that we become trapped in our guilt, but that we might experience Emanuel, God-with-us, in the depths our sin and misery. This finding of God precisely in the depths of our isolation from him demonstrates that there is no limit to his love and thus no point at which we are too far gone. This is why Paul proclaims “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39).
For me personally this union we have with Jesus even in our sin and misery dispels any lie that I am powerful enough to separate myself from the love of God. In sinning we do our best to separate ourselves from God, and indeed we do succeed if we remain unrepentant and reject Jesus’ mercy. But the penitent, the one who wakes up, who acknowledges his guilt and sinfulness and cries out for mercy and restoration finds not a long arduous road back to the heart of God, but rather he opens his eyes and finds a bruised and beaten God already beside him. Not only a God beside him, but a suffering God who has already taken upon himself the punishment for his sins. Here is the surprise: The sinner, by sinning, has actually supplied Jesus with the content of His perfect offering to God. The sinner, in attempting to disassociate and erase himself from the work of God and salvation, in his repenting finds that all the while he has been contributing to His marvelous work.
We are far more united to Christ than we realize… That stupid little self-indulgent habit you have? Those petty little judgments you make in your head? Christ has taken that sin upon himselfto the cross. Guilt, if not transformed by this union, will lead to fear and anxiety that lock us in within ourselves. This union at our deepest brokenness disarms guilt of its destructive power. Our guilt now becomes an experience of union and love, and thus spurs us to further conversion.
We must remember that Jesus concentrates all of man’s sin upon himself. Jesus gathers not only sin but by extension all sinners to Himself at the cross. The cross is where blood and water flow forth from Christ’s pierced heart. One cannot be at the cross and stay dry. If we stay close to Our Lord, we get splashed by blood and water. Yes, we with our sin are responsible for the nailsdriven into his hands and feet, but that very sin is what causes blood and water to pour out upon us. Yes, you caused Jesus to shed blood, but now you are covered in the blood of the new covenant.
Next is a prayer from the seventh station: Where Jesus falls a second time.
Grant us the favor of rejoicing over our human weaknesses, so that in all we do, Your strength, dwelling in us, may be shown to all others.
Even the one who has repented experiences weakness and struggles. Christianity is not a program of self-perfection, but an experience of being saved. As John XXIII said, the key to the spiritual life is allowing yourself to be carried. We are likely all familiar with St Paul’s famous words “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor 12:9). Our strength to persevere in the spiritual life comes from another, so to the degree that our own weakness makes us fully reliant on Christ’s blood and water poured out from the cross, we rightly rejoice in such a weakness. A weakness that spurs us to the fount of infinite grace and mercy is a good thing.
The great spiritual writings sometimes describe the Christian spiritual life as a school of weakness. In experiencing our weakness, we get to practice running to the cross as fount of grace over and over again. For some this is a frustrating experience, but the cross is not just a source of support that we can receive, profit from, and then not need anymore. Our continual reliance on the infinite mercy is good healthy and normal. Thus rather than being frustrated at our weaknesses, they become occasions to re-immerse ourselves in divine mercy. Our lasting weaknesses then form a habit of going to the cross in need of help. This habitual going to the cross in need of help is precisely the formula for sanctity and holiness, not an obstacle to it.
This is the cause of rejoicing, that we don’t have to triumph over sin alone. If we did, I’d be hopeless… All we need to do is faithfully and persistently bring our poverty and weakness to the cross and unite it to Jesus, then let Him sustain us through this life with His grace. What a relief!
Lastly we’ll look at the ninth station, in which Jesus falls a final time.
Help us to accept our weaknesses and failings as forerunners of our glorious resurrection in union with Your son.
If our weaknesses become a joyous occasion to return to the saving help of Jesus, then we are truly well on our way toward glorious resurrection. Resurrection is not something we are capable of. We are mortal. We will die and there’s nothing we can do about it. The only way we’ll experience life after death is if we participate in Jesus’ resurrection. To do that, we must become configured to him, as branches are one with the vine. It is in Him, not on our own, that we participate in his resurrection and share in His divine life for all eternity. If sin and weakness are not transformed by union, they will inhibit this configuration. This is why this transformative work of Lent is so important. This is why repentance and conversion are so important.
The resurrection from the dead is nothing other than living in Christ. The key to not letting death break this relationship when we die is not letting our weakness nor sinfulness break this relationship now. Remaining in Christ is the “name of the game”. If we are able to rejoice in our weaknesses and repent in our sinfulness, we will have progressed well on our pilgrimage on this earth. We will have entered a union that not even the snares of death can break. We will enter into God’s divine life, and will happily rejoice there forever. Lent shows us that it is precisely our sinfulness and weakness that can spark this journey, this journey of conversion which leads us to glory.
