a series of reflections based on this online stations of the cross
I recently watched a TV cop show where a child was struck by a stray bullet, and the child’s mother was devastated as she cradled her child’s body in her arms. The narrator for this station invites us to imagine Jesus’ mother holding Jesus as a baby, and then again cradling his body when it is lowered from the cross. As I imagine that, I think of the anguish I have not experienced myself but I see portrayed in movies and on TV, of someone holding the body of a child or loved one who has been unnecessarily killed. The depth of emotion and love comes out in the tears and wails.
And so this station might not be just about Mary holding the body of her son Jesus, but mothers throughout time and history who hold the body of their children whose lives have been taken by disease, poverty, injustice or violence. This station is about the depth of grief we feel when we witness violence that seems to have no meaning. It’s about the anger we feel at school shootings, at gang violence, at racial violence. It’s about the anger that moves us to our bellies when life is taken unnecessarily.
I’m being struck in a new way by the communal nature of this journey to the cross.