In our Catholic faith we are blessed to have so many different devotions to choose from. Many of them we do as families such as lighting the candles on the Advent wreath during Advent season, praying the rosary each night and so on. But there is one prayer that personally I never had a heartfelt devotion to, until now: The Stations of the Cross. In our Catholic faith you can find many churches pray these especially on Fridays during Lent. Sometimes I would try my best to at least do them myself, but often failed. I definitely did it at least on Good Friday and said proudly to myself, “There! I fulfilled my obligation!” But did I? It was almost like I was just going through the motions. I prayed the Stations just because… it was something I was supposed to do.
Today I had some amazing revelation saying my morning prayers and gazing upon Christ on the crucifix. It was kind of a “duh” moment, but we all need those sometimes. Our Catholic faith has all these prayers for a reason, and especially the Stations of the Cross. We can place ourselves in each scene so easily, either in that time or now. Not so much carrying a giant wooden cross and being nailed to it, but symbolically… yes.
My life right now is very similar to The Stations. God has blessed me abundantly. You may be asking yourself, “Wow! Your life is like THAT and you are considering yourself blessed?!” Yes. I am because I am trying to focus on the purpose of the cross. That’s what Jesus did. He didn’t give up because he needed to conquer death and the only way to do that was by dying on the cross. He focused on the goal, not on what was going on at the moment, not on the whipping, the spitting, and the falling again and again … and again. He focused on the redemption of mankind. I believe THAT is what gave him hope.
For me and my struggle, I keep falling with the same sin over and over and over (as I am sure is the same with many people). At this point I feel like Jesus with his “bloody knees” from falling many times on the journey to Golgotha. And I also feel like in the words of Steve Urkel “I’m falling and I can’t get up!” This is just like a few of the stations from The Stations of the Cross (stations #3,7,9). Jesus fell three times. What is the difference between his falls and ours? He got back up and kept going to Golgotha, the place where He was going to put death to death. Are we getting back up?
Another way it’s like The Stations is the second Station… Jesus takes His cross. In order to overcome whatever is going on in our lives, we must first acknowledge what is going on. We must pick up this cross or burden, embrace it, and make it our own. Because it is only when we acknowledge “Yes, this is my cross” or “Yes, I have a problem” then we are able to see more clearly either where this problem is coming from or what else it is hurting. Or maybe we might be able to see more clearly how God wants to help with the cross. Finally it will help with the journey to “Golgotha,” to the end, to the final destination of the cross.
I kept looking at the stations and found my life I can’t do this journey on my own. I need help. So God sent me a “Simon” (station #5). Half way up the mountain, after Jesus had been beaten, spit on and seemed almost dead at that point, the soldiers gave Simon to Jesus to help Him carry the cross because it was too heavy. My cross right now is way too hard for me to carry on my own. I was falling hard. God knew I couldn’t do it on my own, so he didn’t only send me one “Simon” who is strong and can hold me accountable, but He sent me someone who knows my struggle and can sympathize with me, that way I know I’m not alone in this battle. And these two friends are (hopefully) going with me all… the… way… until this battle is won.
Finally, another way (and I’m not at this point yet) is the Crucifixion and Jesus Dies on the Cross (stations #11 & 12). Once we carry our temptations, our struggles our… whatever all the way to the end (and not alone, our “Simon” helped us… remember!) we have to “crucify them.” We have to let them go, lay them at the cross, put “death to death,” however you want to say it. It really depends on what it is that you are carrying, the burden. Ultimately it is all the same… it has to be given to our Lord. And not just at the end, but throughout the WHOLE journey. But there are always other things that need to be done also I have learned… such as maybe one might need to forgive someone, either another person in his/her life or even him/herself. Maybe there is counseling that needs to be done for healing of memories. Or maybe there just needs balance in life… there might be too much being done in one part of life and not enough in another, such as too much spiritual and not enough exercise, or too much work and not enough family time. Whatever it is, bring it to our Lord. He understands… He will guide you… and He loves you.
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