The
Way of the Cross – towards Calvary; The Stations of the Cross –
Significant Moments on the Journey;
the Via Dolorosa - the Anguishing Journey
It
was a harsh masculine world that clamoured for the death of Jesus, judged him
to be guilty; and treated His body with barbarous cruelty. And yet Into this
same awfulness were injected moments of tenderness and compassion flowing from the hearts of women. I describe
them as ‘Women on the Way…Mary – His Mother, Veronica and the Daughters of
Jerusalem. Isaiah prophesied how
Jesus would appear to these women:
Is
53 He had no form or comeliness that we should look
at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected
by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.
Surely you would agree nothing surpasses the beauty a mother lovingly gazing at her precious
infant…flesh of flesh, her most intimate of companions for nine months.
The joy of Mary must have been uniquely sublime, even divine when Jesus
smiled at her...Her Son was the Son of God! I’m now thinking of Mary, some thirty years later meeting her Son
battered, bruised, bleeding,
rejected, nailed to a cross. Their eyes
met……..I can’t finish sentence ….I’m weeping as I type this!
What of St. Veronica?
The beauty about her is that there is no clear evidence that there ever
was a woman in the crowd who was so distressed at seeing Jesus smeared with blood, sweat, spittle and
dust that she wiped His face and that its imprint remained on the piece of
cloth. The tradition relating to
Veronica would have us believe that her
sensitive kindness was the sort of thing
that should have happened…no matter who
did it. How fitting it would have been that in the jostling crowd there was
someone who cared enough to wipe the
face of Jesus. He who was engulfed with bullying hatred experienced love…at a time when He most needed
it. What was said of Veronica then says so much to us now about the
richness of seemingly insignificant acts of
kindness and consideration, acts that spring from the heart.
I can’t help feeling
it’s shocking, terrible, if we ever
allow ourselves to be so occupied
getting important things done that it doesn’t occur to us to allow time
for tokens of love – the kind word, the hug, the brief prayer. The ‘Veronicas of this
world’ – be they men or women or even little children are obscure, unsung heroes . Did we but know it, we are surrounded by people starved of
love. Indeed, a time may come when we
ourselves yearn there be someone who shows us a little kindness.
And lastly there are those ‘Fringe Followers’ of Jesus within the noisy
crowd accompanying Him towards Calvary. These are the weeping ‘Daughters of Jerusalem,’ who,
like Mary, were heart-broken at the very sight of Jesus. For a brief moment Jesus was at the very centre of a ‘Love Circle
of Pain.’ With their love-filled tears the women
consoled Jesus; with His tender words
Jesus consoled the women in their present distress and grieved over the tribulation that the future held for them.
These Mary, Veronica,
and these ‘Women on the Way’ are now teaching me the immeasurable
importance of our being SIMPLY THERE WITH PEOPLE, THERE FOR PEOPLE at times when all we have to offer them is our loving support.
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