April 13, 2025
Who hasn't had the experience of being converted by praying the Way of the Cross? As we follow Christ, we realize what he suffered for us: the physical wounds, scorn of the high priests, the mockery of the soldiers, the heavy weight of that cross, the long way to go under the hostile gaze of the crowd, not one fall but three humiliating falls to remind us that his mercy for us has no limit, the suffering imposed on his Mother and his loved ones... You'd have to have a heart of stone not to be converted by following Christ along the Way of the Cross. He who suffered to make us strong, He who lowered Himself to lift us up, He who was thirsty to give us drink, it is He Himself who carries us along this path of conversion. So our way of the cross becomes a way of light: light on our lack of love, light on our lack of forgiveness, light on our selfishness, light on our cowardice in bearing witness to our faith, light on our lack of hope. By opening our hearts to this light, by accepting to follow the poor and suffering Christ, we will have the strength to face life's trials, we will be filled with the gentleness and humility of Christ who died to give us Life. Let us accompany Christ as he climbs to Calvary, every Friday in Lent, every Friday throughout the year, at every moment when we need to offer up our weaknesses, our sadness, our failures. The Way of the Cross is for everyone, for all those who have been seized by Christ's kindly gaze, it is a path of conversion, of light, of life.
Jesus did not carry his cross for his own salvation, but for that of the whole world, for ours. As we pray the 14 stations, let us offer them for the Church, to hasten peace and forgiveness in our world, let us offer them for those who still disfigure Christ today by their hatred or indifference, let us offer them for those who don't know where to find God, let us offer them for those who are sick and in agony. And after each Way of the Cross, let us accept with great love the cross or small crosses of our daily lives. Contemplating the Crucified One, we know that our sufferings are always borne by His, so they can become a path of light for us, a path illuminated by the loving presence of Christ who wants to rise again in us. Let's live the cross where we are, let's accept and embrace the one Jesus has chosen for us, let's wear it as the mark of his love. And if we are prevented from taking part in the Way of the Cross this Good Friday, let us remember that it is perhaps this offering that Jesus wants to use to make us carry His Cross more intimately with Him, to be a silent but luminous witness to His love where He is not expected. The one who will be the most blessed at the Cross is certainly the one who will have carried it to the depths of his heart with Jesus, forgetting himself, like Him, for others. Let's make these last days of Lent, our Holy Week and our daily lives a journey of the Cross, of conversion, of light and of love. With all our offerings and small sacrifices, let us prepare a garden for Christ's Resurrection.
