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STATIONS OF THE CROSS - COLOSSEUM
Good Friday, 13 April 2001
OPENING PRAYER
In the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The first Good Friday of the third millennium.
Night has fallen.
The moon shines high in the sky.
The faithful of Rome and countless pilgrims
have gathered to walk with Jesus
along the Way of the Cross.
At the Colosseum, splendid monument
of the Roman Empire, now we celebrate
the Statio Urbis et Orbis.
Via Crucis,
a journey of solidarity.
Jesus, the Son of God, born of woman,
is one with his brothers and sisters
- humanity, suffering and bewildered -:
in their steps, the steps of exiles
and deportees,
of the disillusioned who wander aimlessly,
in the halting steps of children, the sick,
the elderly,
of the condemned who approach the place
of their execution. Yet Jesus, as he walks
towards the Place of the Skull,
is leading humanity towards the splendour
of Glory.
Via Crucis,
a journey of discipleship.
Jesus, the one Teacher, has said:
"If any man would come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me" (Mt 16: 24).
Follow me always. Follow me to Calvary.
Beneath the Cross stand Mary,
the first disciple,
and the Beloved Disciple.
As he ascends towards Calvary,
Jesus knows that he is about to teach
his greatest lesson
and to confirm that teaching by the gift
of his very self:
"Greater love has no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends"
(Jn 15: 13).
Via Crucis,
a priestly and royal journey.
Jesus, consecrated by the Spirit, is King
and Priest.
But on the way to Calvary
he holds no sceptre,
he wears no priestly garb.
Yet he knows that his Kingdom is beginning.
In the only form possible to him:
he reigns with the power of love.
Now begins his Priesthood:
the meek and innocent Lamb offers himself,
as an expiating victim for the sin of the world.
Via Crucis,
a journey of hope.
At nightfall the certainty of dawn
is already present.
In the twilight of his life,
Jesus is sure of the Father's love,
he hopes in spite of the evidence of failure;
he is sure that from the dark womb
of the earth
he will rise as the "bright morning star"
(Rv 22: 16).
As he walks to his death, Jesus knows
that he is hastening towards the resurrection.
Via Crucis,
a journey of fullness:
of pain and unbounded love,
of total abasement and sublime exaltation;
fullness of the Spirit,
who streams forth from the wounded side
of the Saviour,
as a river of life and grace;
fullness of forgiveness and mercy,
of reconciliation and peace.
It is the hour of the "loud cry" (Mk 15: 37)
and the silence of the cosmos,
which mourns the death of its Creator.
The hour of the bowed head
and the laborious rest.
And, in the heart of his Mother,
the hour of immense compassion
and anxious expectation.
O mighty God,
strengthen me with Thy strength,
console me with Thy everlasting peace,
soothe me with the beauty of Thy countenance;
enlighten me with Thy uncreated brightness;
purify me with the fragrance
of Thy ineffable holiness.
Bathe me in Thyself, and give me to drink,
as far as mortal man may ask,
of the rivers of grace which flow
from the Father and the Son, the grace
of Thy consubstantial, co-eternal Love.
O my all-sufficient Lord,
Thou only sufficest!
Thy blood is sufficient for the whole world.
As Thou are sufficient for me,
so Thou art sufficient for the entire race
of Adam.
O my Lord Jesus,
let Thy Cross be more than sufficient for them.
Let it be effectual!
Let it be effectual for me more than all,
lest I have all and abound,
yet bring no fruit to perfection.*
Amen.
*J. H. Newman, Meditations on Christian Doctrine 8: 504, 505.
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