A Beginning

Some members of the EU are making the decision to boycott attendance at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics to be held in Beijing this summer. Would that more countries would follow suit; including the US. But why stop with the opening ceremonies? Let's see boycotts of the entire event, including the broadcasts. Loss of anticipated revenue speaks volumes and commands attention.

An Empty Tomb

It is the first day of the week. The feast is over. It is Sunday and the sun is rising in the east illuminating with its warm light the façade of the rock-cut tomb.

From the city several women are walking in a hurry toward the Garden of Golgotha, carrying in their hands jars containing precious ointments. They are coming to anoint their beloved one!

They are talking among themselves but seem preoccupied. They realized that they could not move the big boulder blocking the entrance to the tomb. Well, they might ask the soldiers to help them. That was a good idea if the soldiers were kind enough to do the job for them.

As soon as they set foot into the Garden, they could not see anybody. There was nobody near the tomb.... and yes, the tomb was open. The stone blocking the entrance had been removed.

They all ran. What happened? Who dared profane the tomb of their beloved one? Where were the soldiers?

They ran towards the tomb. They could not believe their eyes. The tomb was empty. No words came out of their mouths. They were speechless!

Then they were startled because they saw an angel sitting at the place where the body of Jesus had rested. He spoke to them. They were trembling.

"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him" (Mk 16,6).

They came out trembling and ran down again to tell the disciples. They were sceptical. They could not believe what the women were saying. This was nonsense!

They were hysterical, that's why. They were having visions.... so Peter, John and Mary Magdalene ran back to the tomb. They all saw the empty tomb except for "the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen" (John 20,6-7).

Peter and John left but Mary wanted to stay behind. She stood by the empty tomb crying. As she cried her heart out she heard some movement next to her... she looked up "and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."

Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher).

Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, `I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her. (Jn 20,14-18)

Station XIV: Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

"Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus -- the same one who had first come to Jesus at night -- took the body and wrapped it in linen cloths with spices, a mixture of myrrh and aloes, following the Jewish burial custom. At the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been buried. Since it was the Jewish day of Preparation and the tomb was near at hand, they laid Jesus there,"(Jn. 19). "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, were there, sitting opposite the tomb."(Mt. 27).

We have joined you, O Jesus, on the Way of the Cross. The hours of suffering are over, "It is finished." From the hill of the Skull we move to the garden of burial. Hardly breathing, we wait for the Father's response to the loving and obedient gift of your life. On Easter morning you will rise again, the pledge of the Father fulfilled, a pledge you offer to us. For if we have been united with you in the likeness of your death, O Lord, we shall be so in the likeness of your resurrection (cf. Rom. 6).

Station XIII: Jesus' Body is Removed from the Cross

"And when evening had come, Joseph of Arimathea, prominent member of the Sanhedrin, arrived and boldly went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate released the corpse to Joseph, who bought a shroud, and took Jesus down from the cross . . . "(Mk. 15). How violently was he nailed to the cross. How tenderly did his friends remove him. Tradition, ever conscious of Mary's presence, has passed on the sight of the mother receiving her martyred son. Michaelangelo's masterpiece, the Piet, has fixed this scene of indescribable pathos.

"We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all. Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away, and who could have thought any more of his destiny? When he was cut off from the land of the living, and smitten for the sin of his people"(Isa. 53).

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Station XII: Jesus Dies on the Cross

Jesus was crucified with two criminals. Pilate had a sign posted saying, "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews." The chief priests, the scribes and elders continued their mockery. Mary and the faithful women stood in silence. "At last Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said, ÎFather, into your hands I commend my spirit.' Having said this he expired"(Lk. 23).

"My God, my God, why have you deserted me? How far from saving me, the words I groan! I call all day, my God, but you never answer, all night long I call and cannot rest. They have pierced my hands and my feet: I can count all my bones. They look on me and gloat. They divide my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots"(Ps. 22).

Station XI: Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross

Jesus is nailed to the cross. The feet which carried the good news from town to village, the hands which so often were raised in praise and blessing, which so often reached down to raise up the lowly, are now fixed in an everlasting embrace of all peoples of all times. Had he not said, "Now has judgment come upon this world, now will this world's prince be driven out, and I, once I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all [people] to myself,"(Jn. 12).

The script of the psalm is played out. "Here am I, now more worm than a man, scorn of mankind, jest of the people, all who see me jeer at me, they toss their heads and sneer, ÎHe relied on the Lord, let the Lord save him!'...I am like water draining away, my bones are all disjointed, my heart is like wax, melting inside me; my palate is drier than a clay pot, and my tongue is stuck to my jaw"(Ps. 22).

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Station X: Jesus is Stripped of His Garments

This was the place of the skull, Golgotha. What was left of the condemned prisoner? His honor was shattered in the courtyard by the soldiers' taunts; his strength was left behind in every step of the death-march. Only his sense of modesty remained, and that, too, is torn away with his clothing. His stained, but seamless robe is still worth a soldier's bet. No one bet on his fate. That was certain.

"His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God, but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are; and being as all men are, he was more humble yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross"(Phil. 2).

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Station IX: Jesus Falls the Third Time

His strength totally failed him. Tradition tells us that Jesus, utterly exhausted, fell for the third time.

Keep me, O Lord, from a total collapse of the spirit. Yet, "Strength is made perfect in weakness"(2 Cor. 12). I must come to know that "My strength and my courage is the Lord"(Ps. 113). "They who hope in the lord will renew their strength; they will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint"(Isa. 40).

Station VIII: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

Luke writes, "Large numbers of people followed him, and women too, who moaned and lamented for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, 'Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep rather for yourselves and for your children. For the days will surely come when people will say; 'Happy are those who are barren, the wombs that have never borne, the breasts that have never nursed.' then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us'; to the hills, 'Cover us!' For if men use the green wood like this, what will happen when it is dry?"(Lk. 23).

We have watered the Way of the Cross with our tears. For whom do we weep? For him, or for ourselves? Jesus is the green wood, the living vine, scorched by his agony. Apart from him, we are dead branches and doomed. Through him, and with him, and in him we have hope.

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Station VII: Jesus Falls the Second Time

"We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all"(Isa. 53). "For our sake God made him who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God"(2 Cor. 5). Laden with our sin, Jesus fell again.

Lord, we who call ourselves by your name and sign ourselves with your saving cross, continue to stumble and fall. You said to the paralytic, "Get up and walk . . . your sins are forgiven you"(Mk. 2). Heal our weaknesses with your saving word so we, like you, can get up again and complete our journey.

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Station VI: Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

Legend has it that while Christ was carrying his cross, a woman named Veronica, moved with pity, wiped the sweat and blood from his face with her veil. As a reward for her kindness, his image was left on the veil. Perhaps the rumors of a true image of Christ, imprinted on cloth, lay behind this legend. Does such a burial shroud still survive? The name "Veronica" means "true image."

We are not embarrassed at a legend that tells so well the gospel message. Legends can be lived. Mother Theresa of Calcutta wiped the sores of the hopeless and the dying, because she saw the image of Christ in them, not in her towel. "As long as you did it for one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it for me."

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Station V: The Cross is Laid on Simon of Cyrene

"And they forced a certain passerby, Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country, to carry his cross behind him" (Mt. 15 / Lk.23). Jesus had not enough strength to support his cross. His spirit was willing, but his flesh was weak. In a short while, the cross would embrace him.

"Why me?" protested Simon, and we have said it too. It can be hard to bear the burden of discipleship. Sometimes it is thrust upon us. Paul says, "Each one has his own load to carry," and yet we are called also to "help bear one another's burdens" (Gal. 6).

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Station IV: Jesus Meets His Mother Mary

Again tradition tells us of a meeting of mother and son on his way to execution. She was so much the center of the beginning of this redemptive mystery; she was with him for many of his preaching and healing adventures; she would stand beneath the cross at the end. Isn't it likely that the one who is the model of faith and solidarity would also take part in this last journey?

In the temple, the old man said, "This child is destined to be a sign that is rejected -- and a sword will pierce your own soul too"(Lk.2).

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Station III Jesus Falls the First Time

Tradition speaks of Jesus falling three times on his painful journey. Exhausted and overcome by the oppressive burden, he fell to the ground. St. Paul has spoken of the cross as being a stumbling block, as madness. But to those who are called, this broken Jesus is the Christ, the power and the wisdom of God. For "God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength"(I Cor. 1).

We all are burdened in mind and body. Illness and weariness, the pace of our days, the pressures of our responsibilities, the weight of our own sins are the cross we have to carry. Jesus speaks to us, "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden light"(Mt. 11)?