A true way of the cross

Saturday February 5, 2022

A true way of the cross

Jesus, carrying his cross, left the city to go to the place called "the Skull", which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. John 19.17

For those who watch football matches, there is nothing worse than a team that lives "its way of the cross". We helplessly witness a succession of missed or conceded goals, unjustified yellow cards, the expulsion of a good player, the injury of another, wild tackles, cramps... under the possible jeers of the supporters of the opposing team. We know that we are going straight to defeat, it is total humiliation.

But the expression has its source in the New Testament. For Jesus, the Stations of the Cross included the betrayal of a friend, insulting interrogations all night long, mockery, slaps, spitting, a crown of thorns, beatings with a whip with leather straps, blood , a condemnation under the boos of his own people, and finally an ascent to the torture by carrying the wood of the cross where he was going to be inhumanly nailed by the hands and the feet then to agonize.

No one can relive this moment. We can just remember it every year, before Easter (or at any other time), and contemplate from afar the suffering of Jesus, true man and true God, who let himself be done and who suffered all this out of love for us. You can also read part of this way of the cross in the proposed reading.

Sylvie Dugand

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Proposed reading : Gospel according to Mark, chapter 15, verses 16 to 39.

Source (Live Today)