COALED LIPS on fire
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“ … live coal…has touched.. lips…“
Isaiah 6
Nihil Obstat
Rev. Fr. Stephen Una
Catholic Diocese of Abakaliki
Assisting Chaplain, St. Joseph Catholic Church, Dodan Barracks, Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria
LENTEN PRACTICES (1): PRAYER
STATIONS OF THE CROSS
Have you ever considered why the Catholic church attaches much importance to praying the Stations of the Cross during Lent?
Getting a clear picture of how Stations of the Cross started is crucial to our knowing why.
According to Britannica, “The devotional exercise of visiting and praying in front of each of the 14 stations and meditating on the Passion of Christ stems from the practice of early Christian pilgrims who visited the scenes of the events in Jerusalem and walked the traditional route from the supposed location of Pilate’s house to Calvary. Tradition holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, set up stone markers at her home outside Jerusalem to prayerfully retrace the steps of her son’s Passion, but the origin of the devotion in its present form is not clear. The number of stations originally observed in Jerusalem was considerably smaller than 14. In the early 16th century, Ways of the Cross were established in Europe, and the tradition of 14 stations probably derived from the best known of them, that at Leuven (1505)…”
Britannica also states that “The images are usually mounted on the inside walls of a church or chapel but may also be erected in such places as cemeteries, corridors of hospitals and religious houses, or on mountainsides’ and that it is…a series of 14 pictures or carvings portraying events in the Passion of Christ, from his condemnation by Pontius Pilate to his entombment. …as follows:
Jesus is condemned to death.
Jesus is made to bear his cross.
Jesus falls the first time.
Jesus meets his mother.
Simon of Cyrene is made to bear the cross.
Veronica wipes Jesus’ face.
Jesus falls the second time.
The women of Jerusalem weep over Jesus.
Jesus falls the third time.
Jesus is stripped of his garments.
Jesus is nailed to the cross.
Jesus dies on the cross.
Jesus is taken down from the cross.
Jesus is placed in the sepulchre.”
The above in definition, speaks of carvings or pictures, showcasing our Lord’s passion at critical stages on his way to Calvary but as it applies to Catholic devotion, it is a prayerful meditation on the events of those fourteen stations as:
• It enhances the collective prayer mood
• It is a brief yet highly evocative compass (because a picture tells more than a thousand words) summarising, yet effectively spelling out the passion and everything that happened on the day of our lord’s death.
• It induces compassion for our Lord’s suffering.
• It makes one acknowledge one’s sin and brings about contrition.
• It leads to humility and acknowledgement of ones nothingness before God and ingratitude to so good a saviour.
• It evokes fellow feeling and hunger to help a neighbour.
• It evokes the spirit of mortification leading to an elevation of the spirit being.
• It evokes the spirit of wanting to do better and be a better person.
• It highlights bible passages spelling out the exact words of the passion.
• The dramatic tones make for a better understanding and adds to the gain of scripture reading which, without guide, may not be understood outright.
• It spells out how those around, particularly our Lady, his mother and St. John were impacted by the death of our lord.
• It leads to a better appreciation of the import of Christ’s death means and his e expectations of its application when he leaves.
• It helps in making the Good Friday commemoration experience more real and impactful.
Over and above these is the main reason which is, Preparation for Easter
Expectedly, because of the significance of the season, the Church provides for her members, to be not just be topically but essentially and wholly steeped in serious religious and spirituality enhancing activities which are prayer, fasting and abstinence and almsgiving and as such, Catholics are encouraged to get involved, as these are the foci of every action on the path to salvation.
However, since the path of salvation is not easy to tread; being the Way of the Cross, the only person who by virtue of his own power took it successfully, every Christian knows, is Jesus Christ.
Take up Your Cross and Follow Me
Now, considering the fact that he (Jesus) says, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him take up his cross and follow me”, Matt. 16:24, we get the idea that the Church which is the sole authority for explaining the proper sense (understanding) of the above stated as well as every other injunction of Jesus, wants his followers to know the import of this call and so encourages the partaking in the Stations of Cross prayer whose strong imagery captures and reveals in summary, what happened on the most crucial day of Christ’s life, and by extension, the whole of ours. Prayed (at least once a week, congregationally) it shows how Jesus courageously and willingly picked up his cross and trudged a strait path, eventually arriving at Calvary and showing clearly that challenges to our salvation, if faced right, would be overcome.
It must be noted that the Stations of the Cross prayer is of such significance, it is almost as synonymous with Lent as fasting, coming highly patronised for just as there’s a huge queue up for ash on Ash Wednesday, so is there a huge turnout to say “we adore you O Christ and praise you…” for the 14 Stations of the cross. So, in the season, every Friday following Ash Wednesday (and in some dioceses, Wednesdays too) Stations of the Cross is corporately prayed.
Third Station: Jesus Falls the First Time
Third Station of the Cross, carving in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Zagreb, Croatia.
Perhaps, a deeper examen on what the Stations of the Cross really is and the things that make it extra special, would lead us to a better grasping of the import of the theme of this write up.
PRAYER
Stations of the Cross is a prayer.
Prayer glues together all Lenten practices and since by Catholic definition, prayer is the lifting up of our minds and hearts to God, we see that apart from Mass, it is the next other regular and highly popular practice of prayer in this period.
Let’s now dissect some of the aspects of this prayer of Stations of the Cross to bring out what most people either don’t know or unwittingly downplay.
THE CROSS
which is one of the main words in Jesus’ call to carry the cross, is a pole with a crossed beam with nothing on it, which Jesus carried until he got to Calvary and was sacrificed on. It
• represents suffering on a journey
• was carried by Christ
• is carried by Christians
• was the wood Christ Slain on
• carried Christ upon his bearing our sin
• has prototype but many copies
• Immolation altar of Christ
• carried by Christians
• represents resurrection
• had Christ lifted up on it
THE STATIONS
Merriam Webster defines station, the other major word in the call as “a regular stopping place in a transportation route”
Stations of the Cross therefore means the critical stops (points of challenge) in the journey of life, as seen in the last day of Jesus’ life which typifies the most critical types of challenges encountered by everyone in life’s journey with the cross being the experiences and the Stations being the points that have a critical impact on how our life’s journey turns out.
These stops (or points of challenge) can be stationed anytime and anywhere in our life. Therefore, when the different challenges of our life called the cross appear, it means we are at life’s critical points and our response would determine how our life’s journey turns out but as exemplified by Jesus, if we bear the crosses until we get to Golgotha, the end point, we can then drop our crosses at his feet because he has reached there and is waiting on the prototype cross from which he would subdue all the challenges pinned to our own crosses.
Jeannette Williams | Mar 26, 2020 In Praying the Stations of the Cross at Home ”…provides us with many graces and opportunities to grow in our love of God. In both good times and difficult times, this beautiful devotion is a source of great comfort, for it not only reminds us of all that our Lord has done for us. It reminds us that, even in the trials of life, our Lord is with us, he loves us, and joy awaits us. Lent always ends with Easter.”
How does the Stations help in understanding the importance of Christ’s passion?
It’s Physical Position in the church.
Upon entering a Catholic church, no matter how bare and austere the furnishing may be, there are certain things found:
The Tabernacle of the Blessed Sacrament
which is always set nobly apart taking the most majestic of places in either the centre or one of the wings at the back of the sanctuary and with a red light blinking,; a symbol to notify of the subliminal presence of the most holy body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ in it. This you would find only in a Catholic church and no other.
The altar
which occupies the centre of the sanctuary can also be found in some Christian denominations, however, there is something else that you would also only likely see in a Catholic Church sanctuary and that is the crucifix.
The Crucifix
reflected in the theme of this write up, is a representation of Jesus body (corpus) on a cross as of, at his crucifixion and as such can be said to be the pictorial depiction of the highest point of the passion or suffering of our Lord, and even though many denominations tend to denigrate this symbol, the Catholic church of all symbols related to our Lord – for obvious reason – holds it in highest esteem.
A Crucifix
Jesus said, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men onto me, that is, save them from sin as prefigured by Moses’ carved brazen serpent in the wilderness.
The crucifix represents this lifting and is the central symbol of the means to our salvation and that would possibly be why it is positioned at the Sanctuary where Jesus, the divine being, as the head of the church and his representatives reside so that his body, the congregation can see him in the form of (not only when the Blessed Sacrament is lifted up in re-enactment) but at other times to remember the crucial moment of his suffering at Calvary and as such be inspired to always look up in faith to him to claim their salvation.
Remember the Hymn depiction of this ? “My Faith looks up to Thee” Thou Lamb of Calvary, Now hear me while I pray..
So the Crucifix symbolises:
• Our Lord’s agony at the ultimate point of paying the price of our salvation
• The point at which the sin of the whole world was on him including the sin of everyone born in the past, currently living and to be born in future.
• The suffering which he went through and which we are called upon to partake of, if we must be saved.
• The lifting up and drawing of people to Christ but it does not take the place of the Blessed Sacrament which is the ultimate means of our salvation.
• Peak of the moment of all moments, when the blood of Christ, the lamb was shed for our salvation on the cross at Calvary
• when the Blessed Sacrament is lifted up at Mass.
• Nevertheless, the church positions the Crucifix inside the church as the pivotal symbol of the means to our salvation,
• knowing that as a body, though she bears her cross, she must however find her way and help in the Crucifix, stationed inside the church.
• the representation of the moment of moments; the ultimate moment of the consummation of our salvation, without which the whole concept of the Cross’ effectiveness in the life of a Christian becomes impossible.
It is identified by these elements:
• A Cross bearing Christ,
• Fixed
• Specific to Jesus
• Draws all People to Christ
• Looked Down From
- Looked up From
- Looked up to
• Represents Highest Suffering
• Copies only in Emulation
The Cross
Our attention shifts to the congregation side of the divide and we find pews of course but we also find things that are a tell tale of the inside a Catholic Church (and some denominations), even when people are not there at worship and these would be images and pictures of saints and of depictions of past faith and creed related events. These can be different, depending on things like the parish name or patron saints(s) or preferences based on a number of factors but no matter the choice on these, there’s always a constant and that is the The Stations of the Cross!
The Cross: Journeying in Faith
For us to be able to get to Jesus’ feet at the crucifix, we must pick up our crosses of suffering and pain, of inadequacies, disaffections, dissatisfactions and whatever else and drop them there trusting that they would die with Jesus and be buried with him and the good news is, any challenge dropped at the foot of Jesus at the Crucifix would die with but not rise with him at Easter for just as the grave was found empty when he rose, our crosses, if we bear them to him would be cleared of all challenges and become a sign of victory over hell for us as well as the church.
AN INTERPLAY OF SYMBOLS
Just as there are as many crosses as there are people, there is only one Crucifix as there is only one Jesus and he does not ask us to be crucified on our cross for our salvation, (that was his job which he did perfectly). What he asks only is that we carry our Cross and follow him to Calvary and as a witness to his death so that we can be drawn to him when he is lifted up (and even though some of his followers are crucified (martyred) in the course of carrying their cross, it is only iin the capacity of a witness to his crucifixion).
There is huge significance of a successful journeying with the cross to its end point which is Golgotha. Check out the symbol on Catholic Church buildings. It is always the cross and this signifies a place where those that are ready to carry their own cross, that is suffer with Christ, both in their personal as well as communal life can go so as to tap into the graces that would help them to eventual victory with him who was nailed to the cross to save the church knowing this can effectively happen not outside but inside the church.i
Thus, both the cross and the Crucifix are important symbols of our salvation, with the disregard of one having an affect on the potency of the other.
Now you can tell
why Stations of the Cross is a big deal in the Catholic Church
the difference between the Cross and the Crucifix
The culmination of the essence of these symbols is the Blessed Sacrament
Ephphatha…there’s a lot more to talk about!
