Sheila Sims Iding
I guess everyone questions faith every now and again. Some of us more than others, perhaps. Some people have such innate faith, they may never question it. I think I know someone like that. But I have learned from those in my life who have questioned it the most, that it can increase your faith value. Asking questions about your faith isn’t all bad.
And on this most faith-filled day of the church year where my faith is reaffirmed by the powerful Story of the Stations of the Cross, questions loom. I tell the first graders that the Stations of the Cross is a very special story that is serious and solemn but it has a happy ending…a glorious ending. Each station is like a chapter of that story. Each “chapter” has it’s own story…it’s own meaning. To fully comprehend each story, a good teacher knows you have to ask questions at the end of each chapter…to fully embrace the meaning of the story.
So…if I could sit in the pew next to Jesus today at church, I would ask Him questions. I would ask Him about the stories within THE story to fully comprehend and embrace this amazing faith-fill path of His…of ours.
1st Station: Jesus Is Condemned to Death
What is it like to have someone give you a death sentence…knowing you did nothing wrong? Were the shouts of “Crucify Him” as hard to bear as the cross you would soon carry?
2nd Station: Jesus Takes Up His Cross
How heavy is two tree trunks tied together? How do you even begin to “take up” that cross?
3rd Station: Jesus Falls the First Time
Is this when the cross cut into your shoulder? Is this where the Wounded Shoulder Prayer originated?
4th Station: Jesus Sees His Mother, Mary
What was it like when your eyes met Mary’s and you saw her sorrow? Even more, how gut wrenching is it for a mother to helplessly watch her child suffer and have nothing to offer…except for her own unending faith?
5th Station: Simon Helps Jesus Carry His Cross
I know Simon didn’t want to help. The soldiers made him. But I wonder what did Simon feel when he realized a few days later that he didn’t just help a criminal…he helped Jesus Christ?
6th Station: Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
How much pain does all that sweat and blood cause in your eyes? How much does it sting? How much courage does it take for Veronica to risk her own life to help your journey home?
7th Station: Jesus Falls the Second Time
Did your legs get more cut on the rough path? Did the thorns dig even farther into your head? Did that wound on your shoulder cut even deeper?
8th Station: Jesus Meets the Holy Women
You were still teaching as you stumbled on the path to your death. How were you still able to do your mission…to do God’s work on earth…while you were doing God’s will for your death?
9th Station: Jesus Falls a Third Time
Were people still laughing at you? Were they still making fun of you when you fell the third time? Did God have to help you up this time?
10th Station: Jesus is Stripped of His Clothing
I get how humiliating this had to be, but when they ripped the clothes from your wounds…did it hurt more than your breaking heart?
11th Station: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross
I can’t imagine the pain of nails going through skin and breaking bones as they soldiers pounded. Was the pain worse than the fear or was the fear worse than the pain? What was the prayer you had to be whispering?
12th Station: Jesus Dies
Wow! How did you think of everything before that final breath? How did you convert the sinner next to you? How did you ask God to forgive your captors? How did you ask John to take care of your mother? How did you have a single breath left to announce to your father “Into Your hands I commend my spirit.”?
13th Station: Jesus is Taken Down From the Cross
Did Joseph greet you in heaven? What was it like to watch over your mother as she was holding your earthly body…her heavenly Son?
14th Station: Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb
How generous was Joseph of Arimathea? How sad was Mary Magdalene as she walked away? And what did your Mother Mary do on Holy Saturday?
15th Station: Resurrection
There are so many questions I would need to fully comprehend this chapter but if Jesus was sitting by me in church today I would only be able to ask “Did you really do this for me?”
After veneration of the cross today, I think I realize the answer to that last question. I also think I realize that Jesus was next to me in that pew today. And when that last question was answered, as I knelt down to kiss the cross, I hope He heard me whisper “Thank you, Jesus.”