The Way of the Cross 1: JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH.
JESUS BEFORE PILATE:
Pontius Pilate presents Jesus to the crowd: “Ecce homo!”
As St. John 19:4-6 recounts: Pilate went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing him out to you, that you may know that I find no crime in him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no crime in him.”
Below you have ST. JOSEMARIA’S CONSIDERATION ON THE 1ST STATION OF THE WAY OF THE CROSS.
It is after ten in the morning. The trial is moving to its close. There has been no conclusive evidence. The judge knows that his enemies have handed Jesus over to him out of envy, and he tries an absurd move: a choice between Barabbas, a criminal accused of robbery and murder, and Jesus, who says he is Christ. The people choose Barabbas, and Pilate exclaims: “What am I to do then, with Jesus?” (Mt 27:22). They all reply: “Crucify him!” The judge insists: “Why, what evil has he done?” Once again they respond, shouting: “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate is frightened by the growing uproar. So he sends for water, and washes his hands in the sight of the people, saying as he does so: “I am innocent of the blood of this just man; it is your affair” (Mt 27:24). And having had Jesus scourged, he hands him over to them to be crucified. Their frenzied and possessed throats fall silent. As if God had already been vanquished.
Jesus is all alone. Far off now are the days when the words of the Man-God brought light and hope to men ‘s hearts, those long processions of sick people whom he healed, the triumphant acclaim of Jerusalem when the Lord arrived, riding on a gentle donkey. If only men had wanted to give a different outlet to God ‘s love! If only you and I had recognized the day of the Lord!
Points for meditation
- Jesus prays in the garden. “Pater mi” (Matt 26:39), “Abba Pater!” (Mark 14:36). God is my Father, even though he may send me suffering. He loves me tenderly, even while wounding me. Jesus suffers, to fulfil the Will of the Father… And I, who also wish to fulfil the most holy Will of God, following in the footsteps of the Master, can I complain if I too meet suffering as my travelling companion?
It will be a sure sign of my sonship, because God is treating me as he treated his own Divine Son. Then I, just as He did, will be able to groan and weep alone in my Gethsemani; but, as I lie prostrate on the ground, acknowledging my nothingness, there will rise up to the Lord a cry from the depths of my soul: “Pater mi, Abba, Pater,… fiat!” - The Arrest:… “venit hora: ecce Filius hominis tradetur in manus peccatorum”; the hour has come: behold the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners (Mark 14:41). So, the sinful man has his hour? Yes, and God his eternity!…
Chains binding Jesus! Chains, which He voluntarily allowed to be put on him, I ask you to bind me, to make me suffer with my Lord, so that this body of death may be humbled. For -there can be no half measures here – either I reduce it to nothing, or it will degrade me. Better to be a slave of my God than a slave of my flesh. - Throughout the mockery of his trial, Our Lord is silent. “Jesus autem tacebat” (Matt 26:63). Later, he answers the questions put to him by Caiphas and Pilate… But, to the fickle-minded and impure Herod, not a word (cf. Luke 23:9): so depraving is the sin of lust that not even the voice of Our Saviour is heard by him.
If there is so much resistance to the truth in so many places, keep silent and pray, mortify yourself… and wait. Even those souls that seem most lost retain, to the end, the capacity to return to the love of God. - Sentence is about to be passed. Mockingly, Pilate says: Ecce rex vester! Behold your king! (John 19:14). Infuriated, the chief priests reply: We have no king but Caesar (John 19:15).
Lord, where are your friends? Your subjects, where are they? They have left you. This running away has been going on for twenty centuries… We, all of us, flee from the Cross, from your Holy Cross.
Blood, anguish, loneliness and an insatiable hunger for souls… these are the courtiers around your royal throne. - Ecce homo! Behold the man! (John 19:5). Our heart shudders when it contemplates the Sacred Humanity of Our Lord become an open wound.
And they will ask him: what are those wounds that you bear in your hands? And he will reply: I received them in the house of those who love me (Zach 13:6).
Look at Jesus. Each laceration is a reproach; each lash of the whip, a reason for sorrow for your offences and mine.
-From the book of St. Josemaria, The Way of the Cross.
EL SEÑOR DE LA PRESENTACIÓN. HERMANDAD DE SAN BENITO.
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