Praying the Stations of the Cross with St. Joseph
The Twelfth Station - Jesus Dies on the Cross
Jesus’ body is hoisted up upon the cross. The cross . . . not just instrument of His death, but a pulpit lifted high for all to see and hear His final lessons:
“Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” A lesson in mercy - not just taught but demonstrated in the most extreme way possible.
“Today you will be with me in paradise.” A promise given to the thief to His right who begs that Jesus remember him when He enters His kingdom . . . and the blessed assurance given to us that, if we die with Him, we will also rise with Him.
“Woman, behold, thy son! Son, behold, thy mother.” Obedient to Third Commandment, Jesus honors His mother. And faithful to the moral obligations of the Talmud, He personally ensures the care and support He will no longer be able to provide her by entrusting her to His beloved disciple. But John represents us at the foot of the cross. And Jesus entrusts her to us to be our mother.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Far from a cry of despair, what is recorded in both Matthew and Mark’s Gospels is a prayer. In the darkest moment of His life, in the face of death, Jesus prays. He recites Psalm 22 which, rather than expressing despair at God’s absence in the time of His greatest need, it is a hymn of confidence in God’s abiding presence, His pervasive care.
“I thirst.” A reminder that when we give drink to one of His least ones, we quench Jesus’ thirst as well.
“It is finished.” Not just the cry of a dying man that His life is about to expired, but the exuberant proclamation that His earthly mission is finished. All he was born to do has been accomplished.
“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” As he had done at each moment of His life, so too at death, Jesus entrusts Himself into the all-powerful hands of His Father, who, in the beginning, fashioned all things and saw that it was good.
Ecce Homo . . . Behold the man . . . Behold that man . . .
That Man – See Him broken there – See Him bleeding there – See Him hurting there.
That Man – See Him suffering there – See Him helpless there – See Him selfless there.
That Man – See Him hanging there – See Him crying there – See Him dying there.
FOR US! FOR ME! FOR YOU!
Let us pray . . . St. Joseph, one of the things that most hurts me is when I am not appreciated. It’s not that I look for the adulation of others, I don’t need public recognition and applause. But often it seems, that the good I do goes unnoticed. And sometimes that makes me feel like the good that I tried to do, I didn’t do. - It didn’t have the effect that I hoped it would. I wonder if Jesus ever feels that way. All he did for us, we who are so undeserving, and, often times, He is forgotten or taken for granted. Jesus gave everything to me . . . GIVES everything to me . . . His very life, His body and blood then on the cross, and His body and blood now, in the Eucharist. And sometimes I act as if that is nothing, rather than the supreme gift that it is. St. Joseph, inspire me to appreciate, more and more, all that Jesus did and does for me, and let that appreciation bring me to a greater love for Him. Jesus, if I failed said it before, I say it now. Thank you. I love you.
St. Joseph, Patron of the Dying, pray for us.
