
Since the beginning of Lent, a huge wooden cross leaning at an angle similar to the one Jesus might have born on his back has been our centre-piece in the chapel. I’ve spent many minutes gazing upon this cross. What strikes me is its weight and heft. The feelings the sight of it give rise to are equally as heavy. To have dragged a cross like this through the streets of Jerusalem would have been horrendously arduous, especially so knowing you were dragging it to the place of your death. No wonder Jesus fell – and fell again… and again.
All of us fall at some point in life. Sometimes when we fall, we wonder how we will ever get up again let alone carry on with any sense of hope or joy. And what if we try again and fall again? The Stations of the Cross where Jesus Falls remind us that falling is part of being human. But once we have fallen and got up, been exhausted but kept going, experienced pain but not been overcome, or been in despair and rediscovered hope, we have learned something important about the spiritual life, namely that life is stronger than death. Being able to get up, walk on and endure; being able to get up, walk on and live fully are, I think, among the resurrection glimpses this Station gifts.
The Stations of the Cross Exhibition with Meditations opens in the Barn Gallery on Friday, 8th April and runs to Friday, 20th May (for opening times, see Bield web site). The above is my pondering on one of the Stations. Please come and see where your reflections take you as you journey on with Jesus towards resurrection.
Valerie
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