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THIS SUNDAY’S HOMILY

John 12:20-33

5th Sunday of Lent

Year B

Fr. Michael Brizio, IMC

www.shareinhisloveministries.com

We are only a few days away from Holy Week, and

today I would like to consider with you a Christian

tradition: the Stations of the Cross - a time-honored

devotion popularized by the Franciscans, especially

during this holy season.

In early and medieval times pilgrimages were a very

popular pious practice. In a spirit of penance and prayer,

the pilgrims walked long distances, crossed mountains

and valleys, suffered hunger, thirst, cold and heat to visit

and pray at holy places.

Such journeys often lasted months or years, and were

frequently fraught with dangers.

One of the favorite pilgrimage destinations was the

Holy Land. There people wanted to be at the very spots

Jesus lived and preached; but, above all, they desired to

walk and relive Jesus’ painful way to Calvary - the Via

Dolorosa. But Jerusalem was far away across the waters

and in the hands of non-Christians.

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And so artists began to illustrate the moments associated

with Jesus’ passion and death; they would hang these

pictures along roadsides and eventually inside churches.

The number of such pictures varied from seven to

twenty-four, but eventually settled at fourteen to become

our standard Stations of the Cross today.

But here is something interesting: these fourteen

Stations are exactly that, stations or stationary, that is,

standing places.

As pilgrims, we stand before the depiction of Jesus’ way

to the cross to meditate respectfully on the scene before

us; but - far more importantly - to enter into it and

become a participant in Jesus’ sufferings.

Let us now, with our hearts and minds journey together

along a few of these stations.

Here we are, standing at the First Station: Jesus is

unjustly accused by Pilate.

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Have we ever stood any time in our life falsely accused

or blamed, when rumors were spread about us, or when

we were the victim of idle talk? And, no matter how

hard we tried to explain, no one seemed to believe us?

And, if we have been there - unjustly attacked by gossip

or innuendo - how do we act and feel? Do we identify

with Jesus before Pilate, keeping silent and offering up

our humiliation for the sin of the world; or at least

knowing that He has been there before us, and knowing

that God will have the last word?

There is the painful Fourth Station:

Jesus meets his mother. Mary’s heart was broken not

only because she saw her son publicly disgraced and

humiliated, and going to his death as a common

criminal. Most of all, Mary’s heart was shattered

because she could not help him. How gladly would she

have changed places with him, but she was restrained

by the rough soldiers.

Mary is every parent who watches by the hospital bed

unable to save her child; Mary is every parent who has

buried a son or a daughter.

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Mary is every parent who stands helplessly by to watch

a child disintegrate with drugs or alcoholism. Mary is

every parent who pleads with God for a son or a daughter

living a sinful lifestyle, or who has departed from the

faith,

or whose marriage is falling apart.

Mary is every parent with arms painfully outstretched

because they want so badly to save their child and

cannot, at least not right now.

They instead silently offer their unending prayers and

their tears hoping that God has mercy on their children

and touches their heart.

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The Fifth Station: Simon is forced to carry Jesus’ cross.

Those who stand a long time at this station are all the

people who carry crosses they did not want, or ask for,

or bargain for.

No one wants the sick parent, the difficult and rebellious

child, or cancer, or addiction. None us desires the

divorce, the job loss, the depression – or unwanted

crosses of all descriptions.

Too many of us also feel like Simon of Cyrene, and are

angry at God and frustrated. But the longer we stand at

this station, the more we absorb the tradition that says

that if Simon started out with anger - he wanted no part

of Jesus’ cross, but he was forced into it –

and after a time of carrying the cross with Jesus, he

moved to understanding, and from understanding he

moved to love, and from love he moved on to his own

salvation and became, as it were, a “co-carrier” of the

cross with Jesus. Could this, too, be our calling?

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The Sixth Station: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus.

Veronica is the symbol of the men and women who weep

over Jesus’s rejection and suffering.

The simple truth of the legend of her veil is as brief as it

is powerful; and it is meant to say this: all who show

compassion to those who suffer in mind and body, bear

in themselves the image of the wounded Christ.

Do we do the same?

Are we the face, the hands and feet of God’s mercy and

healing?

The Ninth Station: Jesus falls the third time.

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When we spend time here we readily say: I recognize

this station from experience; for, here I stand with my

bad habits - the nasty word out of my mouth before I can

stop it, my quick judgment, the profound resentments,

the blinding anger, my burning impatience and

intolerance, the ongoing gossip, my deep-seated

addiction to selfishness. And, no matter how hard we

try, no matter how many times we confess it, no matter

how bad we feel afterward, we cannot seem to shake our

favorite sin. In short, we keep falling - like Jesus.

But as we stand here long enough we begin to perceive

that this station really has a different focus. It really

should read: Jesus gets up again, the third time. How

about us? Do we get discouraged and give up trying to

overcome our bad habits?

Let this be our prayer: O God of the second and many

more chances, here I am again and again – ready to start

all over again, again and again.

The Twelfth Station: Jesus dies on the cross forgiving

his enemies.

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We stand here accused - we who still hold grudges and

harbor a hard heart; we who still remember and do not

want to let go of all the sufferings others have inflicted

on us.

How can we, seeing Jesus hanging on the cross and

forgiving his enemies, still be unforgiving?

Finally, there is the Fourteenth Station: Jesus is laid in

the tomb.

We are here when we say - this is my time of despair

and dryness; I don’t know what to do, and I am at my

wit’s end; there seems no way out of my tomb; it’s dark

and dry in our life and soul.

We are laid in a tomb when we are caught in a loveless

marriage, a financial dead-end, a terminal sickness, or a

soured relationship.

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We are laid in a tomb when we can’t pray, don’t get from

God the answers we need, God seems to have abandoned

us, and our faith is routine and empty. In other words,

just as Jesus was placed in the darkness of a tomb and a

heavy stone was rolled over it,

we also feel a heavy stone has been rolled over our heart.

But, at this station we also prepare for the surprise of the

resurrection:

Christ will soon remove the stone, and will make us rise

with Him to new life, joy and victory.

You see, the fourteen Stations are more than a simple

pious devotion; they are life; they are where we are; they

reflect our pain, but they also give us hope, for there is a

fifteenth station called the Resurrection.

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Let the Stations of the Cross quickly remind us of Jesus’

death and resurrection that we celebrate in the Eucharist.

Let us take one station of the cross in each of the coming

14 days to help us contemplate Jesus’ passion, and so

arrive at the glory of the resurrection.