Jesus falls for the first time

Continuiung our meditation on the Way of the Cross taken from The Way of the Cross with the Curé of Ars, written by Mgr Keith Barltrop, our Lord falls for the first time.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

"I am bowed and brought to my knees; I go mourning all the day long." Psalm 37:6.

As we contemplate this first fall of Jesus, the reality of the cross begins to sink in. This is not some abstract idea, or beautiful theme for meditation, but a man, God’s son, consumed by love and crushed to the ground by the weight of humanity’s rejection of his love. Worst of all is the ingratitude of us who have tasted that love, but so often turn away. Well may this Man of Lovestumble and fall!

"Ah, if we understood his love, if we could see his heart all aflame with goodness, compassion and mercy, we would loathe our sins, we would howl with grief for them day and night. But there you are, we give no heed to the infinite goodness of Our Lord, to all that he has done for us. What miserable wretches we are! Jesus could have saved the world by simply lowering his eyes before his Father, yet he willed to be the man of sorrows, the man of all sorrows. He is a God who descends to earth to be the victim of our sins, a God who suffers, a God who dies, a God who endures every kind of torment because he wills to bear the weight of our crimes!" The Curé.

PRAYER

As we follow the way of your cross, Jesus, may your Holy Spirit melt the hardness of our hearts and give us a new vision of the infinite abyss of your mercy. May our hearts beat again in unison with yours and desire nothing more than to welcome your love and share it with all the world, you who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

Our Father…

Oh, how sad and sore distressed
Was that mother highly blessed
Of the sole-begotten one!

O quam tristis et afflicta
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater Unigeniti!

Picture © John Salmon, Stations of the Cross in the parish church St Silas, Kentish Town, London
Text © St Pauls Publishing