VIA DOLOROSA - 1&2

 I hope to reflect on the Friday's of Lent on the Way of the Cross, the Via Dolorosa.  Each week I will reflect upon two of the "stations".  Years ago I did something similar during a series of Uniontown area Lenten Prayer breakfasts.

    I.  JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH

    Condemnations are as old as humanity itself. Examples are beyond our comprehension.  How easy it is to stand in condemnation of another, or to be judged by another.  How difficult to be merciful and to show compassion and understanding.

    Years ago I saw the legal system at work in a case that affected someone I knew, and someone that I spoke up for as a character witness.  He is a good man who found himself making a bad decision in a difficult situation.  The jury found him guilty, and he served a sentence that supposedly rehabilitated a man that did not need rehabilitation.  I could not serve on a jury of my peers because my sense of justice is guided not by punishment and "a pound of flesh" but on understanding and mercy.

    Jesus, although innocent, was accused, brought before the civil authorities who acted as they were forced to by the law and the circumstances of the times, and condemned - to death.  Justice?  NO!  But from this injustice for Jesus came a mercy for us.  Let us never be "quick to condemn".

    II.    JESUS RECEIVES HIS CROSS

    Accepting the crosses that come in our lives is never easy.  I, for one, never liked the challenge of a cross.  I looked for the easy way out, the blessing.  However, crosses, great and small, are a part of life, and they build our character and strengthen our resolve to embrace life.

    The Cross Jesus received that day was a sentence of destruction.  He transformed that ignoble image into a sign that we today acclaim as victorious.  When we accept our crosses and bring the strength of God's love and grace to those crosses, they can be transformed into that which "lifts us up" to the throne of the Father.   Hard, and strange as it may sound, accept your crosses as a blessing, and do not see them as a curse.  If you can, if you do, you will be strong and free.