Mar 28 2009
On The Way Of The Cross: The Seventh Station
For other posts on the stations go here.
1 I must boast; there is nothing to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3 And I know that this man was caught up into Paradise — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows — 4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 5 On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. 6 Though if I wish to boast, I shall not be a fool, for I shall be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. 7 And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. 8 Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; 9 but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor 12).
Of this second fall there is no mention in the Gospel, but the devotion of the faithful has commemeorated the difficulties of the journey to Calvary in this way.
As the first fall was a sign of the weakness of the soul unsupported by God, so the second may be taken by us as a proof that human sympathy is of little avail in the trials God brings upon the soul.
After the first fall our Lord meets His Mother; after the second He meets the pious women who are devoted to Him. He is desirous that we should sympathize with Him in His sufferings for our own sake, because the sympathy we give to Him is a test of our union with Him. His sufferings, His labors and His trials, are borne for our sake to show us the value of all such things in life. He, the most perfect, the most innocent, will submit to them, not because they were needed for the completeness of His sanctity, but because they are, in God’s dispensation, the necessary accompaniment of our growth in holiness. He so identifies Himself with us that He suffers because we must suffer, and because we avoid suffering which entails humiliation, our Lord would fall under the cross. He, the strong God who made the world and supports it, will allow His human nature to sink under the burden of the cross. But this fall does not hinder His sacrifice. He will not allow weakness to hinder His work. In like manner, He will not allow my weakness to hinder His work. Indeed, if I use the weakness, i.e., bear it and do not seek the sympathy of others, if I humble myself in my weakness and rely on God’s strength, my weakness will help forward God’s work.-MEDITATIONS ON THE PASSION OF OUR LORD by Fr. Joseph Oswald Smith, O.S.B.,
