The encounter in today’s Gospel concerns one between Jesus and a man born blind. Essentially this is not a story about a man born in sin as the religious leaders of the day state, but one about a man coming to faith and into an intense encounter with the Lord. Despite all that is thrown at him and the persecution he faces the man born blind now having gained sight also gains spiritual sight to recognise Jesus as Lord and Saviour. In these two Stations we also are faced with spiritual truth, the truth of our all to human condition and of our need to come to accept that we have to see Jesus for who he really is and not what we imagine him, or want him to be.
VII. Jesus falls for the second time
Psalm 39:7 "And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in thee. 8 Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not the scorn of the fool! 9 I am dumb, I do not open my mouth; for it is thou who hast done it. 10 Remove thy stroke from me; I am spent by the blows of thy hand. 11 When thou dost chasten man with rebukes for sin, thou dost consume like a moth what is dear to him; surely every man is a mere breath! 12 "Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears! For I am thy passing guest, a sojourner, like all my fathers. 13 Look away from me, that I may know gladness, before I depart and be no more!"
This second fall of Jesus has often been likened to the fall from grace of those who reach middle-age. All that youthful optimism has gone; and the temptation comes to be jaundiced about life and cynical about the things of the Spirit. The lure of the world and its blandishments seem exciting in comparison to the spiritual life.
But of course, our Holy Redeemer has committed no sin and yet once more he lies in the dust. He who is without sin falls in order to teach us to rise once more. And that rising from sin and walking by faith once more is what so many fail to do as they begin to mature in years. The sense of shame at having fallen from grace is such that for many they foolishly think that there can never be forgiveness or they worry and fret about confessing their sins thinking that the priest will look down on them when in reality he will think them incredibly brave to have come to confession.
In these meditations I have often made mention of the eyes of Jesus and the eyes of the other participants in each station. In this station it may be that the eyes of Jesus were once more filling with blood from the wounds in his head from the crown of thorns. Did he stumble because he could not see properly or was it because of fatigue, or was it both? What his eyes would have seen is the ground rising up to meet his face, but what he may have heard was the jeering and mockery of the crowds in the streets. In the eyes of those who were watching, while some will have looked on with pity there would have been others that flashed with contempt.
When we fall from grace in middle-age we are all too aware of the gossip that leads to our embarrassment and the temptation is to want to hide. I once knew someone who was sacked from her place of employment. Yes, she had done wrong, but her sense of shame and humiliation was such that for years she would only venture out, even in high summer, wearing a large overcoat, a very full headscarf and sun-glasses. What a penalty she inflicted on herself. Some years after the event of her dismissal she phoned me to ask if, a couple of years before, I had recognised her. Apparently, she had passed me in the street and thought that I had looked at her and ignored her – her seeing me had added to her embarrassment. As it happened I could not recall the event, nor could I recall ever seeing her. She agreed to meet me and listening to her and her husband I realised the terrible price that some in middle-age pay for their foolishness and how much they need to hear the words of forgiveness.
So at this station let us pray for all those who fall from grace in adult life that they may never despair but seek the assurance of Christ’s forgiveness, and know that the Lord at this station prays for them that, like him, they would have strength to rise and carry on.
VIII. Jesus speaks to the women of Jerusalem
Luke 23:27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people, and of women who bewailed and lamented him. 28 But Jesus turning to them said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck!' 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us'; and to the hills, 'Cover us.' 31 For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
We begin our thoughts at this station with a conundrum: were these simply kindly women who were showing pity and compassion or were they professional mourners?
Biblical scholars are divided on this issue, but I raise it with you for this conundrum has implications for our spiritual life. If these women were professional mourners then what they were doing was shallow and false. In the ancient world it was not unknown for there to be professional mourners who wailed at the passing of a life whether it was of some notable person or even of someone who was on their way to execution. The spiritual life can sometimes be reduced to going through the motions and it can be that our walk with Christ can seem remote and at times false. It is at these times that Christ is calling to us all the more earnestly. These women raise the death wail over Jesus, but he responds by raising the death wail over their city. He calls to us earnestly with pleading in his eyes; for if we maintain a distance from him; of we maintain an aloof sort of discipleship then we are at risk of falling away altogether.
But, on the other hand, these may have been disciples of Jesus who had followed and were wailing very bravely to express their complete and utter disapproval of the death sentence having been passed on Jesus. Rather than having eyes which are dull with the disinterestedness of the professional mourner they have eyes which are filled with compassion and a sense of injustice, and he in turn with eyes filled with compassion gives them a forewarning of the destruction that is to occur in Jerusalem some 37 years later.
There is also another lesson for us to learn at this station and that is that it is important for us to mourn over the right things. Whether these women were acting out of genuine pity or not there is a truth that they had missed: “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” So do we mourn about the right things, do we bewail our own misfortune while forgetting the misfortune of others? Do we fail to grieve over our sins and failings and yet gloat over the sins and failings of others? Do we grieve over our own sins and failings thinking that our tears and own efforts prove our penitence and earn our forgiveness forgetting that in the words of a well-known hymn: “Not the labours of my hands can fulfil thy law’s demands; could my zeal no respite know, could my tears for ever flow, all for sin could not atone: thou must save, and thou alone.”
The eyes of Jesus at this station shine bright with compassion on these women for He earnestly desires that they do not lose hold of eternal life.
At this station let us pray that we may be granted a right judgement in all things and that we may always acknowledge that Christ is our strength, and Christ is our right; and that lifting up our eyes to seek his face we may lay hold on life that it may be a our joy and crown eternally.
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