Fr. Dale Matson
“Gethsemane and the Via Dolorosa”
Spring has arrived and our Golden State of California is green. Unfortunately, the rain will soon end and there is an anticipatory sadness that this season will give way to a parched golden hue in a matter of weeks. Palm Sunday has that same anticipatory sadness as our California Spring. Even though we carried palms into the church today, we realize this joy and jubilation will be as short lived as our California spring.
Jesus arrived in Jerusalem to adoration and great fanfare. We are always hopeful yet we know the outcome, don’t we? Then we begin the passion narrative. We say to ourselves, “How can this be? How could things have gone so tragically wrong so quickly”? From his triumphant entry we now see Jesus in Gethsemane nearly dead from sorrow and literally sweating blood. He went to his closest friends Peter, James and John three times asking for their prayer and companionship yet they remained asleep. Even among his best friends, He was so alone there. Have you been there too? Many of us elderly can put ourselves in His place. We are very much aware that we will soon die and we are all at the point where we need to say as our Lord said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but thou wilt.” My traditional Jesus prayer before falling asleep has been replaced by, “…to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8b)
As I was preparing the homily, I noticed for the first time that Jesus actually prayed this prayer more than once. His decision to die was even harder than I had once thought. “And again, he went away and prayed, saying the same words. He made his decision to do His Father’s will and it cost him his earthly life. Wasn’t His decision the climax and what came after that the falling action?
From here things became increasingly worse with his friend Peter denying three times that he even knew him. Peter was afraid for his own life. All his boldness he expressed before was gone. And we say to ourselves, “How can this be?” There is a betrayal by Judas, followed by an arrest and false accusations by the religious leaders.
And thus, begins “the Via Dolorosa the final walk that Jesus took before he was crucified. Today, along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, there are the 14 Stations of the Cross that mark when Jesus was condemned to death, where he carried the Cross, and where he was crucified, died and buried. It is not just one road, but a route that winds along a collection of streets. The walk is less than kilometer long (about half a mile) and contains the 14 Stations of the Cross. It ends in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where the final 5 Stations of the Cross are located. Via Dolorosa means ‘The way of suffering’ or ‘the path of sorrows’ in Latin. Via Dolorosa is sometimes more commonly known as ‘The Way of the Cross’ (Via Cruxis).” https://24hourslayover.com/via-dolorosa-via-della-rosa/
There is a mock trial followed by severe and humiliating beatings and a murderer Barabbas is set free instead of an innocent and perfect man. The crowd yells, “Crucify him” and we say to ourselves, “How can this be? Where are all the people who would defend him? Why aren’t they yelling, “Free Jesus”. He is even forced to carry his own cross on which he will be crucified. His garments are taken from him and he is left in his nakedness, to hang on the cross in front of his friends and mother. Some of you folks may wonder where Joseph was at but it is a safe conclusion that he had already died. In fact, Jesus asked the disciple he loved, John to care for his mother. After his death he was taken down and placed in another man’s tomb.
Now let us examine the first portion of our Epistle lesson.
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9
And this is the lesson of Lent for us that we have the mind of Christ. And what is that mind? It is the mind of Obedience, Humility and Self Denial. We must be obedient to our Father in Heaven. If He gives us His Gifts then we must step out in faith and obedience to use them for the good of his body the Church. We too must be obedient to the point of our own death. This is the death of selfishness and self centeredness. We are called to serve others. We must be humble. When we think or do something is it for our glory or God’s glory? Can we do the good work unseen? Can we give that gift anonymously?
And where is the hope we hold so closely to our hearts in this season of Lent? It is coming, my brothers and sisters. It is coming. We hold out our hope as Jesus enters the gates of Jerusalem yet we know tragedy and unspeakable injustice await the Lamb of God. We know this is not the time. This is not the place. He has been humbled, humiliated, crucified and placed in a tomb and WE WITH HIM. Yet calling to us from the Old Testament the prophet Isaiah offers us hope and comfort that our salvation will be available. Our salvation is not from God, it is God Himself.
We hear this from our Old Testament Lesson.
“Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
I was laying on the couch the other day feeling sorry for myself because I have experienced so much trauma during my life. In the book, The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk, he stated that trauma remains in the body and changes our responses to the world. If not properly treated, trauma causes us to mistrust others, to be hypervigilant, to suffer from anxiety and depression. Trauma can even cause digestive disorders. I was wondering if I could ever find peace from trauma and in this life. As I was laying there, St. Paul’s verse came into my mind. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” When I hear, “…with his stripes we are healed.” It reminds me of St. Paul’s passage in 2nd Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” By his stripes, you are healed.
To be joined to Christ one can be released from the trauma you experienced. Because of Christ we can say what Peter Gabriel said in his song Darkness, “I have my fears but they don’t have me.” Can we understand that?
I think one message of the passion narrative, is betrayal, abandonment and enormous physical trauma for our Lord. He saved us from sin and death and experienced first-hand what all of us have or will experience. His death on the cross means more to me every year. For many, perhaps most of us, our own journey has been a Via Dolorosa, a journey of suffering more than a Pilgrimage. In No Country For Old Men, Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) visited his cousin Ellis who was wheel chair bound from a criminal’s bullet. He is a lot like us with this comment. “All the time you try and get back what been taken from you, more is going out the door. After a while you just try to get a tourniquet on it.”
Philippians 2:5-11 (New King James Version)
The Humbled and Exalted Christ
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
And what we have here is the marvelous testimony by the Old and New Testament witness of God and Jesus Christ as God, that every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is our Salvation and there is no other. We look with hope through the eyes of faith, having been crucified and buried with him, that we too will follow him up from his lowly borrowed grave to the heights of Heaven. Amen.
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