Jesus Carries the Cross

Catholic presentation

The fourth sorrowful mystery

Jesus has now been generally abused, scourged and mocked.  Just when you think it couldn't get any worse, more is required.  Now He must carry the cross, and we know what for.  So too for Simon of Cyrene, albeit in a lesser degree.  Perhaps that's him shown here in green?  Minding his own buiseness, he'd just finished his journey to Jerusalem, and rather than rest, he's now forced to help out carying the cross.  And Mary too, she'd have felt compelled to help her son carry the cross and treat His injuries.  But unlike the picture, which represents their love for one another and understanding of what must be done, in reality Mary was kept at a distance.  Perhaps she wanted to just run and lose her mind?  But she had to stand by and stand firm.  Willing her Son on, helping him in prayer.  Sometimes in our lives, when it all seems too much to bear, how do we react when that extra bit is required of us?

Lord, how did you keep going?  So often as a carpenter, or was it as a builder, or a fixer?  So often Lord you carried wood to work with.  Yet now too weak to lift the plank.  Falling to the ground.  At any and every step of the way you could have said stop!  And it would have stopped!  Did the Devil tempt you from afar, or did your body cry out for relief and do the Devil's bidding at close quarters - every inch of the way.  How did you manage to find concern for the women of Jerusalem at such a time?  Lord how did you keep going?  Did you train yourself in the desert?  Or was it the lifetime of loving that gave you strength.  Strength enough to keep taking on more and more weight and pain, without ever saying stop!