THE SEVENTH STATION
Jesus takes up his Cross
Antiphona
Ave Rex noster, tu solus nostros es miseratus errores, Patri oboediens ductus es ad crucifigendum, ut agnus mansuetus ad occisionem. Tibi gloria Hosanna: tibi triumphus et victoria: tibi summae laudis et honoris corona.
Antiphon
Hail, our King! You, with only pity for our sins, was led, in obedience to your Father, to be crucified, and as a gentle lamb to the slaughter. To you be glory, Hosanna; to you be triumph and victory; to you the crown of highest praise and honour.
Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison.
Pater noster ...
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Our Father ...
John 19: 6, 15-17
When the chief priests and the guards saw [Jesus] they cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him. I find no guilt in him." ... They cried out, "Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your king?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha.
Responsoria
V. Posuit in eo Dominus iniquitatem omnium nostrum.
R. Propter scelus populi sui percussit eum.
V. Vere languores nostros ipse portavit
R. Et dolores nostros ipse portavit.
Responsory
V. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
R. For the wickedness of his people has he struck him.
V. Surely he has born our infirmities.
R. And carried our sorrows.
Reflection
So Jesus takes up his Cross, and we do not just watch but follow. And as he commands, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24) I call it a ‘command’ because in the self-sacrificial bearing of the cross we share with Christ, we find the consummation of the greatest commandment, to love God and neighbour. Yet not all the burdens that we bear in the course of our lives qualify as crosses. A skipped birthday brunch because you are lectoring at Mass; abstinence on Fridays; praying grace before meals in public – none of these or our many grouses are the burden of the cross we are asked to bear. Not even all suffering is a cross. There is a need to discern the difference between the acceptance of suffering that is our due for our many sins, and that suffering which is God’s gift for our participation in the redemptive suffering of the Saviour. The former we must accept, with true contrition for our sins, as just reparation and penance; in this way hoping never to repeat our errors and praying before God that our suffering may alleviate some of the temporal punishment our sins have earned us, and so lessen our period of purgation before we enter the glory of Heaven. The latter we must embrace, as Christ embraced the Cross: not for our own sakes nor our own salvation, but that others, even our enemies, may be saved.
V. Domine, exaudi orationem meam.
R. Et clamor meus ad te veniat.
Oratio
DOMINE Iesu Christe, qui de caelis ad terram de sinu Patris descendisti, et sanguinem tuum pretiosum in remissionem peccatorum nostrorum fudisti: te humiliter deprecamur, ut in die iudicii ad dexteram tuam audire mereamur: VENITE BENEDICTI. Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo Patri in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
V. Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come before you
Prayer
O LORD Jesus Christ, who out of the bosom of the Father descended from heaven to earth, and shed your most Precious Blood for the remission of our sins; we humbly beseech you, that in the day of judgment we may be found worthy to stand at your right hand, and to hear you say to us, "Come, blessed ones." You, who live and reign with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.
