And after they had mocked Him, they took off the purple cloak from Him, and put on Him His own garments, and led Him away to crucify Him. And as they led Him away, they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon, who passed by coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and of Rufus; him they forced to take up His cross to carry after Jesus. - Matthew 27:31,32; Mark 15:20,21; Luke 23:26; John 19:16
1. Catholic devotion lingers over this last journey of Our Lord from the hall of Pilate to the hill of Calvary, and one may well in meditation follow Him step by step as far as one is able. The Evangelists tell the story of this journey in the fewest words, as if they were anxious to hurry over it; no doubt the journey itself was a hurried thing, the enemies of Our Lord being only too eager, now that the doom had been definitely secured, to have everything over and done with as soon as possible. There must be no delay, no hindrance; Pilate might again change his mind at the last moment; and besides, the Paschal hour was coming on. The distance from the hall to the hill was but half a mile; but the streets were crowded, there were many turnings and corners, there was some confusion in the making of the procession with its combined Jews and Romans and its three victims, and, above all, the exhausted state of Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself made them wonder whether He would reach the place of execution alive.
2. So the hurried march began. Tradition has filled up many gaps, and we may well include them here. They restored to Him His clothes, not so much out of humanity, but that He might be the more easily recognized on the road, and because the clothing of an executed man was the perquisite of the executioners. He received His cross; there was joy mixed with sorrow in the gift. From this solemn moment; with this weapon He was to conquer; this was to be His standard, for each and all of His followers to embrace. He went a little further; He stumbled and fell; for there in front of Him was something which had caught His eye, and had shaken Him with emotion. It was His Mother, standing with a few companions at a corner of the street. Where had she been all this time? Saints tell us many details. They saw one another; probably there was no word; but we can well imagine her "Behold the hand maid of the Lord" struggling with her "Son, why hast Thou done so to us?" as she watches her Child pass by.
3. Then the strength of Our Lord begins to give out. He must be assisted, or He will die on the way. A labouring man of Cyrene meets the procession. He has no interest in this business; it is to him only one more out break of a cruel Eastern mob, and he would gladly pass it by. But he is stopped, and "forced to take up His cross to carry after Jesus." He is annoyed; he is ashamed; he is insulted; he resents being made the servant of a criminal. Yet we are sure that before he had laid that cross down he had become a follower of Our Lord in a fuller sense; for the Evangelists linger with love over his name, and over the names of his two sons, telling us without any doubt that they are among their friends to whom the whole Church would be eternally indebted. We live our day; we do little things and great; one day we walk down a street, and a sufferer meets us, and a cross is flung on our shoulders and we resent it, and that is the moment of our lives.
Summary
1. The scene of the Way of the Cross, and the circumstances, should be taken in detail.
2. The first stations: the receiving of the cross, the first fall, the meeting with the Mother.
3. Simon of Cyrene is forced to take up the cross to carry after Jesus.
- from The Crown of Sorrow, by Archbishop Alban Goodier