The prophet Mohammed was not only an insightful preacher he was also a capable and quite successful military leader. Within his lifetime, most of Asia Minor and much of North Africa had been wrested from either Christian or Zoroastrian allegiance to continue for many centuries as solid Islamic territory. Finally, Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain in 1492 and the Battle of Lepanto off Italy in 1571 forced a halt to Moslem advancement. Certainly, attempts at reclaiming the Holy Land were ventured several times during the Middle Ages as the often-misguided history of the Crusades testifies. For a stretch of 100 years or so, during the twelfth century, the Holy Land was indeed open to zealous Christians eager to visit the sites of Christ’s earthly sojourn. Obviously, a trip to the Levant from Europe was lengthy and expensive, limiting the pilgrimage to the hearty and the well-to-to.
Largely under the influence of the Franciscan order who had held sway in the Holy Land for a couple of centuries, local communities in Europe began to erect representations of the highlights of a visit to Jerusalem so that all the pious, especially the poor, could duplicate Christ’s final hours by walking a path visually similar to the original Via Dolorosa in Israel. The number of stops or stations varied at first but was finally settled at 14, most with Scriptural foundation, others with an honorable tradition. In 1686, in answer to their petition, Pope Innocent XI granted to the Franciscans the right to erect stations within their churches. In 1731, Pope Clement XII extended to all churches the right to have the stations, provided that a Franciscan father erected them, with the consent of the local bishop. In 1862 this right was extended to all bishops throughout the church.
The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross depict 14 events in the final hours of Jesus’ life that are meditated upon during a prayer service during which the leader and his servers walk between tableaux of these various occurrences. Of the 14 events, 10 have biblical sources and four are from pious memory. The traditional sequence follows this order: Jesus is condemned to death by Pontius Pilate (Lk 23:25); Jesus takes up his cross (Lk 23:26); Jesus falls the first time (tradition); Jesus meets his afflicted mother (Jn19:25); Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry his Cross (Lk23:26); Veronica wipes the face of Jesus (tradition); Jesus falls the second time (tradition); Jesus speaks to the women of Jerusalem (Lk23:27); Jesus falls the third time (tradition); Jesus is stripped of his garments (Lk23:34); Jesus is nailed to the cross(Lk23:33); Jesus dies on the cross (Lk23:46); Jesus is taken down from the cross (Lk23:53); Jesus is placed in the tomb (Lk 23:53).
Both Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI approved an entirely Biblical Way of the Cross but most parish church Lenten services still follow the time-honored fourteen events that match the sometimes-magnificent artwork that extends the stations along a church’s side walls. The stations are heavily indulgenced, requiring that thoughtful prayer be pondered at each station and that the leader of prayer at least must move from tableau to tableau. The indulgence is attached not to pictorial representation but to the Cross affixed to it. While the devout may offer their own personal thoughts while moving from station to station, the venerable station prayers of St. Alphonsus Liguori have been popular for two centuries and the Scriptural Stations from Barton & Cotton have become quite standard in many places.
The original Gospel message – the kerygma – as preached by St. Peter and the other original apostles and disciples was most certainly the message of Christ’s final days, even final hours, highlighted in the Stations. Pope St. John Paul II stressed the centrality of the kerygma in his 1990 encyclical Redemptoris Missio: “The subject of proclamation is Christ who was crucified, died, and is risen: through him is accomplished our full and authentic liberation from evil, sin and death; through him God bestows “new life” that is divine and eternal. This is the “Good News” which changes man and his history, and which all peoples have a right to hear (Romans 4).” The Stations of the Cross parade before the mind’s eye the final saving deeds of Jesus Christ and their significance: the horror of sin that occasioned Christ’s agonizing death; the depth of Christ’s love for the hapless sinner. Then coupled with the triumph of the Resurrection and the commission to bring this Good News to the world, the Stations of the Cross are a visit with the original Apostolic band: to see what they saw, to gain from what they learned, and to hand on to others the saving meaning of Christ’s bitter cross and his empty tomb.
