Can You Escape What No One Has Avoided? Jesus Falls a Second Time: The Seventh Station

The Seventh Station: Jesus Falls the Second Time

Reflection: 

It was our weaknesses that He carried, our sufferings that He endured, while we thought of Him as stricken, as One struck by God and afflicted. But He was 

 pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon Him was the punishment that makes us whole, by His stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the Lord laid upon Him the guilt of us all. 

(Is.53:4-6)

Meditation:

Though he was harshly treated, He submitted and opened not His mouth; Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, He was silent and uttered no cry. When He was cut off from the land of the living, and smitten for the sin of His people, A grave was assigned Him among the wicked and a burial place with evildoers, Though He had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood. (Is. 53:7,9)

From a sculpture based on the Shroud of Turin

From Book 2, Chapter 12, of The Imitation of Christ
Do you think you can escape what no mortal has been able to avoid? Which of the saints in the world has been without the cross and tribulation? For not even Jesus Christ our Lord was one hour without the anguish of His Passion, so long as He lived: ”It was fitting for The Messiah to suffer,” He said, “and to rise from the dead, and so enter into his glory (Luke 24:46).” And how do you seek another way than this royal Way, which is the Way of the Holy Cross?

Pray: You shared in our weaknesses and accepted our guilt. Grant us the favor of rejoicing over our human weaknesses, so that in all we do, Your strength, dwelling in us, may be shown to all others. Amen.