THIRD STATION: JESUS FALLS THE FIRST TIME

The first fall of the righteous and the utter confusion surrounding it.  The ego becomes terribly scared when a striving person experiences that the cross which he had once thought mastered, comes crashing heavily over him, and as he discovers himself doing that which he had once condemned in others.

Chances and grace happen to confidence, and when grace is withdrawn, no man can stand. A man stands because the Mystery has surrounded him with an environment to make him stand. Withdraw these factors and he falls like everyone else. It is foolish to boast, and be careful when condemning others. No man is strong when grace is withdrawn.

The first fall either purifies a soul or kills it. There often results a deep struggle of conscience where the allurement of the sin involved crashes on the soul, pulls it to the ground and wants to keep it fallen under its malaise. To sin is human, but to persevere (callously) in it is devilish, so says St. Theresa. Many not only fall prey but remain preyed to the fall of their sins. Hell is filled with deadened consciences.

How will modern man refrain from justifying his acts? How, bedevilled continually by the gravity of sin, can he refuse to succumb to the entropy of this first fall, amidst the failings of sex, the lies with money, the levity with murder, which have so much scarred consciences in our age, such that heaven weeps to see many missing out of the vast opportunities after a first fall. 

Progress of a soul does not consist in not falling, it lies within a struggle. Many unfortunately opt for the Judasic method of the first fall instead of the Petrine type. They succumb to entropy. 

The first mortal fall may probably happen to most. Do not stifle the rumblings of your soul, do not excuse it, refrain from avoiding the sense of sin, do not deny your infidelities, avoid being a party to those who bank their evils thereby causing the gradual corruption and degradation of humanity. Struggle against the fallen tide of your sin, and rise.

Beg the Lord to know your sins, do not run from them. Running away was the primal reaction of Adam to his fallen state and see what its costed us.  Look yourself in the mirror and tell it as it is, say: ‘I am a miserable sinner, help me Lord’ and simply trust in His mercy. This is what captures the heart of God (Luke 18:9-14)

SECOND STATION: JESUS CARRIES HIS CROSS

Before death, is time, during which man would have to shoulder the cross of waiting or toiling. Cross is the most meaningful subject ever, because it is work in its entirety. It is what the entire cosmos does, it is one bunch of dying and self-giving, it is also the very nature of God. A curse with Adam, but a blessing with Christ. No cross, no crown.

Love is a verb, an action word, everything moves, and without love, the cross is worthless and wasted. This cross pervades everyday living; work, challenges, friction, suffering, pains, are all fabricated within man’s immediate experience, yet, it is not in his flawed nature to carry a cross. Having done everything digitally and technologically possible to ease tasks, yet toil has stubbornly increased because of lack of love.

The global motive of Social Media has aggravated mental and emotional pain. The trauma of broken relationship and unemployment lingers. How about the pressures of work, the challenges of compliance, the complications of balancing work and life, and the subtle enslavement of the 99% by the 1% for meagre pays which has made multitudes abandon life for wasted toils.

A wasted cross is not beneficial to the sufferer. Modern man has forgotten how to live because very few know how to benefit from the cross. Reality has become much of a needless pain, for, by avoiding the cross, we toil.  God did not avoid the cross, so how can we presume to? Since we cannot avoid it lets make the best of it, how?

There are lots of crosses out there and you’ll be overwhelmed carrying just any cross. Do not waste your works and sufferings. Shoulder the easiest, most sustainable and most efficient cross there is: the cross of the Christ Jesus, and with proper understanding, its better carried in our days.

He invites: ‘Come to Me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, shoulder my yoke… my yoke is easy, and My burden is light (Mt 11:28-30)’.

As sin abounds, grace also abounds much more (Rom 5: 20). Never has the attainment of heaven been so easy than in this our evil and adulterous age (Mt 16:4). It is true, hell has been let loose, but more so, heaven has been let out. Know where to find heaven and make the most of it.

The great secret of this age is about understanding the summary of the cross by reliving the entire  journey of our salvation through heartfelt devotions, by entreating the Holy Spirit within a Marian life, where Christ will be begotten in us as at the beginning of our salvation.

Having done this, do everything to know the Eucharistic Christ, in order to enter His Pasch. This is the Work to master par excellence (Jn 6:27). Go deeper still and understand the mystery behind His Most Sacred Heart, the source of God’s covenant of Divine Mercy, and then rest inside this mercy in confidence, without fear of any condemnation (Rom 8: 1).

These practices, done in spirit and in truth, broadens the heart and produces an underlying reason for love and mercy which enables man to practice authentic charity and reconciliation, and this is what produces the plausible effect of leveraging and mitigating the cross. It wouldn’t get any easier within this plane of existence. Carry your cross then and do not complain, for whatever you go through thereafter could have been worse.