FOURTH STATION: JESUS MEETS HIS MOTHER

Jn 2: 1-12- She knew it. She willed it. She gave Him up for us. The Son clearly understood the meaning of the Mother’s proposal and the ultimate consequence of His gesture.

This invitation to die began privately at the Annunciation in Nazareth but was made public at the wedding in Cana, and these events point to the beginning of  death for God but a life for us. ‘My hour has not yet come…’(Jn 2:4). Christ hour of sacrifice was pushed forward by Mary’s proposal, to foster our salvation.  The power of Motherhood… Please honour your Mom.

She introduced Him into open miracle knowing fully the ultimate consequence. He was incarnated to die! It reflects an abandoned yes of Mary to the yes of God in delivering her Son up for the love of humanity. ‘Do whatever He tells you’ (Jn 2:5).

The Wedding at Cana, a narrative found only in the gospel of John, is an in-depth exposition of the dynamics of the Annunciation incidence for us (Lk 1: 26-38). This is the Evangelist’s manner of reflecting on related events which shows similar significance (Think also, of the dynamics of service and self-giving between the Synoptic Gospels’ Last Supper and the Evangelist’s washing of the Apostles’ feet).

The struggle with Mary is the struggle of many Moms who abort their babies. The difference? She sees, and she knows the consequences, but she let go of him for the love of God and humanity. Whereas, the abortion Mom little sees, she little knows, and she gives up her baby for the love of comfort and the System.

It’s tough on Moms. It takes gut to let a child stay or go. It is a temptation like Gethsemane, in an age where, at the tap of a finger, a woman can dismiss her baby according to her caprices. At that Gethsemane point, Mary looked outwards, but many of the Moms look inwards. They dread decreasing so that their babies may increase.

The dramatic turn of life where a goodwill can turn into a primordial regret. Remember, what goes around comes around.  If the virtue of today can haunt tomorrow, imagine then the consequences of a willed vice on a mother who means well but knows less.

But it is not the end of the world dear Mom, let no man condemn you. What makes Him God is that He brings meaningfulness out of meaninglessness, He creates out of nothing, He gives flesh and life to dry dead bones. How dare you think that the God who resurrected Christ cannot raise your Baby and bring victory to your remorse?

Stay at the heel of Mary and own up. Decide to make your child a Saint but accept your wrongdoing, speak with your child, beg him for your wrong, celebrate him on Holy Innocents, join Pro-life and fight his cause. It’s a sure bet, the eternal Virgin will guide you through a journey back and a reconciliation with your aborted baby and yourself.

Don’t wait for the consequence of a gullible action. Accept and embrace life willingly now to prevent an unwilling death later.

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.

FIRST STATION: JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH.

Have you ever experienced that very nervous period where your entire freedom rests on the capricious decision of one person, and when at last the worst was defined, and all that you have laboured for was gone in an instant?

That ‘all is lost’ period, is what every man, irrespective of class or creed, sooner or later, would have to experience. It is not ‘if ‘, but ‘when’, everything shall fail, and all shall experience that ‘it is finished’ moment called death.

This death is not simply physical, because change and decay become so very experiential. Life itself follows a certain entropy where freedom is often militated against by gravity and friction, because there pervades a certain karma that follows us all.

Death often happens through life. For instance, you burn the midnight oil, you fail; you toil in business, you lose; you labour to make your relationship work, he/she disappoints; you are devoted entirely to children, family and friends; they go. Life cannot be held on to, it’s got to be let go of, and each letting go is a condemnation unto death.

Being condemned, we are faced with a certain limbo of waiting, worsened when the waiting period is undefined. We become a Victim. Life then becomes an endless horizon when one literally becomes a dead man walking and waiting for time and chance to happen. This is tough.  

Life is a judgement, often spiced by the injustice and unfairness of the whole experience. Our ancestors messed things up, and we have also salted the corruption by our ego. The fallacy of the modern man is to think he can handle this vicissitude alone. Boast and the benchmark will simply be raised to crack your pride. Find out from Peter (Mt 26: 31-35). Eni ija o ba lo n pe ara e l’okunrin.

Take up arms and fight the unfair factor like Peter (Mt 26: 51-52) and you can delay your freedom, or not experience it at all. The impossibility of turning the other cheek (Lk 6:29) is meant to speed up that freedom. Just stay low and, stoop to conquer.

This condemnation, and waiting, is a prerequisite of a rebirth to freedom. It is the meaning of Baptism. The proper understanding and appreciation of which is the great Passover. It is an experiential ritual that every cult, esoteric or open, are initiation into, for, life experience itself is the only cult.

It is when this life is lived and experienced to its very depth that an everlasting freedom in its very summit can be derived, and it is only the Christ Jesus who alone has gone to the utmost depth of this death, body and blood, soul and divinity, and have come out of it alive through the Resurrection!

Listen deep within you and you will hear a sure whisper: ‘leave it with me’. At this point of loss take courage, look beyond the horizon and re-imagine, it’s all going to make sense soon.

Live the life of Christ, for, though Him, this experiential condemnation, that moment, when you must surrender everything - willingly or unwillingly- will be the commencement of wisdom and another life in its utmost zenith. 

TIME, SPACE, ENTROPY AND OUR SALVATION

During the Fall of Man, space and time seized becoming a unity , hence ‘time waits for no man’ and ‘time is not our friend’, but this ‘time, also heals all hurts’.  With time, Time gets tired of its speed and acceleration’, for those who know how to wait. Suurulere.

The model of this waiting is Mary. Hence, when time got tired and became spent, ‘at the fullness of time’, God was born of a woman. This is the genesis of authentic serendipity which happens to the meek and humble. 

How can we sinners, who leave amidst the conflict of time and space presume to do without Mary? Time, as we know it today, has become a big illusion in Mary, by her faith. ‘Be still and know that I am God’. It all happens with the faith and surrender of a woman. 

In our age, the strategic disposition of the Church is to station Mary as the Mother of God within the genesis of time illusion, (January the 1st) and ultimately defeat this entropy that exist in the mind of man as a result of faithlessness. ‘He who does not gather with me scatters’ so says the Lord. 

A popular Scientist, in describing the hopelessness of correcting entropy said the issue is like a scrambled omelette which can never become a hatched egg 🍳 🥚 . That ‘impossibility’ is precisely what Christ has come to correct through the faithfulness and humility of Mary.

TEACHING: A SUPERIOR ACT OF CHARITY

The manner this has been deeply impressed on me now makes the difference . There is a saying: ‘It is not so much giving men fish but teaching them how to fish that counts’. When we give men fish (which we should rightly do) we have only practised a non sustaining, ephemeral, and risky action ( love is a risk anyway) , which would probably come back to haunt in this plane of existence. Christ’s efforts at miracles often hardened their hearts, because man is corrupted.  The better strategy is to teach and perform the principal task of a teacher: letting go, even to the point of death. 

The moment Mary introduced Jesus into open miracle was the commencement of His passion. He had always constantly performed miracles beforehand but was so disinterested that no one knew the source of goodness in there lives. Only deepest faith like Mary can perceive that miracles happen continuously , but His self manifestation at Canaan only pointed to Calvary. Mary, for the love of humanity, you showed your Son the pathway to Calvary. Oore ni’won. But, God does not know how to measure gifts, it is in His nature to give over abundantly. Ko dun, ko po, ko pe, Oluwa lo n fun ni I se.

Back to our point. Teaching is very far superior to material giving. That is why Christ is the ultimate Teacher who sets Himself towards teaching others. Material miracles often comes only after He has set himself to teach them. 

The loftiest vocation is that of a teacher. This purpose informed why the Apostles devoted themselves to teaching and left the lower tasks to Deacons. But 99.99% of us are more interested in the latter because of its immediate gratification. 

The burden of application of what has been taught, weighs upon the learner. If we can apply successfully, it yields what Economists call ‘compound interest ’, that is life . Christ said: not everyone who call me Lord Lord will be with Me, but those who do the will of My Father 

The application of Christ teaching often involves letting go, skinning ourselves (detachment) to arrive at the point of ‘compound interest ’. The reason why Christ admonished us not to call any man a teacher is the fact that others can only point the way. When we trust Him, He not only points the way , but follow through the way with us because He is the Way. This is what grace does. This is why He only is ‘O-ran-mo-nise-faya-ti’.

As in heaven, so on earth. The bulk of problems most Students face is not in the area of knowledge or critical analysis, but in the area of Application. That is why the Application aspect of study is left until the final year when the student has been sufficiently taught and supposedly mature. Few people can apply in the face of worldly catastrophes. That is why many graduates 🎓 go seeking the safe harbour of employment which is a partial risk of application. Entrepreneurship,  a tasking and risky endeavour is what really pushes knowledge to the utmost test, it really opens us up to the path of application and unlearning the learnt. Aye le, eniyan soro...

The bulk of this ‘do what I tell you’ winner that Christ hints is why Application is the key and why without His grace, Application is useless, and why without faith and trust in Him it is impossible to receive this grace. Faith comes first. The bulk of our Spiritual works should be geared towards this work and manner of seeing. Without Him we can do nothing.

The basis is not to stop giving, it is to understand that the superior work lies in teaching, especially in a teaching that involves letting go, in being detached, because every teacher is also a learner, and the bulk of this learning consists in detachment. A teacher should not force, he must respect the learner’s free will. Forcing plays according to rules and laws, and there is a karma with a teaching that uses force. You might have a sufficient broadened heart to cope with its boomerang, just as Christ did after He drove out His point by driving the traders from the temple, but we cannot arrive at the point of abundance without ‘poverty’. Steve Jobs counseled His Students to be foolish, to be hungry.. ‘Eni ti o se bi alaaru l’Oyingbo, ko le se bi Adegboro l’Oja Oba’ . But this detachment should not be forced (only on ourselves) ,  the learner should be allowed to arrive at experience in freedom.

Giving has to lead to teaching, teaching is useless without acquiring knowledge, knowledge is useless without application of what is learnt, Application is useless without cultivating a detached spirit , detachment is useless without grace, grace is impossible without faith in Christ the only authentic Teacher! And this faith will be unnecessary without a burning fire 🔥 of ❤️ love!

THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS : INTRODUCTION

Assume briefly, that you have heard nothing -or very little- about the Christian message and have entered a Church. What do you see?  

All that  imposes on you will be visible signs of sufferings and death. For instance, right ahead inside the Church you see the sculpture of a dead man on a cross. On her walls are lined portraits and paintings of vivid suffering, and in some you have actual graves of men literally buried. Without looking hard and far, the Church is simply a personification of sorrow and death.

Look hard and far enough, and by grace you can discover at the other end of the Church, across to the periphery, something upon which the Church, the world and the entire Civilisation is sustained: It is a Living Bread! This Bread is not made cheap, it comes from the Mass, which itself is an experiential death. It takes the death of God to be sustained in the Tabernacle.

True life can be discovered through the mystery of death, as personified by the Church. The story of suffering and death lining the Church’s interiors is an unwritten message about the mystery of love and life, and the paradox of death and life, where death is a transition to the eternal life of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the true life of the Church! That is why it is described as the source and summit of the Christian life by the Church (CCC 1324).

To reverse the Fall at Eden, we need to eat of the fruit of the tree of life, which is the Eucharist. But effort is required if we are to pass through the gate of Eden where this fruit is grown, because fiery angels with blazing swords have been stationed (Gen 3:24).  Without faith in Jesus the Christ, one can be consumed by the death personified within the Church, a necessary path to the tree of life. This path is the Way of the Cross!

The one lesson to be learnt about life is that without the cross, there can be no crown. One cannot separate love from suffering, freedom from toil, life from death. This is the great life’s Paradox.

How then can a modern person, filled with doubt, pleasure and sloth, come to term with this difficult rationale of the cross? This shall be my task during this Lenten Season: to journey in writing through the 14 Stations of the Passion of Our Lord from a modern-man perspective, and (hopefully) show the fact that, even in our modern age, the greatest means to freedom is the loving acceptance of Our Lord’s cross.

He invites us not to shoulder any cross but His’ (Mt 11:28-30), because His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. He will help us, He is Love and when we love, there is no suffering because, pain disappears.