Via Crucis, Felix Anton Scheffler - 1757
Church of Saint Martin - Ischl, Seeon (Diocese of München) - Germany

TWELFTH STATION
Jesus dies on the Cross
  

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

From the Gospel according to John 19:25-27

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.  When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother:
“Woman, behold your son!”
Then he said to the disciples:
“Behold your mother!”.
And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

From the Gospel according to Matthew 27:45-46, 50

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice:
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”,
that is:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 
And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

MEDITATION

So the cross is not God’s death,
but the moment when the fragile shell
of the humanity taken up by God
is shattered
and a flood of love bursts forth [1]
to renew all humanity.

From the cross was born the new life of Saul,
from the cross was born the conversion of Augustine,
from the cross was born the joyful poverty of Francis of Assisi,
from the cross was born the radiant goodness of Vincent de Paul;
from the cross was born the heroism of Maximilian Kolbe,
from the cross was born the amazing charity of Mother Teresa of Calcutta,
from the cross was born the courage of John Paul II,
from the cross was born the revolution of love:
so the cross is not the death of God,
but the birth of his Love in our world.

Blessed be the cross of Christ!