The Stations of the Cross, a way of sorrows and of love
by Francis Phillips, TCW:
The Way of the Cross by Caryll Houselander; Gracewing:
WE Christians are sometimes admonished to ‘be in the world but not of the world’. This is a hard balance to strike, especially in our country today where the Christian faith, the foundation of our once estimable civilisation, is often held in contempt when it is not ignored. Still, at the great feast of Easter it is good to remember where our true priorities lie: not in being cast down by the follies of the Caesars who dominate our worldly lives, but in following the way of the cross – especially in Lent – in order to share with Christ in the glory of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
With this in mind I have been reading a newly republished series of meditations by the late mystic, wood-carver, illustrator and writer Caryll Houselander (1901-1954). First published in 1955, they reflect on the fourteen Stations of the Cross, the ancient Catholic tradition of following the footsteps of Christ on his via dolorosa. Some of these Stations are scriptural, such his condemnation by Pilate, the help given to him by Simon of Cyrene, his meeting with the women of Jerusalem and the brutal practicalities of his crucifixion. Others, such as his meeting with his mother, his falling three times under the weight of the cross and his encounter with Veronica, a holy woman who wiped his face, come simply from Catholic piety. They are all stark reminders of the cost of our salvation.
Houselander’s approach has nothing of conventional piety about it. She is vivid, passionate, direct: ‘Every human being alive is on the road to death,’ she begins, before reminding readers that the Stations are ‘a showing not simply of the way of sorrows which we are all destined to walk . . . but of the way of love which heals sorrow’ – if we would follow in Christ’s footsteps and imitate him.
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