Station 9: Jesus Dies on the Cross

Music: Et incarnatus est from Bach B minor Mass

The reading is from the Gospel of Mark.

Mark 15:33-41


33 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 At three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 35 When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, "Listen, he is calling for Elijah." 36 And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down." 37 Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was God's Son!" 40 There were also women looking on from a distance; among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 These used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.


The enfleshment of the Word, the assumption of the human condition is now laid bare, illuminated paradoxically by the darkness. The loneliness, touching on abandonment, is felt despite the presence of so many people, with even his women friends perhaps on the edges of his vision. The heavy weight of what Jesus has taken on challenges us to see in it the heavy weight of God’s glory. There is only the word of the centurion which tells us that there is something to see here which is not an appalling failure.

What do I see? Do I see glory here? Do I see kingship? Do I come near or stand far off? Am I at least fully present?

Dearest Jesus. . .