Throughout his “look at Jesus,” as Father Martin defines the book in the Introduction, he points to the emotional connection one can make with a site that is “very probably” authentic. In the case of Golgotha, not only is the “site compatible with the topographical data supplied by the Gospels,” but “the consistent and uncontested tradition of the Jerusalem community, which held liturgical celebrations at the site until AD 66,” attests to its probable authenticity. As he has shown in each of the chapters thus far, the opportunity afforded by a pilgrimage to connect physically with the details and events recorded in the Gospels crystalizes the realities of Jesus’s life for the pilgrim. Epitomizing this type of experience is Father Martin’s account of reaching down into a cavity under an elaborate altar and touching the cold rock of Golgotha.
Concerning the Via Dolorosa, Father Martin notes that he found himself “largely unmoved” by the Stations of the Cross, although he had “experienced more powerful emotions when praying with the stations in local parishes.” Still, he acknowledges that the same path has “moved some of … [his] friends to tears.” He points out with humility that “Grace is mysterious. So is pilgrimage.”
Father Martin devotes a couple of pages of the chapter to the implications of Jesus’s “scream” of “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” Comparing Jesus’s situation with that of Mother Teresa, and by implication with what spiritual writers call a “dark night,” he points out the important difference between feeling abandoned by God and succumbing to despair. The idea that God could feel abandoned by God, a Son by his Father, with whom he has experienced the fullest union possible, while very troubling (perhaps even shocking), can also offer hope to anyone who has felt completely alone and deserted.
Father Martin mentions the women who witnessed Jesus’s death and notes the importance of remaining with someone who is suffering even when we can do nothing to alleviate the suffering.
While “[m]any meditations on the Cross tend to focus on Jesus’s physical suffering,” Father Martin asks us to consider the other kinds of pain Jesus suffered:
Abandonment: His disciples flee—they cannot go where Jesus is going.
Loneliness: Jesus has no one other than the Father to whom he can turn.
Betrayal: Judas Iscariot, one of his closest friends, betrays Jesus. Father Martin explores the possible motives for this betrayal, but acknowledges the mystery of sin—“Why do we do what we know is wrong?”
Humiliation and contempt: This, the humblest of men, still had to bear the humiliation of of being treated as a criminal and the contempt of neighbors and religious authorities for
his message of God’s love.
Seeing others suffer because of your suffering: We can probably all relate to the pain Jesus felt at seeing his mother suffer over his suffering.
Seeing His great work ended: Father Martin considers the possibility that Jesus may have wondered, given the behavior of his disciples, of whether his work would continue; however, he also suggests that “Jesus’s clear establishment of a church…with Peter as its head” argues against this possibility.
Abandonment: His disciples flee—they cannot go where Jesus is going.
Loneliness: Jesus has no one other than the Father to whom he can turn.
Betrayal: Judas Iscariot, one of his closest friends, betrays Jesus. Father Martin explores the possible motives for this betrayal, but acknowledges the mystery of sin—“Why do we do what we know is wrong?”
Humiliation and contempt: This, the humblest of men, still had to bear the humiliation of of being treated as a criminal and the contempt of neighbors and religious authorities for
his message of God’s love.
Seeing others suffer because of your suffering: We can probably all relate to the pain Jesus felt at seeing his mother suffer over his suffering.
Seeing His great work ended: Father Martin considers the possibility that Jesus may have wondered, given the behavior of his disciples, of whether his work would continue; however, he also suggests that “Jesus’s clear establishment of a church…with Peter as its head” argues against this possibility.
The important conclusion to a consideration of all the physical and emotional sufferings of Jesus is that “Jesus did not waver. It must have been an enormous temptation to vacillate in the face of this mountain of suffering. But out of obedience to what the father is asking he does not.”
The chapter concludes with the observation that “Jesus is resolute. Like his mother at the Annunciation, he says—perhaps not knowing fully what it will mean—yes.”
Questions to Ponder
- Like the women at the cross, can we stay with someone who is suffering, even when we can offer nothing other than our presence and our acknowledgement of what he or she is enduring?
- Have we experienced a level of loneliness and abandonment in our lives that leaves room only for a faith in God’s love that saves us from despair? Have we been, or can we be, sensitive to a neighbor who might be experiencing such a dark night?
Bill Casey
I have been blessed to have a large extended family as my mother is one of eleven children, and at our last family reunion 10 years ago, there were 120 relatives present (and, we are more than that now) I have been blessed to see in this family beautiful examples of "staying with someone who is suffering even when we can offer nothing than our presence". One example that I consider a blessing to have witnessed is the death of my grandmother, with ten of her eleven children being present at her bedside as she struggled to take her last breath. I have been blessed to witness my mother and her four sisters sitting at the bedside of several of their dying siblings. I have been blessed to see my mother, last year at 90 years old, sitting at the bedside of her 95 year old sister for a whole month while she was on Hospice care, and being at her bedside with her sister's children, when her sister took her last breath. I hope and pray that these examples can give me the grace and strength to do the same for someone, if I am called to do so.
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