Stations of the Cross. Paul Claudel

Transcription

1

2 Stations of the Cross Paul Claudel

3 1. Jesus Is Condemned to Death. It is finished! We have judged God and condemned him to death. We do not wish to have Jesus among us anymore. He bothers us. We have no king but Caesar! We have no law but gold and blood. Crucify him, if you will, but rid us of him! Take him away! Tolle! Tolle! Such a shame! But since it must be done, let him be sacrificed, and Barabbas released to us! On the high judgment-place Pilate sits. Have you nothing to say? he cries. But Jesus will not answer. Then Pilate: In him I find no guilt: yet, bah! Let him die if such is your will. I surrender him to you. Ecce homo! Behold Him, clothed in purple, a crown upon his head. His blood-stained, tearful eyes meet ours in one last plea. What can we do? We cannot bear him any longer, A scandal for the Jews; a folly unto us. Sentence is passed; nothing is missing: 'tis writ in Hebrew, Latin, Greek We see the crowd that shouts, the judge who washes clean his hands.

4 2. Jesus Is Burdened with the Cross They clothe him once again and bring him the cross. Hail, O Cross, ries Jesus, I have long desired you! See, O Christian, and tremble! This the solemn hour When Jesus takes up for the first time the eternal cross. This the fulfillment, today, of that tree in Paradise! Behold, O sinner, the work of your sin. There is no crime without a God impressed upon it, And no cross without Christ! Yes, man s isery is great; but we have nothing to say for ourselves, Because God has now taken it up, and he has not come to explain but to fulfill. Jesus accepts the cross as we receive the Sacred Host. As Jere iah says, We ga e hi ood for read. How huge that awful cross; how enormous and difficult! Unyielding, painful, hard, A senseless sinner's weight. To bear it step by step till one shall die thereon! Do you go forth to bear it, Lord Jesus, alone? With patience may I bear what share you give me. Each one must bear the cross Before the cross bears him.

5 3. Jesus Falls for the First Time Forward! Victims and executioners at once All moving towards Calvary. Then God, dragged by a rope around his neck, At once stumbles and falls to the earth. What say you, O Lord, at your first fall? And now that you experience it, what thoughts come to mind, This moment when you fall and this overloaded burden beats you down? What of this ground you yourself made? Alas, not only the way of good is harsh, The way of evil is also treacherous. You cannot walk straight, but must go from stone to stone; Your feet often falter, but your heart presses on. Ah, Lord, by your two sacred knees, Those two knees which have failed you at once, By the grou d s su essful a ush, Because of a false step, because of the earth that has failed you, Save us from that first sin committed by surprise!

6 4. Jesus Meets His Mother Mothers, who saw in death your first and only born, Recall that night, the infant's last his helpless groans, The water he tries to drink, the ice, the rising fever, And death hopelessly advancing. Put on again his tiny shoes, his little clothes, He will be taken from you back to earth again. Farewell, my infant sweet, and flesh of my flesh. This fourth station is Mary who accepts all in full. On a street corner she waits for him, the Treasure of all poverty. Tears do not dim her eyes; her mouth is parched. She says nothing, only looks at Jesus who comes. She accepts; She accepts once more. Her heart, strong and sure, holds back her cry; She says nothing, only looks at Jesus who comes. The mother sees her Son; the Church her Redeemer. Her heart turns almost violently towards him, As the shout of a dying soldier. She stays standing before God and offers her heart as a book. No part of it knows refusal nor drawing back. There is nothing in her pierced heart that rejects or refuses, And as God himself is here, so she is present. She accepts, and looks at this son conceived in her womb. She says nothing, Only looks at the Saint of saints.

7 5. Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus to Carry His Cross The moment comes at length when one cannot go on. It is then that our paths cross, And you allow us as well, even by force, to be used to carry your cross. So Simon of Cyrene was ordered to bear this beam of wood. With strength he seizes it and falls in behind Jesus, So no part of the cross drags and so that nothing is lost on the way.

8 6. Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus The disciples all have fled. Even Peter has denied him in a moment of impulse. Hurling herself into the midst of insults and the threat of death, A woman draws near and takes His Face between her hands. Teach us, Veronica, to defy human fear. Because he for whom Christ is not just an image, But a true person, Becomes suspicious and unwanted for the rest of mankind. His project of life is different, his motives different from those of the others. There is always something in him that escapes them And speaks of another world. A man who says his Rosary and dares to confess his sin; Who fasts on Fridays and can be seen among the women at Mass; The sight is laughable and shocking, amusing, yet far too irritating. Let him beware, for we are watching him; Let him step warily, because he is a sign For every Christian, though unworthy, is a true image of his Master; And his appearance hints at a reflection Of God s Fa e i his heart, terri le a d triu pha t. Let us see once more, Veronica, The face of the Holy Wayfarer In the linen you have gathered it into. That sacred cloth imprints this Gatherer of grapes, On the day of his drunkenness, So that this likeness ever more may be seen, Made of his blood, his tears, and our spittle.

9 7. Jesus Falls for the Second Time No stone has caused it, nor the rope pulled at his neck, The soul itself grows weak and suddenly falls. O years of middle age! O sin of one's own will! When love lacks its North, and faith its starry sky, Because the way is long and the end far off, Because we are completely alone and there is no consolation. O heavy-weighted time! Secret disgust that sickens self With the strict and inflexible command of our wooden companion. Falling, like a swimmer, we extend our two arms at once, and we don t fall to our knees, but on our face! The body falls, yes, but the soul has also consented. Save us from the second fall Committed willingly through boredom.

10 8. Jesus Consoles the Women of Jerusalem Before climbing the mountain one last time, Jesus raises his hand towards those who follow him: Some poor, sorrowful women With their little ones in their arms. Let us not limit ourselves at looking, Let us listen to Jesus who also speaks to us. It is no mere man who raises his hand in this pitiful scene: It is God who suffered for our salvation, Not just in a painting. So this man is Almighty God So it is! Yes, there was a day when God himself suffered all this for us. What, then, is sin, that required such a high price for our ransom? Is man s salvation such a small thing, if the Son Had to be ripped from God s womb for it to be achieved? If this is what happens in heaven, what is it like in hell? If it is thus for green wood, what will happen when the wood is dry?

11 9. Jesus Falls for the Third Time Again I fall. This marks the end. I could not raise myself if I wanted. For I have been crushed as a grape, and man, whom I bear on my shoulders, Is too heavy. I have done wrong and fallen man is too heavy! Still! For it is easier to lie face down than stay standing, Easier to die than live, To be upon the cross than underneath it! Save us, O Lord, from this third fall, that of despair. No one is lost while it remains to drink the cup of death. I have finished bearing the cross, but the nails await! A third time Jesus falls; but at the summit of Calvary.

12 10. Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments Behold the threshing floor where divine wheat is bruised. God is disrobed; the veil of the Temple torn in two. A hand is laid on God and all flesh suffers shock. Fear paralyzes creation's deepest depths. And now, after they have taken his seamless tunic and clothes, Let us lift our eyes, And dare to look at Jesus, all pure. They have left you nothing, Lord, for they have taken all, Even the garments on your back. They plucked the robe from you, as today They snatch from the monk his habit, from the consecrated virgin her veil. Nothing is left wherewith he might clothe himself. In naked helplessness, as naked as a worm, Without defense he stands, exposed to sight of men. What, this your Christ? This mocked, derided one? This wretched man begrimed, a mass of wounds and sores, A case for psychologists and for the police? Tauri pingues obsederunt me. Libera me, Domine, de ore canis. He is not Christ, nor Son of Man; He is not God. His gospel is a lie; his Father is not in heaven. A fool! A fake! Let him speak! Silence the man! The High Priest's servant strikes; Judas gives a kiss. They have taken everything. But there remains your robe of blood; They have taken everything. But still that gaping wound is Thine. God is hidden, But here stands the Man of Sorrows.

13 God is hidden, But he is my brother who cries. By your humiliation, Lord, by your disgrace, Have mercy on the conquered, on the weak overcome by the strong! By the horror of this last clothing they strip from you, Have mercy on all the wounded! On the child whom doctors wish to operate on for the third time; On the bleeding tramp who must change his bandages; On the humiliated husband; on the son by his dying mother. Have pity on this terrible love Which we must uproot from our hearts.

14 11. Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross Behold, God is no longer with us. He is on the ground. The frenzied pack has taken him by the throat like a stag. So you have come! You are really with us, Lord! They have sat upon you, their knee upon your heart. This hand that the executioner twists is the right hand of the Almighty! They have bound the Lamb by its feet; they have nailed down the Omnipresent. They mark with chalk on the cross his height and arm span. A d he he tastes of our ails, e ll see his fa e. Eternal Son, whose boundary is your Infinity alone, Here it is, then, with us, this narrow place that you have coveted! Here is Elijah stretched out lying on the dead boy, Here is the throne of David and the glory of Solomon, Here is the bed of our love with you, powerful and hard! It is difficult for God to make himself fit our scale. They pull! And the half-dislocated body cracks and cries, He is stretched as in a press, he is hideously butchered. So that the Prophet might be confirmed who foretold it in these words: They ha e pier ed y ha ds a d feet. They ha e u ered all y o es. You are caught, Lord, and can no longer escape. You are nailed on the cross by the hands and by the feet. I have no other answer to seek in heaven, as the heretic and the madman. This God is enough for me, held between four spikes!

15 12. Jesus Dies on the Cross He has suffered, it is true; but now he is about to die. The huge cross, in the night, quivers softly with its breathing God. Everything is here. Let just the Instrument do his work: To squeeze and stretch his capacity to suffer Which, like a fountain, flows from his body, From his soul and the Hypostatic Union. He is alone, as Adam in the garden. For three hours, alone, tasting the Wine, That invincible ignorance of man before the hidden God. The guest of our flesh feels the weight of the flesh, And little by little his head falls lower. He cannot see his mother and the Father abandons him. He tastes the cup and the death that slowly runs through his veins. Is the bitter wine mixed with water not enough for you So that you suddenly look up and cry, Sitio? You thirst, Lord? Are you speaking to me? Do you still need me and my sins? Am I the only one missing so that all might be fulfilled?

16 13. Jesus Is Taken Down from the Cross The Passion ends; the Compassion continues. Christ is no longer on the cross He is with Mary, in her arms. As one day she received him, according to the promise, Now she receives him when all has been fulfilled. The Christ who has suffered before the eyes of all Is again hidden in the womb of his Mother. The Church receives her beloved in her arms. What God has done, what his mother has done, And what man has done All this with Mary, beneath her mantle forever. She holds him; she sees; she touches; she prays; She cries; she wonders. She is shroud and ointment; She is tomb and myrrh. She is priest and altar, chalice and Cenacle. Here the cross ends and the Tabernacle begins.

17 14. Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb The tomb in which Christ, Having suffered unto death, is laid; The cave, hastily opened, So it can reveal its night Before the Pierced One awakes and rises to the Father; It is not simply a new burial place It is my flesh, It is man, your creature, deeper than the earth itself. Now that his heart is open And his hands pierced, There is not a single cross among men To which his body does not mold itself; There is no sin among men That his wounds do not heal. Lord of the World! Come to us From the altar where you hide yourself. Come, Lord! For your creature is ready And my heart has been opened to its depths.