Station 9 – Jesus Falls a Third Time
As the collection of small children and adults walked up to the Ninth Station, the children wailed, “Jesus fell again!” Their concern for Jesus was palpable. Over a dozen parishioners, young and old, were touring the outdoor Stations of the Cross under the guidance of Director of Family Ministries Happy Wilson. For two consecutive Sundays as part of St. George Church’s C 3:16 Family Ministry, Wilson had led families through the fourteen stations, discussing the colorful tiles depicting Jesus’s progression to crucifixion. She had concealed a plastic egg near each station which contained a symbol of the event on the tile. The children were immediately focused on finding the egg and identifying how it related to the tile. My granddaughters Corgan and Parker Bankey can still describe the things that were in the eggs, especially the ones they found.
Until their tour of the Stations of the Cross, most children’s perceptions of Easter revolved around new spring outfits, Easter egg hunts, and school holidays. Happy and positive, right? Although many of the children knew intellectually that Easter was about the resurrection of Christ, most had not absorbed the concept of the horrific suffering required to prepare Jesus for resurrection. On the second tour day as the children reviewed the Stations they had seen previously, their comments showed that they had gained a more profound understanding of the Easter reality.
Have we refrained from telling our children of the heinous nature of Jesus’s suffering because we thought they were too young to understand it or have we just assumed that they would “get it” with little explanation? Or have we waited for their spiritual studies teachers to impart the knowledge? Those of us adults who accompanied the children on the tour and heard their comments felt their compassion and empathy for Christ grow with their knowledge. Our children, even the littlest ones, can grasp and value the resurrection story.
I walked the Stations with the children and another time with a group of adults led by Father Ram. I wondered how many of us, including myself, think about the cross in terms of a nice piece of James Avery jewelry or the now-ubiquitous crucifix wall seen in many homes and work places. Have we sanitized our perception of the cross to be a wardrobe accessory instead a symbol of our Lord’s pain?
I would encourage everyone to take advantage of the lovely setting of the St. George courtyard to walk prayerfully through the Stations of the Cross and examine your own perceptions of Jesus’s pain. I know it has made me examine my own.
-Pam Piedfort