The value of The Way of the Cross

Yesterday we observed Good Friday with the Way of the Cross and the Solemn Collects. In the Way of the Cross, we use a form developed long ago to guide us through fourteen stations which represents the journey of Christ to the cross. In our church, we have fourteen wooden plaques on the wall, each of which depicts one stage in the journey with a bronze relief image.

As we go from station to station, we read a short scripture reading and meditate on Jesus' suffering. At the thirteenth station, Jesus dies on the cross and at the fourteenth station, Jesus is taken from the cross and buried.

This is a very vivid way to imagine what Jesus suffered. When I first encountered the Way of the Cross years ago, I thought it was morbid and depressing. But I've come to appreciate it as a beautiful way to go deeper in the Christian faith.

In his book, The Other Side of Silence, Morton Kelsey writes about the value of entering the darkness of the human condition. If we are to make ourselves whole, we must admit the dark side of our nature - the reality of sin and evil. We should do this in ways that are mediated and have boundaries, such as liturgical expressions like the Way of the Cross.

Kelsey says that we need to experience the Risen Christ in our lives. That's the Spirit of God bringing us life, goodness, and power. But we can't experience the Risen Christ if we haven't experienced the crucified Christ. So the value of the Way of the Cross is to make our soul more open to the reality of God. We go down so we can go up.

On Easter, we experience the Risen Christ in the Eucharistic feast. But if we haven't gone to the cross first, our experience of the resurrection of Easter will be lessened.
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