Way of the Cross brings Jesus Christ’s story to life
Event takes participants through 14 stations to retrace final journey
On Good Friday, thousands of Calgarians will experience a devotion and ritual that has its roots in the Middle Ages.
They will gather at the downtown St. Mary’s Cathedral at 9: 30 a. m. and for the next three hours walk around nearby streets, carrying a big wooden cross for the 32nd annual Way of the Cross event which commemorates Jesus Christ’s passion story in his final days on Earth.
They will stop at various locations — stations of the cross — to remember certain events in Jesus’s journey and to pray, as well as to contemplate current social justice issues.
Deacon Adrian Martens, an organizer of the event and co- ordinator of social justice, ecumenical and interreligious affairs with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary, says the event could attract up to 4,000 participants in the procession with 14 different stations.
It’s a devotion that likely started in the early Middle Ages in Jerusalem.
“People would try to re- walk what they thought was Jesus’s route through Jerusalem and then through that try to enter into some of the things that He experienced,” says Martens. “It was later in the Middle Ages, likely through the Franciscans, that the stations of the cross moved into Europe. Actually the early documents say it’s pretty much entrusted to the Franciscans to kind of disseminate or control the use of this type of devotion.
“Later on in the Middle Ages, coming into the Enlightenment period, we have it moving all around Europe as basically a practice, especially around Easter, where people will try to relive a part of Jesus’s life. Of course, the biblical context from this is found in most of the Gospels when Jesus says if anyone wants to become my follower let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. It’s kind of a symbol of us basically reliving that and witnessing what Jesus would have done during this very important day where we believe He was crucified for our sins.”
Martens says the event is open to anyone who wants to experience it and can touch people on a very personal level.
“Solidarity with the poor and the vulnerable. One of things, of course, that Jesus said is if we love those who are unlovable or those who are in need we are truly loving Him. That’s the whole focus. Not just kind of focusing on our own sufferings but in the Way of the Cross to realize that we suffer so the poor and vulnerable will be protected and provided for just in the same way that Jesus through His death and suffering provided for us. That’s really the big message.”
It’s a slow expression of seeing what Jesus went through. Some of the stations are joyful. Some are very sorrowful.
“When we walk the Stations of the Cross, we as Christians and everyone who joins in bears the difficulties in the world. The crucifixion only happened because there’s something wrong with the world. Once you realize that there’s something wrong, it’s only then that you begin to see how can I change it through humility, through love, through basically the way Jesus walked the cross which was about servanthood, about humility, about love,” says Martens.
Irving Hexham, professor in the department of religious studies at the University of Calgary, says the Way of the Cross is very much a Roman Catholic or Orthodox tradition in today’s society.
“The Way of the Cross follows the story of the Bible and what it does is bring out the significant things from the story and the purpose is a re- enactment of Jesus’s suffering and it’s intended to bring the ( people) to a consciousness of what went on,” he says.
“So it’s a ritual act that brings the story alive for the individual. Catholics have kept it up as a very important tradition but Protestants abandoned it when they abandoned what they thought were rituals generally. Protestants believed that rituals had become corrupted and were simply a way of making money or simply things people did as an excuse so that if they thought they did them it made them right with God.
“Behind the ritual is always the heart of the person. The real intent of the person. Rituals are supposed to be performed sincerely.”
Hexham says many traditional rituals have been abandoned by the general public, particularly in western society. But some have an enduring nature and continue to be an important part of the religious experience.
“What these rituals do is they burn the significance of the event into a person’s mind so that you grow up with them and you automatically remember the story and its significance. It does affect behaviour as well,” he says.
When we walk the Stations of the Cross, we as Christians and everyone who joins in bears the difficulties in the world.