Already in this mysterious moment of time, at the beginning of the Via Crucis, Christ has given himself to all those whom he will indwell through all the centuries to come. Already he has taken them to himself, made them one with himself. All manner of men and women and children—the rich and the poor, the famous and the infamous, saints and sinners—all who will be redeemed by his Passion are in Christ, and his heavenly Father sees them all as Christ, his Son in whom he is well pleased….
Jesus comes…to receive his cross. He comes to it gladly! This is a strange thing, for the cross is a symbol of shame, and it is to be his deathbed. Already he sees the very shape of his death in the widespread arms. From this moment he will be inseparable from it, until he dies on it. He will labor and struggle under the weight of it until the end comes. Yet Christ welcomes the cross. He embraces it, he takes it into his arms, as a man takes that which he loves into his arms. He lays his beautiful hands on it tenderly, those strong hands of a carpenter that are so familiar with the touch of wood….
It is a tremendous gesture showing all peoples his love for them openly, because this cross which he is receiving is their cross, not his; he is making it his own for love of them, taking their crosses and lifting the dead weight of them from the backs of humankind. That is why Christ receives the cross with joy and lays it to his heart. “Bear one another’s burdens,” he told us. Now he takes the burden of the whole world upon himself.
Caryll Houselander
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