THIRD STATION
JESUS FALLS FOR THE FIRST TIME

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

From the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Chapter 53.
Surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Meditation
Man has fallen, and he continues to fall: often he becomes a caricature of himself, no longer the image of God, but a mockery of the Creator…In Jesus’ fall beneath the weight of the cross, the meaning of his whole life is seen: his voluntary abasement that lifts us up from the depths of our pride. The nature of our pride is also revealed: it is that arrogance which makes us want to be liberated from God and left alone to ourselves, the arrogance that makes us think that we do not need his eternal love, but can be the masters of our own lives. In this rebellion against truth, in the attempt to be our own god, creator, and judge, we fall headlong and plunge into self-destruction. The humility of Jesus is the surmounting of our pride; by his abasement he lifts us up. Let us allow him to lift us up.

Prayer
Lord Jesus, the weight of the cross made you fall to the ground. The weight of our sin, the weight of our pride, brought you down. But your fall is not a tragedy or mere human weakness. You came to us when, in our pride, we were laid low. The arrogance that makes us think that we ourselves can create human beings has turned people into a kind of merchandise to be bought and sold, or stored to provide part of experimentation. In doing this, we hope to conquer death by our own efforts, yet in reality we are profoundly debasing human dignity. Lord, help us; we have fallen. Help us to abandon our destructive pride and, by learning from your humility, to rise again.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

Stabat Mater: Oh, how sad and sore distressed was that Mother highly blessed of the sole-begotten One!