A Via Crucis

BAGUIA

(First of two parts)

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.

First station: The institution of the Eucharist

This is my body. This is my blood, says the Lord, the same one who said we do to him what we do to the least among us. We remember those who perished in the Philippine narcotics war — suspects, soldiers, policemen, the innocent: the mistakenly identified, unfortunate bystanders, children.

They once lived. They supped and dined with family and friends. We wonder how their last meals fared. Were they joyful occasions? Was there love and laughter? Did they have any premonition that they were taking their last morsels on this side of life?

Second station: Our Lord’s agony in the garden, Gethsemane

Stay with me, remain here with me, watch and pray, Jesus says to Peter, James, and John. Father, take this cup of suffering from me, our Lord prays, but let not my will, but yours prevail. We remember our leaders. There is a cup of suffering that they must drink. The true leader makes sacrifices for his people. He does not worsen their pain with words that divide or encourage a culture of death.

Third station: Jesus is sentenced to death

We remember our legislators and judges. If the worst comes and the death penalty is reinstated into our penal code, they will have power to let convicts live or send them to their deaths. I was in prison and you did not comfort me. Christ who identified with the worst among us will make this indictment at the end of time.

Fourth station: Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns

We beg for our Lord’s mercy. Often we behave as if we can blindfold our Lord and thereby forcibly turn his eyes from our misdeeds as his tormentors tried to do. But no detail about ourselves escapes his notice. In the end we will be called to account for how we lived.
Fifth station: Jesus receives the cross

We remember one another. In this time of division, we remember those with whom we have differences of opinion, world view, political persuasion, each person who in one way or another is to us a stranger. We are ontologically one. No man is an island. We are connected, we are a continent, and we are called to bear, not just bear with one another. If the other has become my cross, I must be grateful, for in the other, I have been given a ladder to heaven.

Sixth station: Jesus falls under the weight of the cross

We remember our poor. They were not born with resolutions to be dissolute, but with material challenges that impede their actualization and backgrounds that cannot be brightened until we offer our aid with cheerful hearts and with eyes that look into theirs.
Seventh station: Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross

We are wherever we are because of the help that came to us from every corner of our lives. We remember everyone who sparked our faith, kindled our hope and nourished us with their love. Even the worst among us can give a hungry boy a piece of bread, Jesus says. No one came to us without somehow making us better persons. Our journey continues because of our Simons — our mothers, fathers and siblings, our colleagues, our clients, our adversaries, our dearest, most cherished friends, our ancestors, our guardian angels. We give thanks.

(To be continued)