Walking Through Calvary, St. Ignatius Style Part 5

Eighth Station: Jesus falls for the third time.

Once again, we see Jesus fall down. The first time was agony, the second time was just heartbreaking, and now, it just seems hopeless. As we come towards the end of Lent, I feel like it all hits us at some point that the forty days of fasting, prayer, and abstinence are almost over. For me, that feeling finally sunk in on Palm Sunday.

What has Lent been to you so far? Was it a struggle? Was it a learning experience? A bit of both? Or something in between?

This particular reminds me that we will always need God with us through the good times and the bad times. No matter how many times we fall, God will always be there to help us get back up.

Ninth Station: Jesus is stripped of his garments.

Society’s double standards never cease to fascinate me. Female celebrities willingly pose in stripperific outfits for music videos and glamorous magazine photoshoots, but it’s a big scandal when nude pictures of them are leaked to the public. While I agree that Renaissance naked statues are wonderful pieces of art, there’s a very fine line between the beauty of the human body and humiliating or perverting it.

So when Jesus is stripped of his garments, it’s pretty much easy to say that displaying his tortured body for all the public to see is an act of humiliation. It also reminds us of the old saying “You can’t take it with you.” I often wonder if Jesus was completely naked or if he at least had a loin cloth to cover himself.

It really ticked me when I saw this video of a preacher claiming that Jesus wore “designer clothing.” I read somewhere that the garment Jesus wore was a long tunic made by his mother. Which meant that he probably wore that same garment throughout most of his adult life. So no, Mr. Preacher, Jesus did not wear designer clothing. He most likely wore that one tunic every day. That tunic that Mary made was probably the only thing that Jesus owned other than a pair of sandals. It really puts a damper to the whole prosperity Gospel mindset when you think about it.