Ninth Station – Jesus falls a third time

Isaiah 53:10-11

I have no regrets about this fall.  My strength was gone.  I did not want to fall and I did not want to stand.  I just fell.  And this time I had to be helped up.  I couldn’t get up with my own strength…

You may someday fall for a third time and have no strength to get up.  You will have to be picked up by others.  Don’t let that lead to despair; it does not mean you are less than human.  Do not let the reaction of those around you work to take away your dignity when you are flat on the ground and helpless.  Despite their best intentions, others probably will be showing a mixture of pity, shock, disgust, and anxiety at the sight of your helplessness.

“What good am I to anyone?” you may wonder as others pick you up.  But if you bear your weakness with love, you are doing wonders for yourself, as well as the whole of creation.  You are making yourself like me on my cross.  You are transforming the very fiber of life.

In this earthly life, you cannot become like me in many things.  You cannot have the power I have.  You cannot have the knowledge I have.  You cannot have the wisdom I have.  But you can become like me in the love and gracious acceptance you show precisely when you are at your weakest and most helpless.