A veiled image by Joan Chittister, OSB The woman Veronica, unlike Simon, is said to have stepped out of the crowd voluntarily as Jesus stumbled by under the weight of the cross in order to wipe away the sweat and grime from his eyes. Veronica walked out of the crowd of curious onlookers and horrified spectators and bloodthirsty zealots and performed a work of mercy, no questions asked, no judgments rendered. And for her trouble, she left, tradition tells us, with an image of the face of Jesus on the very towel she used to give him relief. The meaning is obvious. Every time we make life physically better for someone else, the face of Jesus becomes clearer and clearer in us. We become more of what we are meant to be. We rise up out of a petty past and become a clearer, cleaner, brighter picture of the face of Jesus ourselves. The question with which the sixth station confronts us is, Who is there, whose life you deplore, that you have reached out to help? The image that Veronica takes away on her veil is an image of serenity, of soulful repose in the midst of human chaos. The veil does not scream at us. It does not sob. It does nothing to draw attention to itself. Instead, in its steadiness it draws attention only to us, to those who see it, to challenge us. You, the veil says, you. Will you yourself ever do anything for those who live in the centrifuge of violence and deprivation, to raise them up, to give them hope, to stop the pain they breathe? – from The Way of the Cross: The Path to New Life by Joan Chittister
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 09:29:12 +0000
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