The Via Dolorosa

Tomorrow is Good Friday and many pilgrims will gather in Jerusalem to walk the Via Dolorosa, believed to be the path that Jesus walked on the way to his crucifixion.  The path winds from the Antonia Fortress (where Jesus encountered Pontus Pilate) and ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  I’ve had the privilege of walking the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem twice.  The first time I walked the path was in 1962 (before The Six Day War) when Jerusalem was still a part of Jordan.  The second time was in 2010.  

Along  the Via Dolorosa the pilgrim will often pause at what are known as the fourteen Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross.  Each station has an image depicting Jesus’ walk on that Good Friday long ago.  The images include Jesus in Gethsemane, his betrayal by Judas, his condemnation by the Sanhedrin, the denial by Peter, his encounter with Pilate, his scourging, and so on, ending with his burial.  The faithful pilgrim stops at each station, either individually or in a procession, to say a prayer and to reflect on the Passion of Christ.

Via Dolorosa means something like “Way of Grief,” “Way of Sorrow,” “Way of Suffering” or as the “Painful Way.” Given these translations, we have all walked the Via Dolorosa in real time and we have walked it far more than twice!  Who has not walked the Way of Grief?  Who has not walked the Way of Suffering?  Who has not known the Painful Way?  These paths are our Via Dolorosa.  

Every human being has his or her own kind of “Stations” along this Via Dolorosa.  The grief at the loss of loved ones, the pain accompanying illness, accident, or loss,  the hurt of being betrayed.  We have all walked the walk on the Via Dolorosa.  While it is spiritually beneficial to stop, to meditate (contemplate), to reflect, and say a prayer at the Stations of the Cross on Jesus’ Via Dolorosa, so it is spiritually and psychologically beneficial to stop, to meditate, to reflect and to say a prayer at the Stations of our own passion along our own Via Dolorosa.

Pondering at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,
Jerusalem 2010