Fifth Station — Simon Helps Jesus Carry the Cross

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You, because by Your holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

The Fifth Station. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross.

The Gospel of Mark, chapter fifteen, mentions Simon almost casually. A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the Cross.

He did not volunteer. He was conscripted. He was on his way somewhere else, on his own errand, when the soldiers grabbed him and laid the wood on his shoulders. He was probably angry. Embarrassed. Inconvenienced.

But by the end of that walk, something had changed in him. We know because Mark mentions his sons by name, Alexander and Rufus, as if the early Christians knew them. Simon's reluctant burden became the family inheritance. His sons grew up Christian because their father carried the Cross of Christ.

Lord, sometimes You ask me to carry someone else's cross. The friend in crisis. The aging parent. The colleague going through a divorce. The stranger in need. I do not always volunteer. Sometimes the burden is laid on me by circumstance, and I am irritated by it.

Help me see what Simon eventually saw. That carrying another's cross is the highest privilege a Christian can have. That when I help Jesus carry His Cross, in the form of His suffering brothers and sisters, I am brought into the heart of the Gospel.

Help me also receive the help that comes to me when I am carrying my own cross. Sometimes I refuse it out of pride. I do not want to be a burden. I want to handle it myself. But Jesus did not refuse Simon's help. He let the burden be shared. Help me let mine be shared too.

Send me a Simon, Lord, when I need one. And let me be a Simon to someone else tomorrow.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Have mercy on us, O Lord. Have mercy on us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.