Seventh Station — Jesus Falls the Second Time

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 Seventh Station. Jesus falls the second time.

You went down again, Lord. Even with Simon helping. Even with Veronica's cloth still drying the blood from Your face. The second fall.

How many times have I fallen, Lord? After confession. After good resolutions. After spiritual moments where I felt close to You. The second fall is different from the first. The first one is shocking. The second one is humiliating. I should know better by now.

But here is the mystery. You fell more than once on Your way to Calvary. Not because You were weak in spirit, but because the human body breaks under such weight. The fall did not stop the journey. It just made the journey more like ours.

Lord, I confess to You tonight the falls I keep repeating. The same temptations. The same patterns. The sins I am embarrassed to bring to confession because they are the same ones I confessed last month and the month before.

You are not embarrassed by my repeating sins. You are not surprised. You are not done with me because I have failed again.

Saint Peter writes in his First Letter, chapter five, Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

The same sufferings. The same falls. I am not alone in this. Christians around the world are getting up tonight from their second falls, their third, their hundredth. We are all rising together.

Get me up again, Lord. With the same patience You always show me. Without recrimination. Without resignation. Just up. One more step.

And help me have that same patience with the people in my life who keep falling in the same ways. The family member with addiction. The friend in the same destructive pattern. The colleague who keeps making the same mistake. Let me be patient with them as You are patient with me.

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.