Ecce Homo

For the Way of the Cross in Rome in 2005, the then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, reflected in the Third Station: (Note - We used his prayers and reflections for our Way of the Cross in 2006)

Man has fallen, and he continues to fall: often he becomes a caricature of himself, no longer the image of God, but a mockery of the Creator... In Jesus’ fall beneath the weight of the Cross, the meaning of his whole life is seen: his voluntary abasement, which lifts us up from the depths of our pride. The nature of our pride is also revealed: it is that arrogance which makes us want to be liberated from God and left alone to ourselves, the arrogance which makes us think that we do not need his eternal love, but can be the masters of our own lives. In this rebellion against truth, in this attempt to be our own god, creator and judge, we fall headlong and plunge into self-destruction. The humility of Jesus is the surmounting of our pride; by his abasement he lifts us up. Let us allow him to lift us up. Let us strip away our sense of self-sufficiency, our false illusions of independence, and learn from him, the One who humbled himself, to discover our true greatness by bending low before God and before our downtrodden brothers and sisters.

It is this profound mystery of man's abasement and Christ's self-emptying that SPYG sharply intuited for this year's Way of the Cross. As the Sorrowful Way progresses, there runs parallel to Christ's journey, the journey of another man who, desirous of becoming the 'perfect' man, makes himself the measure of his actions. In this disordered affection, he, lured by evil, is gradually blinded from truth, love and genuine beauty. In a certain sense, the journey of the Son of God to the place of the skull is a passionate run towards humanity who lie fallen, profaned in it's own self-absorbed pride. Christ 'empties himself, taking the form of a slave' (Phil 2:7) in order to meet humanity who, having turned from God, has became a slave to sin and its daughter, death.

In a moving scene in the Third Fall, the man, fully clothed in sin, is emptied from within, is hollowed. The attempt to free himself of his own slavery is of no avail, reducing him to a helpless and pathetic caricature. It is this same posture that the Son of God takes upon himself-- in the words of the prophet, Christ has become less than a man, more like a worm crawling its way through dirt. (Psalm 22:6) In this way, the Divine Condemned One shows the true meaning of compassion: Cum Passio - To suffer with. Christ takes himself the sin of the world, the sin of humanity in the burden of the Cross and in so doing, places himself in that same state of slavery where humanity lie fallen. He meets humanity face to face and with his strength as God, he lifts humanity up again.

Raised up, the man kneels before the suffering Christ. What other posture can we have other than humble adoration before this God who empties himself to save us? Meditating on the Greek word for adoration, which is proskynesis, the Holy Father teaches us, "It refers to the gesture of submission, the recognition of God as our true measure, supplying the norm that we choose to follow. It means that freedom is not simply about enjoying life in total autonomy, but rather about living by the measure of truth and goodness, so that we ourselves can become true and good. This gesture is necessary even if initially our yearning for freedom makes us inclined to resist it. (Homily, WYD 2005) It is to Jesus to whom we render our worship. We must be careful that we do not use the Way of the Cross to glorify only ourselves and our talents without reference to Him who graced us with such gifts. We must be careful, in the end, not to celebrate only ourselves. All those called to 'watch and pray' must leave with praise only for what the Lord has done with his blessed Cross. "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your Name give the glory!" (Psalm 115:1) We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You for by Your holy Cross, You have redeemed the world!

As we enter the Octave of Easter, having contemplated the suffering, death and resurrection of the Lord, we would do well to ask ourselves: By what do I measure my humanity? By what do I measure my worth as a human being?
The eyes of others?
How I look?
Who I'm with?
What I wear?
What I own?
How much I have?
What I can do?

All of these feed us with the lie, the terrible lie, that our deepest core is of no value, no worth, and therefore must be clothed with value, the void must be filled and silenced. Voices, many voices, will come offering only illusion and delusion, and in the end, we become as empty and shallow as these passing things to which we rendered our worship. In the Gospel of John, Pilate, when presenting Jesus to the crowd cries out: ECCE HOMO! Behold the Man! (John 19:5)
Behold the Man, emptied, naked and bleeding.
Behold the Man, whose words once moved hearts and is now silent.
Behold the Man whose hands, once working wonders, now bound.
Behold the Man, acclaimed as King, now crowned with thors.
Behold the Man, who can summon legions of angels, standing powerless before the powers of this world.

Ecce Homo! Behold Him who spoke to us at the ninth station: Behold, Beloved, the poorest king who ever lived. Before my creatures I stand stripped.... Yet who has ever been so rich? Possessing nothing, I own all –my Father’s love.

This, THIS is the measure of our humanity. This is what it means to be human. This is THE difference between the Way of the Cross of Christ which is the Way of the world: "One who chooses to follow Christ, on the other hand, avoids being wrapped up in himself and does not evaluate things according to self interest. He looks on life in terms of gift and gratuitousness, not in terms of conquest and possession. Life in its fullness is only lived in self-giving, and that is the fruit of the grace of Christ: an existence that is free and in communion with God and neighbour (cf. Gaudium et spes, 24)....Therefore, the choice is between being and having, between a full life and an empty existence, between truth and falsehood. (John Paul II, WYD 2001) THe Lord reminded us at the beginning of the Stations that this meditation on his Way of the Cross will only be complete when we have crowned it with our lives. "True joy is a victory, something which cannot be attained without a long and difficult struggle" (John Paul II, WYD 2002) You know that it is at difficult moments and trying times that the quality of our choices is measured. There are no short cuts to happiness and light! Only Jesus can supply answers which are neither illusion nor delusion! (John Paul II, Address to the Bulgarian Youth, 2002)

ECCE HOMO! Look to Him who is the God-Man who alone can lift us up from our falls. Look to Him whose promise is trustworthy. Look to Him who reveals to us our genuine worth: It is not in what we do, it is not in what we have. In the prophetic words of the late Pope, "We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son." (John Paul II, Homily, WYD 2002) Not because of who I am, But because of what you've done. Not because of what I've done, But because of who you are. ...You've told me who I am. I am yours.