Cardinal Ratzinger’s Meditations on the 13th and 14th Stations
Friday, April 3rd, 2009Ave Maria Meditations
THIRTEENTH STATION:Jesus is taken down from the Cross and given to his Mother
V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi. R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum. From the Gospel according to Matthew 27:54-55: When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe, and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” There were also many women there, looking on from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him. MEDITATION: Jesus is dead. From his heart, pierced by the lance of the Roman soldier, flow blood and water: a mysterious image of the stream of the sacraments, Baptism and the Eucharist, by which the Church is constantly reborn from the opened heart of the Lord. Jesus’ legs are not broken, like those of the two men crucified with him. He is thus revealed as the true Paschal lamb, not one of whose bones must be broken (cf. Es 12:46). (more…) |
