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– The First Station –

Jesus Is Condemned to Death

St. John Paul II

The future Pope John Paul II was born Karol Jósef Wojtyła in Poland during the spring of 1920. His early life was far from ideal: He lost his mother and brother while still a child, and less than a decade later his father died as well. During World War II, Karol was forced by the Nazi occupation to abandon his studies and undertake backbreaking work in a quarry. Undaunted, he enrolled in an underground seminary and was ordained after the war. The young priest became a seminary professor and then a bishop who participated in the Second Vatican Council. Named archbishop of Kraków in 1964 and a cardinal in 1967, he was involved in the writing of the famous encyclical Humanae Vitae (“Of Human Life”). In 1978, Cardinal Wojtyła was elected the first non-Italian pope in four centuries, embarking on a papacy that lasted nearly twenty-seven years. Pope John Paul II not only championed Christ and His Church in a world beset by secularism, atheism, and relativism, but he played a major role in the fall of communism. Perhaps the greatest of modern popes, St. John Paul II died in 2005 and was canonized in 2014. His feast day is October 22.

V. We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You.

R. Because by Your holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

“And Pilate … said to them, ‘Then what shall I do with the man whom you call the King of the Jews?’ And they cried out again, ‘Crucify him.’ And Pilate said to them, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Crucify him.’ So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas; and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified” (Mk 15:12-14).

A civil official discards truth. He makes his judgment based solely on expediency — choosing death because it has become more convenient than life. Thus the creature grasps at the power that belongs to the Creator alone. It has been decreed: blind, uncaring man, so enamored of destruction, will attempt to annihilate the source of his own being. The Son of God will be put to death by those He has come to save. What greater decision for death — for nothingness — can there be than Pilate’s?

St. John Paul II knows this verdict to be a judgment on us all. Yet he also knows it to be the unavoidable first step on a path that leads not just to death but through it to life and the salvation for which we all yearn:

God created man as rational and free, thereby placing himself under man’s judgment. The history of salvation is also the history of man’s continual judgment of God.…

This is the definitive meaning of Good Friday: Man, you who judge God, who order Him to justify himself before your tribunal, think about yourself, [think whether] you are not responsible for the death of this condemned man, [whether] the judgment of God is not actually a judgment upon yourself. Consider if this judgment and its result — the Cross and then the Resurrection — are not your only way to salvation. (Crossing the Threshold of Hope)

Prayer

My Jesus, You are the innocent lamb, the One in whom no wrong can be found. Yet Pilate and countless others condemn You. Help me to see that no condemnation from sinful man can ever overcome the love You extend even to those who judge You. Grant me the grace to trust in Your ways. Never let me doubt You or judge the manner in which You choose to work in my life. Lord Jesus, never permit me to condemn You as Pilate did … as so many still do. Amen.