VII. Jesus falls for the second time
When Jesus falls for the second time, it is not now because the cross he carries is too heavy, but because in his whole body he experiences complete exhaustion. He is totally spent. The years of preaching, of going from town to town with his disciples followed by large crowds, have taken a heavy physical toll. And more recently, he has had to bear the increasing resistance to his call to conversion: personal threats on his life, the defection of many followers, the betrayal of Judas and the denial of Peter, the scourging, the ridicule, and the screaming of hostile crowds. It is too much for any one person to carry. And so, he stumbles and falls. Where are his dreams of starting a new age of love and forgiveness? At first it seemed that many shared his vision. Now he is completely alone, wondering why he no longer hears that voice that spoke to him at the Jordan River and on Mount Tabor. Did he make a mistake, or was he the victim of powers he could not control? . . . Maybe all we can do when we fall is to remember that Jesus fell and is falling now with us. That remembrance may become the first inkling that there is hope. And that hope may . . . show us the direction to a more just and loving society.
Excerpt from Henri Nouwen’s Walk With Jesus, Orbis Books. Posted with the kind permission of the publisher.
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March 4th, 2008 @ 11:46 am
I have just returned from spending a day at the L’Arche Tacoma Hope center in Washington. The home is filled with people who fall every day, yet continue to raise up and proceed with life. Many cannot walk or speak. But in all ways they are models of Christ. These friends are a gift to us, to learn and grow. Welcoming of everyone…smiles and hugs all around. Most poignant to me was when one would not get up from the floor after prayer time in the chapel. The others gathered around to encourage her to get up, and indeed she did with the help of others. If we extend our hands to help those who fall, encourage those who seem to struggle, smile and hug all around, what a change we would see in the world. They never wonder if they have been deserted for they know Christ lives in their hearts and smiles upon them daily.
My personal struggle is to now go home (I am at the airport) and pray about starting a L’Arche in Oklahoma. It would be a difficult task and one I am not so sure would be supported by my husband. Time required for this task would be difficult to manage. But I feel I am called to do this.
March 4th, 2008 @ 7:59 am
This being my first Lenten season to walk through the stations of the cross, I appreciated the opportunity to identify with Jesus falling. Yesterday was a “falling down” day. No matter how hard I tried to focus on the thrill of “walking on water”, no matter how much I tried to envision living in the darkenss of Eqypt with the miracle of light in the houses of the the children of Israel in Goshen, I spent the day being “fallen”. I was frustrated at events and people, lusting after a drug, an opiate, to make the pain of the day go away. But I was comforted by the memory that Jesus, on the way to a purpose and under the leading of a loving Father, fell. To Paul the road to salvation is race to be run; to Jesus it was a journey with falls. I can identify with that.
March 3rd, 2008 @ 12:17 am
My at the moment failure seems to be in how to sucessfully send my comments here! I’m trying again- Full of excuses, I confess I am failing at keeping my Lenten commitment to exercise regularly. I appreciate Jack’s question about our ‘calling’. It helps me to just identify that every day there is a failure, a fall- most evident in feelings of ‘why bother’? like the farmer. The comments made in the last discussion about Veronica meets Jesus help me here. Even in the ‘fall’ of isolation, loneliness, and experiencing sorrow & pain for others the face of Jesus imprinted on my heart (like the veil) keeps me ’searching, always waiting, always hoping,’ and always praying which is the recovering (’getting up’) to keep on the journey…
March 1st, 2008 @ 7:22 am
The story of the poor farmer in Brazil is poignant for me. “He sees himself as a failure, and he blames himself for not being the husband, the father, and the friend he had hoped to be.” I don’t understand the national and international movements that are impacting his life either. We are yoked together in feeling helpless and in not understanding. Heaven knows, in this current year of political campaigning in the U.S.A. we are hearing quite a lot about trade agreements, etc., etc. and one just hopes we will go forward in a good direction, we try to understand because we want to help the Brazilian farmer. My falls and failures so often come when I am in the face of others’ silence. Because I am tempted to misinterpret silence in a way that becomes devisive, to think the other’s silence is the result of rejection or something. I then blame myself for not being the wife, the mother, the friend I had hoped to be. Off and on I go to Centering Prayer because I have a feeling that would most help me with this struggle. It’s very hard to see the Brazilian farmer closing his eyes and holding his hand over his face and to recognize, especially since he doesn’t understand these large economic forces impacting on him and his community that he is just silent.
February 29th, 2008 @ 6:24 pm
The 2nd fall we symbolize in the exhaustion of the task of living. For Jesus who spent his calling teaching, healing, helping and being a friend to the prostitute, tax-collector, the unpopular and was welcomed with palms only a few days before, this is a fall is being spent, exhausted. We should not be surprised in our journey that times of falling, failing will come. Jonas Salk made 200 attempts before he discovered the Salk Vaccine for polio. Falling/failure is a part of the way of the cross. Jesus’ calling was more than teaching and healing – it was redemption through death and resurrection. It is dying to ourselves and being resurrected to newness in life. Are there falls and failures in your life today as a result of pursuing your calling?