With Christ to Calvary
My favorite Station of the Cross is #6, Jesus meets Veronica. St. Veronica offers us a great example of how we are to prove our love to our Lord. Her courage surpasses everyone else in the crowd. Other than our Lady who consoles our Lord, and Simon of Cyrene who carries the cross with Christ, St. Veronica is the only one who has the love to meet our Lord along the Way of the Cross. Other women offer their sympathy at Station #8, but Veronica goes alone.
St. Veronica surely risks being killed, as that is what the Apostles feared by following our Lord to the Cross. It is more than likely she had to push pass the awful men who were treating our Lord so horribly in order to reach Jesus. All the crowds were bound to be watching every move she made. All these things mattered little because she loved God. Her one thought was seeing her Lord in agony and wondering what she could do to relieve Him.
In the Offertory verse for the Mass of today for Palm Sunday it reads, "My Heart hath expected reproach and misery, and I looked for one that would grieve together with Me, but there was none; I sought for one that would comfort Me, and I found none..." Christ looks for us on the Way of the Cross. He looks for one to console Him, to be with Him. Will He find us there? Or will we leave Him?
During this Holy Week, we must be "other Veronica's." Look at the response Jesus gives to Veronica for her love, leaving an image of His Holy Face on her veil. Our feeble efforts to love Him will be repaid with His infinite Love. But let us not love Him in order to be loved in return, but to love Him because He is deserving of all our love. And may we have the courage like St. Veronica to love Him particularly on the Way to the Cross.