The Sixth Station ~ Veronica Dries the Face of Jesus

HOW IS IT that we remember this act of kindness more than two thousand years later: Veronica consoling Jesus by drying his battered and bleeding face? "Little things, with great love. It's not how much you do, but how much love you put in the doing," Mother Teresa would say, "Not how much you give, but how much love you put in the giving."

Jesus would have celebrated Veronica's little gift - her towel. Remember when he said, "Believe me, anyone who gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, just because he is my disciple will by no means lose his rewards." (Matthew 10:42) But I must begin!

A woman confided to me once: "All my husband asks of me is an ironed shirt, and I let him know what an inconvenience it is that he asks." 

To the young people who might be reading this post: before we would ever go to a far away country to help the sick and the poor, I must learn to help happily with the dinner dishes and without being asked, and to help in folding the laundry at home, and to care for my own room and even to pick up the broom just because the kitchen floor needs sweeping. Shh, it must be done secretly!

Little means a lot to Jesus.

Silence

Our Father Who art in heaven...

Hail Mary full of grace...

Glory be to the Father...

Veronica and Her Towel ~ The Sixth Station

ONLY WOMEN ARE KIND TO JESUS while he walks to his execution. What gratitude Jesus must have felt for Veronica's gift - a towel for his face. 

Spiritual living invites us to ever deepening gratitude. When I awake in the morning, even before opening my eyes, to be surprised that I have eyes for seeing. There are more than forty million people in the world who can't see. 

I have begun gratefulness once I have started to cultivate the attitude that everything is a gift, that I don't have to earn it, beg for it, buy it or score it. My being in this very moment is a gift, to read these words, to detect colors, to notice what's beautiful - this is to have begun gratefulness. 

The poor are more grateful than we are in the rich nations, because the poor expect nothing; they take nothing for granted. The poor don't tell themselves, "There is more to have than what we already have." On Good Friday, Jesus walked alone, entitled to nothing, surrounded by enemies calling for his death. And then, out of nowhere, Veronica appeared, offering the kindness of her towel.

Our Father Who Art in Heaven...

Hail Mary, full of grace...

Glory be to the Father...

Station Six ~ Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

SOME PEOPLE SAY she never existed because Veronica and her kind deed of wiping the sweaty, bloodied face of Jesus are not recorded in the Gospels. Oh, we needn't waste time fussing and arguing about these things, we need only to let the story change us.

In this brave and brief moment, there is the tender story of a holy saint! Dorothy Day, who began the work of the The Catholic Worker with Peter Maurin wrote:

"We are all called to be saints, Saint Paul says, and we might as well get over our bourgeois fear of the name. We might also get used to recognizing the fact that there is some of the saint in all of us. In as much as we are growing, putting off the old man and putting on Christ, there is some  of the saint, the holy, the divine right there."

Our Father Who Art in Heaven...

Hail Mary full of grace...

Glory be to the Father... 

The Sixth Station ~ Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

VERONICA HAS CROSSED THE LINE. She has no business approaching a condemned man. And to be offering him the comfort of a towel! She's breaking all the rules. 

Jesus told the parable of the farmer who planted his field by throwing seed everywhere by the fistful  (Matthew 13:4-9). It seems that most of the seed was lost as it landed on the path where the birds ate it up. Some seed fell where the thorn bushes choked it out. Other seed landed where the soil was thin and the roots hit the rock shelf and it was killed by the sun. But at least some of the seed fell where there was good soil, and it grew very nicely and produced an abundant crop.

Surely the good seed of Jesus' Word fell in Veronica's heart as she was moved to such a brave love.

Oh Jesus, make my heart like a field of good ground, where your Word of life and light can take root. Make me fruitful - abundant in tender but brave good works.

Silence

Our Father Who Art in Heaven...

Hail Mary full of grace...

Glory be to the Father...