“The Way of the Cross”

Abstract

“The Way of the Cross” Paul Claudel (1867–1955) (bio) Translated by John Marson Dunaway (bio) FIRST STATION Christ condemned to death It’s all over. We have judged God and we have condemned Him to death.We no longer want Jesus Christ with us, for He is getting in the way.We no longer want any king but Caesar! No other law but blood and gold!Crucify Him if you wish, but get Him off our hands! Take Him away!Tolle! Tolle! Too bad! Since it’s necessary, sacrifice Him and give us Barabbas! Pilate is seated in the place called Gabbatha.“Have you nothing to say?” says Pilate. And Jesus doesn’t respond.“I find no evil in this man,” says Pilate. “But bah!Let Him die, since you insist! I give Him to you. Ecce homo.”Behold the Man, the crown on His head and the robe on His back. One last time turned toward us, those eyes full of tears and blood!What can we do about it? No way to keep Him with us any longer.As He was a scandal for the Jews, to us He is a nonsense.The sentence, moreover, is rendered, with nothing missing, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.And we see the crowd yelling and the judge washing his hands. [End Page 177] SECOND STATION Christ receives the Cross His clothes are given back to Him and the cross brought to Him.“Hail,” says Jesus, “O Cross I have desired so long!”And you, behold, Christian, and tremble! Ah, what a solemn momentWhen Christ for the first time accepts the eternal Cross!O consummation on this day of the tree in Paradise!Behold, sinner, and see what purpose your sin has served.No more crime without a God upon it and no more cross without Christ!Certainly man’s affliction is great, but we have nothing to say,For God is now upon it, having come not to explain but to fulfill.Jesus receives the Cross as we receive the Holy Eucharist:“We give Him some wood for His bread,” as it is said by the prophet Jeremiah.Ah, how long is the cross, and how enormous and difficult!How hard it is! How rigid! How heavy, the weight of the useless sinner!How long one must carry it step by step until one dies upon it!Is it you who are going to carry this alone, Lord Jesus? Make me patient in my turn with the wood you want me to bear.For we must bear the cross before the cross bears us. THIRD STATION Christ falls the first time Forward! Victim and executioners at the same time, all are moving along toward Calvary.God, who is being pulled by the neck, suddenly stumbles and falls to earth. What do you say, Lord, about this first fall?And since now you know, what do you think of it? This minuteWhen you fall and the unsteady burden hurls you down.How do you find it, this ground that you made?Ah! It’s not only the road of good that is rough.The road of evil too is treacherous and dizzying.One cannot go straight down it, one has to search one’s way, stone by stone, [End Page 178] And one’s foot often fails, though one’s heart perseveres.Ah, Lord, by those sacred knees, those two knees that have failed you at once,By the sudden nauseous retching and the fall at the entrance to the horrible Via,By the trap that has succeeded, by the earth that you have taught,Save us from the first sin that is committed, by surprise! FOURTH STATION Christ meets His mother O mothers who have seen your first and only child die,Remember that night, the last, near the little whimpering being,The water you try to get Him to drink, the ice, the thermometer,And death, which comes little by little and which one can no longer fail to recognize.Put his poor shoes on him, change his linens and gown.Someone is coming to take Him from me and put Him in the ground.Farewell, my...