The Venezuelan's Way of the Cross

First Station: We are like people condemned to death. We need no formal sentence to know that at any moment any of us, or worse still a child or grandchild, may die in the street because of crime or repression. Only God protects us.

Second Station: Carrying that cross of death, and a long list of injustices born of rotten corruption, we walk our daily Calvary… the Calvary of food, of medicines, of inflation, of collapsed and inefficient public services…

Third Station: Worn out by so many problems, we fall. But we get up, and keep going!, because we know we are children of God and He helps us in our struggle. We know others depend on us, that we must be strong and hold out to the end.

Fourth Station: How many Venezuelan mothers have seen our beloved Jesus Christ in their son, unjustly imprisoned, mistreated, murdered… There is no sorrow like the Virgin’s. She understands the suffering of every Venezuelan mother, and she too suffers at the atrocities being committed against her Venezuelan children.

Fifth Station: One of the things that helps us most to carry this enormous cross of injustice is that there are many Simons of Cyrene here, who support and encourage one another when we think we can’t go on. That Venezuelan Simon of Cyrene who makes us laugh with a joke, lends us a shoulder to cry on, gives us a little cup of coffee, prays with us and for us…

Sixth Station: There are also many Veronicas here who help wipe faces of sweat, tears and blood… Many Veronicas who don’t look the other way but are willing to take risks and commit themselves to help truth, freedom, justice and peace shine in our country.

Seventh Station: Every day, every hour, every minute, the cross grows heavier. We see no way out of so many lies, so much injustice, so much corruption. We feel great helplessness. And we fall again. But around us there are so many children and so many exemplary young people who encourage us to go on with hope. And we get up again!

Eighth Station: Many of us weep to see the brazen corruption that is tearing our country apart. But we know there is a heaven that awaits its faithful children, and a hell where all the evil done will be paid for by those who do not repent, ask forgiveness and give back everything they stole. That helps us dry our tears and go on.

Ninth Station: We fall again, utterly exhausted. Now we really think we “can’t go on,” but God draws out of us a strength we never thought we had, and we get up again. This Calvary has made us very strong, and we will keep walking it as long as God wills. He is helping us carry the cross, even if we don’t see it.

Tenth Station: How hard it is to be stripped, little by little, of what has cost us so much effort… They may take everything material from us. But the one thing they can never strip from us is our inner freedom and our dignity. That priceless dignity which those who let themselves be bought can never have.

Eleventh Station: We are nailed to the cross with the nails of injustice, lies, hatred, corruption and violence… We hang on the cross like our beloved Jesus Christ, because God wants something great from us. Those nails hurt terribly, but Christ and his Truth are our hope.

Twelfth Station: We don’t know how long our agony will last. But we look at Christ, who, being God, did not come down from the cross. He could have, and he didn’t! We will stay here defending the Truth above all else. And we do it thinking of what will come afterward. Christ too was thinking of what would come, of his Resurrection. Christ died for each one of us, to save us, because he loves us madly. We will “die” for God and for our homeland, which we also love.

Thirteenth Station: Just as Jesus is placed in his mother’s arms, we place ourselves in hers. Our Mother, cover us with your mantle and help us go on in this valley of tears with joy, hope and fortitude!

Fourteenth Station: Every person murdered in our land reminds us of Christ. Those buried lives, which have caused infinite pain to so many mothers, fathers, relatives and friends, are blood shed as the fruit of forgetting God. They are a cry to our lives, which we still have, to take God into our hearts and carry him everywhere. That shed blood will become a river of hope if we do not let our hearts fill with hatred and rancor, if we bring God’s Love to Everyone!

Fifteenth Station: And Jesus Christ rose. Christ lives among us! He is with us in the tabernacle! He and his Most Holy Mother accompany us on this Way of the Cross, a way of sorrow but also of hope, because we know the Calvary we must walk to recover truth, justice, freedom and peace is not in vain. God is with us, and we will fear nothing! God loves his Venezuelan children madly and is helping us! A new dawn will come, and good will triumph over evil in our beloved Venezuela!