The Way of the Cross of our life
According to Father Dolindo Ruotolo
With profound spiritual insight, the saintly Don Dolindo Ruotolo invites us to see the entirety of our earthly existence as an intimate participation in the Way of the Cross walked by Christ. In his penetrating commentary on Luke's Passion narrative in chapter 23, Don Dolindo reveals how every pain, struggle, and fallen moment we experience directly echoes the Lord's redemptive suffering. From the burdens we bear due to original sin, to the cruel treatment we endure from others, to the comforting solace provided by our Blessed Mother - Don Dolindo illuminates how the Stations of the Cross find their living reality in our daily lives. Yet his meditations do not dwell on misery, but elevate our gaze to the glory that awaits all who unite their crosses to the Cross of Jesus through patient endurance and loving obedience to the Divine Will.
Let us now meditate together with Don Dolindo in his own spiritually luminous words. May his profound reflections permeate our hearts, souls and minds, allowing us to soar to new heights of contemplation on how the Way of the Cross is made manifest in our daily lives:
“Our life is all a Way of the Cross, from the first to the last station. We are born sinners and condemned because of original sin. Jesus was condemned because He affirmed Himself as the Son of God; man was condemned because he wanted to be like God. Jesus, the true Son of God, thus atoned for man who claimed to be like God. Jesus, innocent and holy, was loaded with the Cross, and we, although renewed and made innocent through Baptism, are burdened with the Cross from the first steps of life. Men mistreat us and events overwhelm us, and we fall under the weight of the cross, as Jesus fell on His way; but there is comfort in Mary Most Holy and Jesus Himself helps us to rise again. He wanted to be helped by Simon of Cyrene, to help us, and thus respond to all humanity by returning the charity received. Simon means the one who listens and obeys: whoever listens to God and obeys Him, fulfilling His Will, helps Jesus carry the Cross, and Jesus helps and comforts the soul to carry her own cross, giving her union with the divine Will. Cyrene can be interpreted as coldness that meets; now we truly fulfill the divine Will with extreme coldness, and we meet the Lord like Simon, reluctantly and by force. However, Jesus helps us by inflaming us with love and giving us the sweetness of the Cross itself. He imprints His face on the traces of our pains, as He did on Veronica's cloth, and falling into His love, He lifts us up by giving us an understanding of our faults in His own pains. It is not possible to deceive ourselves that a fall into sin is a trivial matter when we see Jesus fallen under the weight of the Cross, nor is it possible to deceive ourselves about the miseries of the flesh when we see Him stripped, all wounds and nailed to the Cross. In life, there are those who ridicule us, those who strike us, those who strip us, and our day is always a journey towards Calvary, but we must find solace in Him who wanted to bear our iniquities and willingly endure the crosses to then reach glory.”
After having meditated with Don Dolindo, let us pray to Our Mother Mary, Our Lady of Sorrow and Mother of the Church:
Most Sorrowful Mother Mary, you who faithfully walked beside your Son on the anguished road to Calvary, obtain for us the grace to persevere in carrying our own crosses in union with Christ. Teach us to "be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy" (Col 1:11). As Don Dolindo revealed in his meditation, "Every time the human will opposes God's will, Jesus is abandoned to it to bear the Cross; every time the will, even while suffering, submits to God's will, it lightens Jesus' burden of the Cross and walks with Him on the narrow path that leads to glory." Holy Mother, pray that we may have the courage to surrender our wills to the Divine Will, finding in our sufferings a profound communion in the Passion of your Son. And just as you stood faithfully at the foot of the Cross (Jn 19:25), may we too remain steadfast through every affliction, confident that if we "endure, we shall also reign with him" (2 Tim 2:12).
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