Practicing the Cross!
Sloughing Towards Galilee
The Practice of the Cross--The Cross As A Stake!
"For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (I Corinthians 1:18).
Tenderloin Stations of the Cross
“Our Journey With Our Brothers and Sisters
Who Lives on the Street
“Our Hauntedness!”
“The street transforms every ordinary day into a series of quick questions and every incorrect answer risks a breakdown, shooting, or pregnancy. “Ta Nehie Contes
March 31, 2024
Noon
Meet In Front of City Hall
Sponsored By: Temenos Catholic Worker and Society of
Society of Franciscan Workers
30th Anniversary of Temenos Catholic Worker
22nd. Anniversary of Stations of the Cross
The Stations of the Cross
Introduction
People, who live on the streets, the homeless, have haunted me all of my life. From the time I was six years old, driving late night through Sequoia National Park, seeing an old homeless woman walking up the road, and when I was seven walking across the street with a homeless person begging for money. They continue to haunt me as I walk out my door and see someone begging or mentally ill, out of their mind. They tear at my heart!
Haunting is the relentless remembering and continuing reminding that will not be appeased by the propaganda of assistance and care or the promises of our city, state, and national Governments that all will be well. In over twenty years in San Francisco, we have seen the problem grow immensely, with tons of money being spent.
Haunting is both acute and generally haunted, but that haunting comes from the haunting of society. The
United States is permanently haunted by the homeless, its massive population of poor, and the violence intertwined in its past, present, and future days.
Haunting’s aim is to wrong the wrongs, a confirmation that the rich and middle class hope to evade.
On Good Friday the cross calls us to look at its “backside”, the side that points us seeing the homeless from their perspective, not one of judgment, but one of love, and to work to end homelessness.
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1. Jesus is Condemned to Death by Pilate!
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you.
R. Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
How many others have heard the state bureaucrat say, “We cannot tolerate you. We cannot help you. The world will be a better place without you. You must die.”
What goes through the mind of the victim when he or she hears, “You are to be executed!” Over the centuries many who have claimed to be followers of Jesus have stood with the historical “community of executioners”—kings, presidents, governors, judges, soldiers, police, wardens, and hangmen. Jesus himself stood with the historical “community of the executed.” He did not stand with those who say, “You must die.” He stood alongside those who were told, “You must die.”
Capital punishment is not what Jesus taught. It is what he suffered. But, Pilate washes his hands and says, “I am not responsible.” The scientist who makes a part of the instrument that when discharged sends hundreds and thousands to a fiery death says, “I am not responsible.” Christians in the Third World are beaten into oppression, while Christians in the First World live off the fruits of that oppression and say, “I am not responsible.”
The affluent Christian who spends thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours a year on sports, alcohol, fashions, drugs, and entertainment says to the billions of people caught in the unrelieved miseries of poverty, hunger, disease, and injustice, “I am not responsible.”
The poor, and non-white suffer the punishment of execution, suffer violence from the police, more than whites. Our society is not non-violent, but hungry for violence and death! The mentally ill are beaten every day!
We like Pilate wash our hands as the suffering Christ is condemned to death.
2. Jesus Bears His Cross!
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you.
R. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
The cross is the symbol and the reality of nonviolent love, of suffering love, of voluntary postponement of gratification on behalf of others, of hurt endured to serve, to forgive—to be merciful. The bearing of the physical cross is just the final moment in an existence that has chosen to serve others rather than indulge itself. The cross of nonviolent love is not an isolated instant. It is a free choice of a radically different verbal pattern, thought pattern, emotional pattern, and behavior pattern. That is, it is the free choice of a radically different reality orientation and self-understanding. When we sign ourselves with the sign of the cross, we are symbolically saying to ourselves, to the world, and to God that we choose to pick up Christ’s cross and follow his way, that we choose, as he did, to bear the cross of nonviolent love unto death. We choose to walk in non-violence with our brothers and sisters on the street!
3. Jesus Falls the First Time!
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you.
R. Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
To fall under the abnormal burden of the cross of nonviolent love is painful. For the person who wants to love, who believes in forgiveness, who desires to serve, who wishes to reconcile, who is committed to patience, kindness, meekness and mercy—for this person to fail hurts and hurts deeply. Fatigue, ignorance, fear, selfishness, false securities, prior nurturing, self-righteousness,
escapism, and idolatry all stand always ready to trip up, to knock down the bearer of the cross of nonviolent love.
But Jesus teaches that when, for whatever reason, we fall under the humanly impossible burden of the cross of nonviolent love, our task is not to give up, stay down, walk away or change direction. Our task is to get up and to continue in the Spirit of Christ our journey to Calvary—our pilgrimage to the Absolute.
4. Jesus Meets his Mother!
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you.
R. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
How many times have we said to ourselves or heard others say: “I would like to be more faithful to Jesus’ teaching of nonviolent love? I would like to respond more fully to suffering humanity. I do not want to be irresponsible and ignore or participate in homicide, causing homelessness, and pain for those around me. But, what about my family?—my children?—my wife?—my husband?—my parents? It would not be fair to them.”
To what extent has the Christian family become one of the primary obstacles to living a faithful Christian life? Jesus foresaw this possibility and explicitly warned that the faithful following of God’s will as revealed by Him could cause hardships within families. He also said that this was not a legitimate excuse for not being a disciple of Jesus.
The early martyrs had to walk with their children into the Colosseum. They had to look into the eyes of their little boys and girls as they all waited to be disemboweled by starving beasts or torched by obedient soldiers.
When Jesus’ eyes met His mother’s eyes on His way to execution, did He and His mother not experience the unbearable distress of the “Crucified Colosseum Family”? Is the “Crucified Colosseum Family” is only a relic or is it a permanent condition in the life of the Church as long as the Beast of Power and Profit roams the earth?
If the “Crucified Colosseum Family” does not exist today, does that mean the Beast has been pacified, harnessed, or extinguished?
Do not all political and economic tyrants of all ages try to use the family to control the adult population? Can Christian family love and relationship find any lasting security in any source other than unconditional obedience to God’s will as revealed by Jesus Christ? Could Jesus have found any lasting life with Mary outside the cross of nonviolent love? Is the Beast interested in preserving and protecting the family or is it interested in manipulating it to satisfy its diabolical appetites? Is the Beast of Power and Profits not present as a cause of homelessness?
5. Jesus is Helped by Simon!
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you.
R. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
How often do we fail to love those who are loving others, to help those who are helping others? How often do we fail to walk with those who work with the homeless? How often do we fail to even consider that those who have chosen the long loneliness of the cross of nonviolent love are not supermen or wonder women but people subject to the same human limitations and frailties that we are.
To help carry each other’s cross of nonviolent love is part of the purpose of the Christian community, the community of peace.
To love without condition is hard. To serve without desiring reciprocation is hard. To suffer without desiring retaliation is hard. To reconcile without desiring domination is hard. To serve without suffering burn out is hard? How many of our brothers and sisters have grown weary and fallen under the harsh and dreadful weight of the cross of nonviolent love not because we failed to be heroically Christ-like but simply because we were not Simon, carrying our cross for a time in our relations with them?
6. Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus!
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you.
R. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
The poet says, “I am a part of all I have met.” For good or ill, I leave my image on all who, by whatever means, enter into my history. What image is it that the disciple should want to imprint on the consciousness of others?
We should never wish to leave the impression of a someone who desires clout, the good life, class, style, the quick fix, the quick trigger, the quick buck, the easy life, or “gusto” without end.
Rather, we should, as a follower of Jesus, desire to leave the impression of one who is always merciful, patient, and kind, who is never resentful or rude, who does not take offense, who is never jealous, conceited, or selfish, who is always willing to excuse, to trust, to serve, to forgive, and to endure whatever comes. The poet says, “I am a part of all I have met.”
When we help a suffering human being, it is not that person who should be grateful to us, it is we who should be grateful to them. Christ teaches that to serve suffering humanity is to encounter Him in the victims, the oppressed, the deformed, the paralyzed, and the bewildered. In serving them we encounter the sacramental presence of Jesus. The blood, the sweat, the vomit, and the tears that the suffering leaves on our handkerchiefs are the image of Christ’s suffering that Veronica received on her towel.
When we receive the blood, sweat and tears of homeless people in the same way we receive Christ.
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7. Jesus Falls a Second Time!
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you.
R. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Down again! Is it possible to overemphasize how foreign nonviolent love is to the consciousness nurtured through the formal institutions (schools, family, government, corporations, military, etc.) and the informal institutions (T.V., videos, CDs, DVDs, movies, internet,
iPods, newspapers, magazines, books, Kindle, peer pressure) of capitalism?
A mind that has been bombarded since childhood with notions like “the world would be a better place if everyone just follows their selfish interest” or “grabbing as much as can while giving as little as you have to is what life is all about,” becomes a mindset to which the cross of nonviolent love seems nonsense.
Who can stand against this knowing it leads to crucifixion?
It is easy to find hope, security, and a future in the G.D.P., a national anthem, a football team, military technology, Disneyland, drugs, fashion, and alcohol.
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We will fall over and over again, but Jesus will pick us up! We need to follow him on the journey!
8. Jesus Speaks to the Women
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you.
R. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
How often have we been told, how often have we told ourselves, “nonviolent love does not work”?
In a world struggling under militaristic, bureaucratic, and technological oppression, what reason is there in suggesting that the road of nonviolent love is a road to anything but total failure and permanent insignificance.
As Jesus, brutally beaten in body and forced to carry the instrument of his own execution to the Calvary, looked at the women, what did he see in their eyes? Disbelief? Sadness? Confusion? DespDespair?Horror? Desolation?
Through his eyes did he see his love for them and all who follow him non-violently, walking with the disenfranchised!
9. Jesus Falls a Third Time
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you. R. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Did Jesus fall only three times or was it in reality four ten or twenty? How often each day do I feel crushed under the weight of the cross of nonviolent love? How often do I want to walk away from the cross of non-violent love? How often do I turn my eyes on a person on the street? How often do I walk by someone in need?
10. Jesus is Stripped of His Garments!
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you. R. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
There was nothing tasteful or tactful about Jesus’ crucifixion. He was beaten brutally and stripped naked as billions of other oppressed people have been over the centuries and are being today. He was naked as many are on our streets. The vested powers of this world
always strip naked those they wish to control, humiliate, and destroy, for if clothes make the person, then the absence of clothes means that the “thing” before them is a sub-human non-person.
To hide from the Christ stripped of his garments, which we see every day, is to hide from the reality of the cross of nonviolent love and to continue to strip Jesus!
11. Jesus is Nailed to the Cross!
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you.
R. Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
To choose the cross of nonviolent love is to freely choose to remain nailed to it until that day when the last person who has been crucified by the powers of this world has their nails permanently removed.
Gandhi said: “If I have to be reborn, I wish to be born an untouchable so that I may share their sorrows, sufferings, and the affronts leveled at them in order that I may endeavor to free myself and them from that misery."
12. Jesus Dies on the Cross!
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you. R. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
The death rattles, the open eyes, the limp, heavy, breathless body—this is how it ends. Christ dies!
In each homeless person, in each gang member, in each aged person, in each migrant, Jesus dies as the violence of our political and justice systems roll over them. They die by being judged by their color, and economic standing. Violence from all sides is Jesus dying.
13. Jesus is Taken from the Cross!
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you. R. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Viewing the mutilated body of Jesus is the most grief-ridden experience of human existence. It is
evidence that evil rules. It is evidence that violence rules and is used to control all of us.
Seeing the broken body of Christ is evidence that non-violent love is dead!
14. Jesus is Laid in the Sepulcher!
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you. R. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
The dead body of Christ is a stark statement that a life of non-violent love is not the way to overcome violence, injustice, evil, and death. Or is it?
15. Jesus is Raised from the Dead!
V. We adore you O Christ and we praise you.
R. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
“You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He is not here, He is risen!”
His triumph is ours as well. On Easter Sunday, and the many other Easter Sundays of our lives, we rise above our failures, our burdens, and our struggles, and we too emerge victorious. Throughout our own Good Fridays, the risen Lord is by our side, pledging that we too, will rise again, and enter his reign on earth moving into eternity.
Through the years I have found that the majority of youth and adults on the street have poor experiences with Christians. Christians are the unseen, and churches lock their doors to our brothers and sisters who are homeless. Many work to remove them from our streets.
As we enter the new life of Easter let us remember the words of Jesus, and ask ourselves do we honor his commands:
Matthew 25: 26-46
31. 'When the Son of man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory.
32. All nations will be assembled before him and he will separate people one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats.
33. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left.
34. Then the King will say to those on his right hand, "Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world.
35. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome,
36. lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me."
37. Then the upright will say to him in reply, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
38. When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome, lacking clothes and clothe you?
39. When did we find you sick or in prison and go to see you?"
40. And the King will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me."
41. Then he will say to those on his left hand, "Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42. For I was hungry and you never gave me food, I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to drink,
43. I was a stranger and you never made me welcome, lacking clothes and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you never visited me."
44. Then it will be their turn to ask, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or lacking clothes, sick or in prison, and did not come to your help?"
45. Then he will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me."
46. And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the upright to eternal life.'Amen! Deo Gratias!
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(This year the route will be much shorter, and we will not give out food, if you would like to volunteer or email.)
Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration
October 5, 2024
6:00 p.m.
Victor's Piazza pm Polk
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Fr. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
snap chat: riodamien2
415-305-2124
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We will be having our Annual Good Friday Remembrance of The Haunting!" on Good Friday, March 8, 2024 beginning at 11:30 a.m. If you would like to participate by reading one of the Stations please let me know!