R. Because by Thy holy Cross, Thou hast redeemed the world.
"Third time's the charm," as people say. There is something significant in the number three: a powerful expression of finality.
When Christ fell the third time, how weak He must have been, how near unto the place of crucifixion and yet how far. In His weakness He must have lain for a moment, trying to draw strength to rise, His will bent still toward our salvation, loving us with every moment of the immense torment He suffered as He lay against the rock-strewn ground.
Think of what the devil whispered into His ears. For He was not left alone in that moment of weakness, but laid bare to all the snares of enemy.
What about your own falls? It is when we are weakest that the devil likes to strike, for he cannot get us when we are wrapped about with the power and love of Christ. It is only when we lie prone in our weakness and do not wish to go on that he can tempt us not to go on. Then he can make us feel that all is hopeless, that we are powerless, and that we shall never rise from this darkness.
How much more must Christ have been tempted as He lay there. Was it because He was God that He did not give in?
Rather it was love. For only love can carry one through temptation. Only love can make us so little heed our own darkness that we will to suffer it so long as God wills it. Only love can raise us up when we have fallen. Only love can give us hope in a brighter dawn.
And our Lord did not remain on the ground. He struggled to His feet again, the cross still upon His shoulders.
Perhaps His entire human nature cried out that it was futile and that He would never have the strength to reach the place of crucifixion. The enemy may have whispered of our infidelity, our lack of care for Him, our turning away and complete disdain for all that He was doing for us. Yet He loved us still. He went on because He wanted to show us that love in the most powerful way He could: by dying for us. That death He had already begun, dying for us in each moment, and dying to the temptations that assailed even Him.
May He grant us the grace to rise from our hardest falls and to go on for love of Him.
Ah, my outraged Jesus, by the merits of the weakness Thou didst suffer in going to Calvary, give me strength sufficient to conquer all human respect, and all my wicked passions, which have led me to despise Thy friendship. I love Thee, Jesus my love, with my whole heart; I repent of having offended Thee. Never permit me to offend Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt. (From the Stations of the Cross according to Saint Alphonsus Liguori.)
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