We see Christ standing and bound. However, instead of standing before Pilate, he stands before other people. The reason is that the trial of Jesus Christ is constantly repeated, but those who condemn him today are others. We see a blind judge and the basin to wash his hands of the blood of the lamb. The microphones represent the media, many of which are dedicated to spreading lies about the figure of Christ and religion, trying to ridicule Christ and Christians in junk programs. Many politicians also judge and discredit the Catholic religion, systematically spouting lies to deceive the people and justice. They are the ones who want to become gods and dictate laws about what is, in their opinion, good and bad. They promote clearly anti-Christian laws such as abortion or euthanasia. Its objective is to make God disappear from both the public and private spheres, in all spheres, hiding behind greater freedom for the citizenry. Ultimately, Christ is condemned to death in multiple ways.
II STATION Christ carries the cross
A whole God made man, Christ, carries his cross and goes to Golgotha to be crucified to save us from our sins. With this maximum expression of love and humility, Christ becomes the hope of all those who are sick in body and soul, represented in the painting with their crutches. Do we offer God our pain and suffering as sick people? Do we take advantage of the crosses that the Lord sends us to offer them for our brothers? On whom do we pin our hopes?
III STATION Christ falls for the first time under the weight of the cross
The bishops represented in the painting show faces of discouragement and surprise, because they see the supposed weakness of those who can do everything, falling to the ground under the enormous weight of the cross. They wonder why he doesn’t get up and get rid of that humiliation. They wonder why he doesn’t rebel against the wickedness of this world and destroy evil men. However, Christ loves all men, whatever they may be, and gives them the opportunity to change. He wants everyone to be saved and enjoy eternal life with him. Because of his love for us, he suffers for our sins. Are we going to keep letting him down and making him suffer for our sins?
IV STATION Christ meets his Mother
The painter shows us Christ meeting his Mother, represented in a painting of the Virgin of Jasna Gra (the Virgin of Czestochowa). We also see pictures of other Virgins from Marian shrines in many countries around the world, letting us understand that wherever the Virgin Mary is, in any of her invocations, she awaits us to lead all her children along the path of salvation towards Christ. We see a young mother with her baby and other young women who will be mothers one day, as well as grieving mothers who have lost their children and who are praying in front of the crosses where they are buried. These mothers have experienced in their own flesh what Simen prophesied to Mary: “a sword of pain will pierce your soul” and they are the ones who best understand the immense pain experienced by the Virgin Mary on seeing her Son humiliated on the way to Calvary. Motherhood thus participates in the Divine Mystery.
FIFTH STATION The Cyrenian helps Christ carry the cross
The person who helps Christ carry the Cross is Jerzy Duda Gracz himself, self-portrait. In this way, he points out God’s mercy towards himself: “He took me out of my sensual life, my lightness, my mistakes. In sickness, God showed me the way of good and truth. I have seen that the source of happiness is in love and in helping others”.
The painter, through his original Stations of the Cross, which decorate the Chapel of the Black Madonna of Jasna Gora in the Czestochowa Sanctuary, helps us all to reflect. In this way, he also helps Christ and invites us to be the ones who also help carry the Cross. Are we also to help Christ?
VI STATION Veronica wipes the face of Christ
Mother Teresa of Calcutta is the Veronica of our days. And other nuns who spend their lives next to the sick too. He is everyone who dedicates his life helping others, like the nurses represented in the painting, like any of us who share a plate of food with the needy. We see the face of Christ on the sheets spread out in the background, giving us to understand that Christ accompanies us in suffering, in our illnesses, in our anguish, making them more bearable.
VII STATION Christ falls to the ground for the second time
The painting represents Palm Sunday. We see a multitude of people who “look the other way”, that is, they are immersed in the preparation of the Easter festivities, in the traditions, customs, thinking about what they are going to do during their days off. All this focuses our attention and we temporarily forget the cross of Christ, as if he were already dead and buried. We only think about ourselves and our things. Christ continues his path in solitude. We see in the painting that only the puppy, a creature endowed with great sensitivity thanks to God the Father, recognizes Jess alive, sympathizes with him and holds out his paw.
VIII STATION Christ consoles some women
We see in the painting a group of people who seek comfort and who represent us all: A busy mother worried about the future of her children, a nun in her monastery, the painter’s own wife, children and elders, etc. The prostitute who appears on the ground is not consoled by anyone, as she is only treated as an object. Only Jesus can console her, for she experiences human contempt and is going to be crucified. In short, whoever we are, we all need to be comforted, to be understood and to be loved. In the background, we see some confessionals with a green light that indicates that God awaits us in the same way as the father of the prodigal son.
IX STATION Christ falls to the ground for the third time
Christ seems to be dying and on the brink of his last breath. What things cause you, in our days, so much suffering? The suffering of innocent children; the innumerable induced abortions; children forced to go to war, denigrating child prostitution; the boys tormented and massacred in the crematorium ovens of Auschwitz; the children stripped of affection, unwanted, abused… those of the street, homeless; those who live without love in broken homes. How many are they? This is the suffering that brings Christ down to the ground until he agonizes. What terrible suffering our ruthless attitude causes him!
X STATION Christ is stripped of his garments
In the center, in the foreground, we see Christ naked. The background scene represents the day of Corpus Christi. This festival is prepared with great dedication, cleaning and decorating the streets and balconies where the Blessed Sacrament will pass. Bouquets of flowers are prepared, dresses are worn for the first time, rose petals are placed in baskets to later be thrown at the passage of the Blessed Sacrament, who must find everything well adorned and ready for him to give us his blessing. All this is very good, but… do we prepare our soul that well to receive the Lord with dignity?
We forget that Christ is stripped of everything and that he accompanies us on our walk every day, not just on Corpus Christi.
XI STATION Christ is nailed to the cross
We see Christ lying on his own Cross, staring at us, letting us understand that, without anyone forcing him, he wants to die freely to bear our sins and make us all happy forever.
In the background we see the Poles who were persecuted, killed, tortured or martyred throughout the 20th century. The painter pays homage to them through various symbols of the Via Crucis suffered by Poland. The wagon symbolizes all the victims who were martyred in the concentration camps during the Second World War. The car reminds us of the martyrdom of Father Popieluszko. We see Saint Maximilian Kolbe, on the left, dressed as a convict, who offered his life in exchange for that of a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp. On the right side, we see Poland’s Cardinal Primate Stefan Wyszynski, imprisoned for years by Poland’s communist authorities.
Through the suffering and death of these just, together with Christ, humanity is saved. If we offer our daily sufferings and adversities to Jesus, together with what he suffered, we too will be helping the world.
XII STATION Christ dies on the cross
At the feet of the crucified Christ was his Mother, the Virgin Mary, as well as John, his beloved disciple. In the painting we see the icon of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, from the Jasna Gora Sanctuary. We also see his beloved disciple, John Paul II. Other Polish Saints accompany Jesus on the Cross. Among them are Saint Stanislaus of Kostka, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Saint Faustina Kowalska, Saint Casimir (King of Poland), Saint Hedwig, Saint Andrew Bobola, Saint Albert Chmielowski, Saint Honorato, etc. The background of the painting is full of crosses, which symbolize the crosses of the people of God, that is, ours. Christ knows the size of our crosses and accompanies each one of us.
XIII STATION The body of Christ in the arms of his Mother
The icon of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, from the Jasna Gora Shrine, embraces her son Jesus, who is already dead. The Virgin looks at us frontally, telling us… “Look what you have done with him”. The Polish flag hangs from the Cross. “Look what your enemies have done to this Polish people!”
Both to the left and to the right we can distinguish several national heroes, who sacrificed their lives so that the people could be free and independent. They did for their nation what Jesus Christ did for the people of God. Christ wants us all to be saved and that the countries are all united under the salvific and universal sign of the Cross.
XIV STATION Christ is deposited in the sepulcher
In the painting, Christ is buried in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The pile of crosses we see represent the hundreds of thousands of people martyred and killed during World War II. We also see a set of books that begin to partially cover the body of Christ. In this way, the painter represents the ideologies that destroy humanity: communism, Nazism, imperialism, and many others that threaten human dignity. All those who take pains to try to make God disappear from the face of the Earth are destroying humanity itself. But they will not succeed, for God is invincible.
XV The Resurrection of Christ
Why do you seek among the dead the one who is alive? He is not here, he has risen (Lk 24:5-6).
Thousands of people appear in the painting, but only the face of Christ is seen…