Lubbock Catholic faithful re-enact Passion of Christ, pray before Easter
A man carried a heavy wooden cross more than half a mile down Erskine Street in north Lubbock on Good Friday. His clothing was stained and torn. He appeared covered in blood. A crown made of thorns sat upon his head.
Other men surrounded him, wearing metal armor and sandals, red capes draped over their shoulders, with gallic helmets sporting plumes of fur protecting their heads. They held spears and whips. They mocked the cross-bearing man. They whipped him. They beat him. They forced him to continue to carry the cross, though he was obviously in pain. Women and crowds followed, watching the torment from a distance.
The group arrived at the end of their walk and stripped the man of his clothing, leaving only a cloth around his waist. They continued to mock and whip him. They nailed his hands and feet to the cross and lifted it upright between two other men hanging from crosses, high above the crowd of several hundred.
"¡Padre, perdónalos, porque no saben lo que hacen!" the man exclaimed in Spanish as he hung there. The other men offered him a drink but continued to mock him. Soon, he died. The men poked him in the side with a spear to make sure he was dead.
His body was taken from the cross and given to his mother, who was weeping and mourning. Then a group of bystanders carried his body away to its resting place.
Of course, these events that took place Friday at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church were not actually Christ's Passion, but a re-enactment intended to stir reflection in the hearts of the faithful. And, of course, it was not Jesus who hung from a cross in north Lubbock that afternoon, but 15-year-old parishioner Lui Patino, who himself was stirred by portraying Jesus.
"While I was doing it, in my head I could just see myself walking in His shoes, walking with Him and experiencing what He experienced. It's very touching to be able to do this and it's an honor to do this," Patino said.
The Stations of the Cross, which Our Lady of Grace has hosted for decades, is not simply a Passion demonstration, but a way for Catholics to deeply and personally connect with Christ's sacrifice, reflecting and praying in anticipation of celebrating Jesus' resurrection a few days later, said the Most Rev. Robert M. Coerver, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Lubbock.
"The Stations of the Cross is a pious devotion of prayer, by means of which we can associate ourselves with the sufferings that Jesus went through, that we believe won the salvation of the world, freeing us from sin and ultimately death," Coerver said.
"One of my favorite saints, St. Ignatius of Loyola, when he taught people how to pray, he encouraged them to put themselves into the scene of the gospel stories. That's exactly what we do when we do the Way of the Cross. We put ourselves in the scene of the events that happened 2,000 years ago," he added. "And it really does help us to appreciate what Jesus went through and the fact that the Son of God took on our human nature, and in that, won our salvation and gives us hope that there is an eternity at the end of this life that we can hope for."
Similarly, Patino hopes the re-enactment and his mock crucifixion helps believers to remember and appreciate Jesus' ultimate sacrifice.
"I hope they can take away why Jesus really did it — why He got up on this cross, why He was led to his death and why He's fighting for us to be saved," Patino said. "I just want people to know that He did this for us because of His love for us."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock Our Lady of Grace re-enacts Jesus' crucifixion before Easter
