The Seventh Station: 

Jesus Falls a Second Time

“Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone …”

-John 8:7

There is a great temptation to ignore the poor of our world by assuming that their plight is one of their own creation. Some may reason that poverty comes from laziness, ignorance or a failure to seize opportunities.

But this is an easy way out. We assign blame to someone else so as to escape culpability. We distance ourselves from a situation we think is remote from our own. We block ourselves off from the real struggles, personal histories and present-day challenges of the individuals and communities we encounter.

When we see that someone has fallen, we may forget that we, too, can just as easily trip and find ourselves facedown in the dirt. Think of the typhoon that destroyed the Leban family’s home and much of their community. The Philippines seem like a long way off, but how many natural disasters have devastated our own communities in the last few year? And how would we feel if our moment of challenge was written off so easily and ignored because we were too far away, too foreign?