We present below the 14 stations of the Way of the Cross that were carried out by some brothers from the Center for Higher Studies in Rome. These images and texts were displayed the week prior to Holy Week at the facilities of the Pontifical Ateneo Regina Apostolorum and the European University of Rome under the title: Via Crucis della Bibbia.

I STATION
The Prayer of Jesus in the Garden

REFLECTION
Immersed in the deepest night, the night of the soul, Jesus with His prayer is a radiant light for us. A decisive light that divides and, at the same time, concentrates history. A history marked by sin and disobedience that is gathered in the loving obedience of the Son to the Father. Jesus is the intense light that shines at all times and that again grants things their true appearance.

It is the light that illuminates all interior darkness, both personal and primordial, and restores to the creature the form thought by its Creator. It is a strong but welcoming light; revealing but purifying.

This is not just another night, but the night, for Jesus’ abandonment leads humanity back to its path. God is about to do a new thing, turning night into day and death into life. This is the night: night of pain, night of love, night of reparation, night of re-creation.

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I thank You for this prayer of Yours. Humility and greatness, strength and weakness unite in one thing. Thank You because the humility of form unveils the greatness of abandonment. Thank You because You make me see how to find strength in weakness and security in trial. Make, oh Lord Jesus, that I too, united to You, may find my place as a son in the arms of the Father. Amen.
H. Diego Zanforlin, L.C.

II STATION
Jesus is betrayed by Judas

The first thing that stands out in the work is Judas’ gaze, “one of the twelve.” His encounter with Jesus emulates the most common gesture of love and affection: a kiss. However, it is nothing more than the packaging that camouflages the secret sign he has given to the enemies of the Master.

The Master tries to find the gaze of Judas Iscariot, but he does not find it. Judas looks back, toward the torches that led him to the garden.

All of Jesus’ face is illuminated because “He is the light.” The scene, however, shows us the night that frames the moment in which Judas seals his fateful act and Jesus accepts the will of His Father.

Two details seek to symbolize Judas’ double consciousness, which leads him to abandon his Rabbi: the fearful look that looks back and the bag of money he clutches behind his back. And what Jesus expects from him is the response of His embrace.

Two details open the heart of the Savior, who “does not want the death of the sinner, but that he repents and lives”: the visual contact and His arm over Judas’ shoulder. His words of paternal reproach, devoid of hatred and full of affection, also challenge us today: “Friend, why are you coming?”
H. Samuel Hurtado, L.C.

III STATION
Jesus before the Sanhedrin

The passage corresponds to the self-confession Jesus makes about His true identity. He is the Christ, the Son of God, as Mark announced at the beginning of his gospel.

This confession occurs before the temple priest, who, at that moment, tears his garments. Similarly, the veil of the temple will be torn when the centurion exclaims: “Truly this man was the Son of God.”

The scene aims to represent a Real Christ, fully aware of His true identity as the Son of God. There was no fear that made Him retreat before this affirmation. He was conscious of His mission and was willing to die accordingly.

As mentioned, the priest tears his garments. The drawing presents Christ as Light, tearing apart the power of darkness that had spread with the sin of the first man.

Finally, the feeling personified by the protagonists is: Christ remains serene because He is the Truth; for Him, what He has said is evident and clear, but for the members of the Sanhedrin, these are the most scandalous words they have ever heard.

Not even in this does Christ flinch; rather, He closes His eyes and enters into a deep dialogue with His Father, since only He could understand Him and only by His Will was He willing to die.
H. Camilo Palacio, L.C.

IV STATION
Peter’s Denials

We have stripped the scene of its accidental elements to focus on the epiphanic substance of the event. The message is revealed in the crossing of gazes. Jesus’ gaze merges with Peter’s. Their eyes are the same but communicate a different message. This figurative identity seeks to reflect the symbolic dialectic of betrayal.

On one side, the traitor. Peter’s gaze is that of a remorseful man. His hair indicates the chaos of thoughts in his tormented mind. What does Peter think when he looks at the Friend? It’s impossible that Jesus heard his triple denial! It was not the time to look at oneself. He had to be strong for His Lord. A supportive smile begins to form, but his eyes betray him. He wanted to be close to the Master in His moments of pain… Now he just wants to disappear. To vanish into silence and oblivion.

On the other side, the betrayed. Jesus does not lose His composure of authority and majesty. He knows His hour has come. He knows He is the victim, but He continues to be the pillar of His Church. Some superficial wounds timidly appear on His face. This detail does not aim to abstract us from violence but to emphasize the true wound. The pain hides in the gaze. A barely perceptible gesture. He is not troubled by the blows or the injustice with which He has been condemned but by the experience of a friend turning his back on Him.

The little light of the station serves to highlight symbolic elements of the composition. Christ’s garments remind us of His Passion (merlot color) and His divinity (triple yellow line). Peter’s garments are earth-colored and seek to reflect the everydayness of his betrayal. Peter represents us all, beings attached to our earthly condition.

By depriving the scene of historical realism, we remember that our betrayal repeats itself every day. A sin where the traitor betrays himself by fleeing from the One who, despite everything, continues to seek us with His gaze.
H. Xavier Gutiérrez, L.C.

V STATION
Jesus before Pilate

The hour of shadows has arrived. There is no one to defend the innocent nor anyone to proclaim as a few days before: Blessed be the Lord! And these extend, casting an unjust judgment on the one who is justice.

Jesus’ waiting, meek and humble, before a crowd that rejects His blood, is the moment we would like to depict in this work. He will be unjustly condemned, and in Him are the injustices of all who suffer abuse, oppression, and mistreatment in this world.

Jesus, help us to bear with dignity the tribulations and pains of life, with the firm hope that You are always by our side and that it is You who suffers with us.
H. Gerardo Jiménez, L.C.

VI STATION
Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns

It is a drawing worked with a pen. It uses simply two colors to better highlight the message and seeks that the viewer retains more the background than the form.

The first message it wants to convey is in the whip’s straps. There are recorded the sins of humanity that cause so much harm to Jesus Christ and are the cause of His suffering.

When sin wounds our Lord, it is assumed in His flesh (hence the scarlet tone) and, however, what initially was a sin, His blood transforms or redeems, turning it into a virtue.

Finally, the crown expresses the various titles that men have given to Jesus Christ. The hands that carry this crown represent the hands of the viewer, and just as Peter could confess Him as “the Christ,” so too we are expected to make the same confession on this path of the Cross.
H. Luis De Ávila, L.C.

VII STATION
Jesus carries the cross

REFLECTION
Jesus takes the cross in His hands. His fingers feel the roughness of that surface and know that soon He will be united with it definitively. The hour He has been waiting for has arrived; He has come for that hour and has been preparing for it.

The cross is not a light weight. His back, which was strongly tested, aches after each attempt to move. However, He rises again and carries the instrument of His suffering.

That door is not His condemnation but ours. That burden is not His sins but ours. What kind of injustice is this? They have freed the guilty slave and condemned the innocent lord. When was something like this heard? What a marvelous spectacle, what news never announced! God, slow to anger and great in love, comes to wipe out our sins.

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I see You bent over and attached to the cross. Why do You do it? Is it not perhaps my back that should bend? Does my name not perhaps appear written on that cross You carry? Lord, this scene silences me. Only silence understands that God, my Creator, has taken responsibility for my sins, those of His creature. It is unjust! Yes, but how much love! Lord, when You feel the roughness of the wood with Your fingers, remember me and forgive me. Make me, at least, cry out of love and pain. Amen.
H. Diego Zanforlin, L.C.

VIII STATION
Jesus is helped by Simon of Cyrene

In this scene, we see the image of a Roman soldier calling us, as spectators, to be the Cyrenes, to take up the cross of Christ.

All human beings carry a cross in one way or another. God calls us through His Son to give redemptive meaning to our cross. Many times, circumstances will force us to take it, sometimes by force, but the cross is not useless if we turn to look at Jesus who loved us first.

Let us pray: Lord, encourage me to take my cross with love because in it You are truly present with me and save me. Allow me to be a Cyrene for my brothers.
H. Luis De Ávila, L.C.

IX ESTATION
Jesus consoles the pious women

On the way to Calvary, among the people who esteemed Jesus, the pious women follow Him, pouring out holy tears. It is a meeting full of πάθος, of feeling.

The drawing is entirely figurative in its main scene: Jesus, turning to the women, consoles them and prophesies.

Jesus, however, was drawn while observing a flower that protrudes in the foreground. Jesus’ gaze at the woman is not possessive; it does not seek carnal intentions. It is a gaze of love, of the most eschatological and essential love of one who lets the flower grow in His care and bloom in the beauty that is His own. He does not insult its petals to spill its aroma. He does not trample or cut it with selfish love. Not everything in the garden is green and lush, but the Lord’s gaze encompasses all the reality of the woman, the dark side and the side that is the admiration of sensitive souls.

Four women follow Jesus, of different ages and diverse personalities. Jesus directs His arm of comfort to them. Behind, the Cyrenean challenges us about the gaze we direct at others, which should be that of Jesus.

The second scene rises as an evocation of some of the pains that are part of the feminine cross: we have chosen to represent, on the one hand, the farewell or forgetfulness of children and, on the other, death and loneliness. There, as in the drawing, Jesus’ gaze is not indifferent but remains beside every suffering woman. Hence, His right hand also comforts the shoulder of the woman crying over her dead son in the second, and the crucifix crowns the door of the first scene.
H. Samuel Hurtado, L.C.

X STATION
Jesus is crucified

In this station, we contemplate, in the center, the hand of Christ, the main character of the salvific drama. Two arms hold the cords that keep Christ firm to be nailed to the cross. These hands