World Youth Day Madrid 2011: the Way of the Cross

It was the first great ecclesial event of this 26th WYD to take place in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI, and it was the very essence of Spanish devotion. The world had come to Madrid and Madrid brought the Iberian Holy Week and in particular, their Way of the Cross, to the world stage. Fraternities, ancient guilds of artisans, custodians of Stations had carried the precious statues from all four corners of the nation to Madrid’s Cibeles square. The station from Malaga leaving the city boundaries for the first time in its centuries old history.
The sun was still high, beating down on the pilgrims as they watched the giant wooden World Youth Day Cross come to rest before the first station to the notes of Ubi caritas. It was carried in turn along the path marking Christ’s passion, by young Christians from Iraq, from Rwanda, from Spain, young Catholics with disabilities, young men and women who have recovered from addiction.
The mediations were written by the “Hermanas de la Cruz", Sisters of the Cross, the spiritual daughters of Angela de la Cruz, a religious congregation founded in Seville in 1875 a congregation of women at the forefront in helping those who society have forgotten, who care for today’s suffering. In fact the meditations were devoted to the problems of the world's youth, their sufferings.
The third station, Peter's denial, spoke of the innocent victims of the wars that devastate the nations and how Jesus calms the heart of many people who await the salvation of God in silence. The meditation on the ninth station, "Jesus is stripped of his garments," of crimes against children; “Jesus suffers with all of those who suffer, with those that are victims of genocide, violence, rape and sexual abuse, crimes against children and adults...How many people have been stripped of their dignity, their innocence, and their trust in man!”.
The reflection in the thirteenth station focused on the pain of parents who have lost children to hunger “while affluent societies, swallowed by the dragon of consumerism, of materialistic perversion, sink in the nihilism of the emptiness of their lives." The final moment was the Contemplation of Our Lady of Sorrows from Seville.
“In these images, faith and art combine so as to penetrate our heart and summon us to conversion”, said Pope Benedict. “Christ’s passion urges us to take upon our own shoulders the sufferings of the world, in the certainty that God is not distant or far removed from man and his troubles. On the contrary, he became one of us “in order to suffer with man in an utterly real way”.
Then he concluded with an appeal to the young people, that they “go in search of those less fortunate”, that they share their lives with others, “so be sure not to pass by on the other side in the face of human suffering”, for it is here that God expects you to give of your very best: your capacity for love and compassion”. “The Cross was not a sign of failure, but an expression of self-giving in love that extends even to the supreme sacrifice of one’s life”.
Then to the chant of “Benedicto!”, the Pope took his leave of Cibeles, square, which has been the centre stage of WYD to date. Saturday celebrations move to the vast space of Cuatro Vientos, the military airport on the outskirts of Madrid, for the great prayer vigil and Sunday’s closing Mass. Listen