Art and Passion for a New Jerusalem, Karen Roach (Stations of the Cross Team)

Can a victim find resurrection?
Jesus stands condemned upon the Strand
Bereft of protection.
Enough is enough, we cry
In interjection
 
Taking up His cross he stumbles, humbly
From Parliament Square
Watched by passerby
Truth, kindness contained in downcast eyes
 
In a Methodist chapel
He falls, quiet
Despair and hope intermingled
He shoulders his torment anew
 
Entering Westminster Cathedral
He looks toward his mother
Giving comfort, taking little
Onward still, taking leave of love
 
From Simon of Cyrene he finds relief
Fleeting assistance
Compelled yet willed
From a newcomer, unschooled in cruelty
 
Struggling towards leafy relief in Cavendish Square
Veronica wipes away his trauma
Like Madonna tending to a scraped knee
Leaving behind an impression of grace
 
He falls again in Trafalgar Square
Tugged by rope to a distant cross
While fists and mouths clamour for nails
Grimy degradation, glimpses of transcendence
 
Women offer prayers, veils, solace
Tears transforming into petals
Softly falling into place
In Cocteau’s mystical vision
 
The brutal concrete of the Barbican surrounds him
An unforgiving island
His holy blood runs in rivulets, pooling in the cracks
Annointing the pavement
 
Salvation Army hand-me-downs
Cannot swab away humiliation
Or still his naked shivers
A refugee exiled upon the earth
 
St Paul’s Cathedral he stands crucified
In the bodies of his followers
His sacrifice steeling their determination
His pain inspiriting their bodies
 
A Chapel Royal fitting for a king
But not a place for simpering praise
Or vainglorious parades
But criminals' demise
 
Taken down from the cross in the round of St Stephen’s
He receives his shroud
His frail form looking ahead
To the suffering of his children
 
At last his final station, the tomb at Temple Church
A final descent twisting to ascent
To the depths of hell, then rising again
For His and our resurrection