Faithful Woman Tends To Jesus Series

A Faithful Woman Tends to Jesus

(Those of us who have had the privilege and honor of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land always make Jerusalem part of the holy time. There, although the Jewish Temple has been replaced by a grand mosque, we can see the very places we read about in the New Testament, the actions of our redemption through the life, passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many make the way of the cross, the Via Dolorosa, an ancient prayer service with stops at places that commemorate events of Our Lord’s tortuous journey to the place of His execution. Some of the stations, as they are called, are taken directly from the Gospels, some are inferred from the practice of crucifixion, and a few come from the more reliable Christian traditions.)

The sixth station of the cross imagines one of the women bystanders during the via dolorosa tending to the suffering Jesus as he trudges through the streets, beaten and mocked, coming forward. In an instant, she tears the veil from her head and wipes the Savior’s face. There is no verse in Scripture attesting to this event, but if His Mother could embrace Him, if a stranger could bear His load, could not a woman take a few seconds to wipe the sweat and blood from His eyes, and meet her Lord, face to face, heart speaking to heart?

A pious legend attends this likely event and tells us that the face of Jesus was imprinted on the woman’s veil. Moreover, this gives the woman, otherwise anonymous, an unforgettable name, which many girls over the centuries have been given. Her name is assigned to be Vero-nika, a blend of the Latin word for “true” and the Greek word for “image.” I think even if a Christian might not believe in the authenticity of the veil of Veronika, a valuable spiritual insight can be derived from this brief encounter, and the permanent memory it evoked in the Christian community.

Human beings were created by God in the “image and likeness” of Himself. God designed us to be full of love, overflowing love, just as He is and exemplifies love (agape). Jesus, Son of God, became son of Mary, truly human and truly divine, in order to pour Himself out in teaching, healing, and suffering and dying so that we could be saved. As Athanasius said many times, God became human so that humans could become divine, adopted children of the Father. So what do we do in response to this unsurpassed, self-sacrificial gift?

Jesus calls us to follow Him, that is, to act selflessly in our world as He did in His. Paul refers to our becoming other Christs. Inasmuch as we conform ourselves to Jesus, take on His image, we follow His call to discipleship. One clear teaching that rings in our memories is given to us in Matthew’s Gospel: “whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple will never lose his reward." The woman at the sixth station of the “road of sorrows” is acting out in her life what Jesus demands in all our lives. We can say about her and about anyone who acted out empathy for Christ on that day of our salvation what Jesus said about the woman who anointed Him at Bethany before His Passover: “wherever this Gospel is preached in all the world, what she has done will always be told in memory of her.”

Whatever be the historicity of the moment, the story continues to speak to Christians to this day, and serves as a reminder to us who want to be like Christ that we must give special care to the oppressed, the marginalized, and the victims of unjust injury and murder. Wherever we give care to Christ's little ones, a little of the image of Christ remains imprinted on our souls.