The guards jeered and called out “Walk!” as they struck the cross with knotted ropes. The two thieves, their hands tied to the heavy poles on their shoulders, trudged along behind. Behind them, the women: a sorrowful Mary and Veronica; and at the head of it all, Jesus, crown of thorns on his head, stumbling under his burden.
When the station is called for Jesus to fall for the first time, the procession stops and one last whack from the guards brings Jesus to his knees on the asphalt road running through town.
As a Scripture passage is read and an Our Father prayed, some of the bystanders are on their knees, in spite of the rain.
When the column begins its walk again, a guitarist leads them in the refrain: “Perdona tu pueblo, Señor.” “Forgive your people, Lord.”
It’s a scene that played out across the Spanish-speaking world on Good Friday, a traditional part of the Catholic culture in many Latin American countries.
St. Damien Parish in Ocean City has held this Way of the Cross, with actors in costume reenacting the 14 stations during a nearly mile-long procession, for the last four years. The walk begins on the steps of one of the parish’s churches, and ends in the parking lot of another, 10 blocks away, transformed into Calvary.
For Aurelio Calderón, a native of Mexico and master of ceremonies for the procession, the tradition is a deeply spiritual as well as cultural event.
“In our country, it’s a tradition to accompany Christ in his passion and death, to remember what he suffered, to give sense to our spirituality, to know him as true God and true man.”
The parish’s large Hispanic community turns out each year in force for the “Via Crucis.” But many English-speaking members of the congregation also join in the solemn occasion.
“It strengthens the whole community,” said Bill Flynn of the integration of the two groups, English and Spanish-speaking, in the parish. He’s Grand Knight of the parish’s Knights of Columbus council. Within the last two years, he said, the council inducted 30 new Hispanic members.
Father Alvaro Diaz, a Spanish-speaking priest in the parish, talks with pride of the way the two communities integrate through parish events both social and spiritual. He gestures at the crowd gathered in the church parking lot after the procession. “Our integration here is in a living way, a living manner.”
Similar living Way of the Cross processions took place throughout the Diocese of Camden on Good Friday in many Hispanic communities.
Roberto Bautista, a three-year member of the Knights of the Columbus, played the role of a guard for the first time in this year’s procession. He said the experience nearly brought him to tears.
“So many things came into my mind while I was walking,” he said. “We did this to him; he did all this for us. I don’t know how to explain it.”
Sonia Alparado walked with her teenaged children. She remembers the tradition from her home country, El Salvador. But for her, the Way of the Cross is about more than nostalgia:
“It is a memory of my country, but more than anything, I’m remembering the sacrifice of my Lord.”
Written by Joanna Gardner for the Catholic Star Herald
Photo – Alan Dumoff