FROM THE COLOSSEUM IN ROME
by Sharon Rondeau
(Mar. 30, 2018) — To commemorate Good Friday, the day on which Scripture says that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified to absolve the world of its sins, past, present and future, Pope Francis is presiding over an enactment of the “Stations of the Cross” from the Roman Colosseum.
The event is being broadcast live on Periscope TV on Twitter and by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.
The Stations of the Cross represent 14 markers in Jesus’s circuitous walk to Golgotha, where He was crucified by the Romans.
He was forced to carry the cross on which He would be crucified and wear a crown of thorns, a mockery of the Romans’ claim that Jesus had called himself a “king.”
The place where Jesus died on the cross is called “Calvary.”
The ceremony is in Italian with English translation provided.
Under the hashtag #StationsoftheCross, Christians from around the world are sharing their individual commemorations of Jesus’s final journey as a flesh-and-blood man.
The suffering and crucifixion of Jesus is told in the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
In the Catholic church, communion is not offered on Good Friday to symbolize the darkness of Jesus’s death at the hands of man.
Scripture says that on the Sunday following the crucifixion, the tomb in which Jesus’s body was placed was found empty, as Jesus had overcome death. That Sunday came to be known as “Easter.”
Pope Francis was captured in both close-up and distant video clips throughout the broadcast.
Attendees of the service included the very young and the elderly. At times the program many of them held depicting each of the Stations in vivid color illustrations was featured by the cameraman.
The “Stations of the Cross” is also known as the “Way of the Cross.”