Fourteenth Station – Jesus is placed in the sepulcher.

John 19:38-42

I had no grave of my own.  My body was laid in somebody else’s tomb.  Was it fitting that I be put in a borrowed tomb?  Yes.  Even in death I had no place to call my own here on earth.  I didn’t own my own burial plot…

I was always borrowing things, from the very beginning of my incarnation.  I borrowed Mary’s womb for my conception.  I borrowed a crib in Bethlehem to be born.  I borrowed Peter’s boat to preach from.  I borrowed a donkey to ride on when I came into Jerusalem.  I borrowed bread and wine to make my body move and my blood flow in history.  I borrowed thorns, wood and nails to redeem the universe.  Why should my burial be any different?

I will go on borrowing things until the end of time, until I have borrowed them all and made them all holy.

I will also borrow you.  You will be my tongue and my throat, parched.  You will be my hands and feet, nailed.  You will be my head, thorned, You will be my side, lanced.  You will be my body, stripped.  You will be my corpse, buried.

And when the borrowing is over, you will be my brothers and sisters, risen.