The Seventh Station: Jesus Falls a Second Time

“Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

-John 8:7

There is a great temptation to ignore the poor of our world by assuming that their plight is of their own creation. Some may reason that poverty comes from laziness, ignorance or a failure to seize opportunities. But this is an easy way out. We assign blame to someone else to escape culpability. We distance ourselves from a situation we think is remote from our own. We block ourselves off from the real struggles, personal histories and present-day challenges of the individuals and communities that we encounter.

We see that someone has fallen, and we forget that we, too, can just as easily trip and find ourselves face-down in the dirt. In Niger, the changing seasons can bring life-giving rains or disastrous droughts-and that means communities fall into hunger. We may not feel the pangs of hunger, but we all encounter our own seasons of challenge. How are we called to respond so that we can all rise together?