On the Via Dolorosa with Christ: Meditations on the Easter Story

After two millennia, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ remain the foundation of Christian faith. No matter how often the story of Easter is told and how much it is explained, we are awed by the inscrutability of God's incarnation in Christ and find ourselves caught up in an event that transcends our understanding and surrounds us in a sea of divine love that belongs to the realm of mystery. These forty mediations invite the reader to reflect on Christ's walk on the Via Dolorosa, the path of suffering that a bruised and exhausted Jesus had to trudge from the place of his condemnation to the site of his crucifixion. It is a sobering journey. It is also a holy path toward God. With the author the reader can walk from sacred place to sacred place and feel the transforming power of the presence of Christ. In this pilgrimage we encounter a tormented Judas, a bewildered peter, a transformed Thomas, and two startled disciples on the road to Emmaus. The passion story leads believers and readers through the tragic disintegration of moral and spiritual claims to a fresh reaffirmation of the promise of transfiguration and resurrection.