This Easter, Gardens of Gethsemani Catholic Cemetery in Surrey will unveil its newest addition, 14 bronze caste panels for visitors to meditate on the via lucis or Way of Light. The 14 panels show the Pascal story, starting with Christ’s Resurrection on Easter and ending with the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Here, Father Pierre Ducharme, OFM, pastor of St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Richmond, shares his meditations on the century’s old tradition:
A respected Franciscan liturgist, now deceased, once grumbled that many of the Church’s popular devotions failed to reflect the Paschal Mystery. He was hopeful, way back when, that the liturgical renewal of the Second Vatican Council would lead to the development of more Christ-centred devotions. One timeless devotion never lamented was the Way (or “Stations”) of the Cross.
Originating with St. Francis of Assisi, who desired to bring the Gospels to life with living depictions of not only Jesus’ passion but also of his birth, the Way of the Cross is one Christ-centred devotion that has withstood time and several liturgical evolutions. Now, we have also been given the Way of Light (Stations of the Resurrection).
My introduction to the via lucis, 14 stories of the risen Lord, came in 2021. For reasons everyone remembers, it was a dark time. Hope was wanting. At St. Joseph the Worker parish, as everywhere, we were scrambling for any and all reasons to engage the faithful virtually.
So, in Lent, we hosted the Stations of the Cross via livestream. Then, while searching for more content, one of our schoolteachers suggested the Stations of the Resurrection.
I was surprised when I first learned about the Stations of the Resurrection or Way of Light. I was even more surprised to discover the beautiful resources that were available.
The Way of Light, also known as the Stations of the Resurrection, celebrates the 50 days of Easter, the most joyful time in the Christian calendar.
Using the metaphor of a journey, the Way of Light moves us from the experience of darkness and suffering to one of light and hope, which is the promise of Easter: liberation, joy, and peace. All the Easter gospels are reflected in the Way of the Light.
Since the pandemic our parish has invited parishioners to pray the via lucis devotion throughout the Easter season. A very Christ-centred devotion, it also seems to be a popular one.
This is not 2021, but the want for hope in resurrection is every bit as real. As so many of us shiver before the reality of suffering and death, our faith offers the opportunity to contemplate the soul-lifting mysteries of Christ’s exit from the tomb.
Death, we know, has a sting. But it most certainly does not have the last word.
A devotion inspired in the catacombs
The Way of the Cross (Via Crucis) follows the course of Jesus' passion, death, and burial; it is observed by the devotion to the Stations of the Cross, a collection of 14 images which are to be found in virtually all Catholic churches.
The Way of Light (Via Lucis) celebrates the most joyful time in the Christian liturgical year, the 50 days from Easter (the Resurrection) to Pentecost (Descent of the Holy Spirit). The idea for depicting the Way of Light was inspired by an ancient inscription found on a wall of the San Callisto Catacombs on the Appian Way in Rome. This cemetery is named for Saint Callistus, a slave who eventually became the 16th pope (217-222). The inscription found at Saint Callistus comes from the first letter St. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth (around 56 A.D.) in response to the report that some members were denying the Resurrection. The full statement in the letter is 1 Corinthians 15:3-8):
“I delivered to you as of first importance what I had been taught myself, namely that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised to life on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles. Last of all, he appeared to me, too, as though I was born when no one expected it.”
In the 1990s, Father Sabino Palumbieri, a Salesian priest in Rome, helped develop the idea to combine the events mentioned in the Saint Callistus inscription with other post-Resurrection events to create a new set of stations, the Stations of the Resurrection. These new stations emphasize the positive, hopeful aspect of the Christian story that is not absent from the Way of the Cross but is not as evident because of its tortuous side. This Way of Light, as it was called, thus serves as a complement to the Way of the Cross and was fashioned of 14 stations paralleling the 14 Stations of the Cross.
This devotion has received formal recognition by the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The Via Lucis was listed (#153) in its Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (December 2001):
A pious exercise called the Via Lucis has developed and spread to many regions in recent years. Following the model of the Via Crucis, the faithful process while meditating on the various appearances of Jesus-from his Resurrection to his Ascension-in which he showed his glory to the disciples who awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. John 14, 26; 16, 13-15; Luke: 24, 49), strengthened their faith, brought to completion his teaching on the Kingdom and more closely defined the sacramental and hierarchical structure of the Church.
Through the Via Lucis, the faithful recall the central event of the faith-the resurrection of Christ-and their discipleship in virtue of Baptism, the paschal sacrament by which they have passed from the darkness of sin to the bright radiance of the light of grace (cf. Colossians 1, 13; Ephesians 5, 8).
For centuries, the Via Crucis involved the faithful in the first moment of the Easter event, namely the Passion, and helped to fix its most important aspects in their consciousness. Analogously, the Via Lucis, when celebrated in fidelity to the Gospel text, can effectively convey a living understanding to the faithful of the second moment of the Pascal event, namely the Lord's Resurrection.
The Via Lucis is potentially an excellent pedagogy of the faith since "per crucem ad lucem" (through the cross to the light). Using the metaphor of a journey, the Via Lucis moves from the experience of suffering, which in God's plan is part of life, to the hope of arriving at man's true end: liberation, joy, and peace, which are essentially paschal values.
The Via Lucis is a potential stimulus for the restoration of a "culture of life" which is open to the hope and certitude offered by faith in a society often characterized by a "culture of death," despair, and nihilism.
Catholic News Agency
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