The Stations of the Cross are a uniquely Catholic devotion focusing on the Passion and death of Jesus Christ. Most Christians, including Catholics, prefer to center their attentions on the Resurrection of Jesus in which death and sin are overcome. Yet it was in his torments and crucifixion that Jesus most intimately embraced his humanity--and ours. None of us directly observes resurrection in this world, yet we all must endure and find meaning in the inescapable realities of human suffering and death.
John McDonough's "Sonnets of the Cross: The Via Dolorosa" is an extraordinary reflection on Jesus' final hours which is organized around the traditional Stations of the Cross, yet is expressed in a literary form which is rare and complex. While most people have some familiarity with sonnets, particularly as utilized by Shakespeare, Mr. McDonough chose to use the "Heroic Crown of Sonnets" as the vehicle for his work. The Heroic Crown of Sonnets is composed of 15 sonnets, each of which follows the specific format and rhythm of that form of poetry, but which are also interconnected in a particular manner. Each sonnet opens with the final line from the preceding sonnet and the final sonnet is a synthesis of each of those lines. On top of the exceedingly difficult task of combining these elements, the author also wove an acrostic into the final sonnet--reading down the first letter of each line, one finds the theme of the work--"The Via Dolorosa."
Yet as well as Mr. McDonough mastered the technical aspects of his work, it is the imagery evoked through his language which is most compelling. Who among us cannot relate to the agony of a mother who watches helplessly as her son is led to a brutal death which he in no way deserves? Do we all not falter and fall at times in life under the burdens of sorrows and miseries which threaten to overwhelm us? In our darkest hours, we also find ourselves with the words of Jesus on our lips: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"
The work ends not with the triumph of the Resurrection, but with the hope for it--and even the uncertainty and doubt that assailed Jesus' closest followers:
As heaven holds your breath
we breathless wait.
The Catholic tradition not only proclaims the joy and triumph of the Resurrection, it also embraces and reflects on everyday human experience, including the sorrows that are woven into the very fabric of our lives--and a God who loves those He created to such an extent that he entered into human history to draw us to Himself. Read this work--then come back to it and read it again, for you will discover something new each time.
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![Sonnets of the Cross: The Via Dolorosa: A Heroic Crown of Sonnets on the Stations of the Cross by [John McDonough, David McDonough]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/413u3Lvl-1L._SY346_.jpg)
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