Hi, I'm Edward Sree, and welcome to all things Catholic, where real faith meets real life.

Of all the stations of the cross, which is the one that troubles you the most, of all

the 14 stations of the cross, is there one that makes you most sad, you're the most

sorrowful over what Jesus is going through?

It really gets to you.

You know, for me, growing up as a Catholic and a Catholic school, I remember it was

really three stations that got me number three, number seven, and number nine.

It was Jesus falling the first time, the second time, and then the third time.

He just kept falling.

I remember in junior high, that just really moving me, looking at these little devotional

books and seeing the images on our church walls of Jesus falling and falling and falling

under the heavy weight of the cross.

Why did he do this?

This is the son of God, the creator of the universe, and he's falling three times.

And as I've gone gotten older and reflected more and more on this, I realize I contribute

to that weight of the cross.

I mean, I was probably told that when I was in junior high, but it's hit me more, especially

after reading something beautiful, I want to share with you today from Pope Benedict

that he wrote many years ago about how the three falls of Jesus, that tradition of him

falling three times by three, it corresponds to the threefold wounds of human nature,

fallen human nature, the threefold fallen state of humanity after original sin.

What the New Testament describes in 1 John chapter 2 verse 16, as the lust of the eyes,

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