Station IX: Jesus is Stripped of His Garments
"They divided my garments among them. Upon my vesture, they cast lots."
To be stripped naked is for us humiliation and exposure to ridicule and disgust. Yet it is the original state in which we were created and born. Through his nakedness, Christ reveals how sin has disfigured our original beauty. In His resurrection, he restores it.
We take nothing with us to the grave. All things are restored in resurrection.
St. John of the Cross speaks of the dark night of the senses during which we strip ourselves of all creaturely comforts and desires. Only stripped of these things can we pass through the darkness and into the light of divine renewal.
In Baptism, we die with Christ that we may rise with Him. We are also stripped of the garments of our old way of life in order to be clothed with new Life. In the ancient Rites of Baptism, the catechumen was stripped naked before entering the font. Upon rising from the water of the font, they received the white garment of the resurrection.
