John Grondelski on Simon of Cyrene

"It's hard to be a bystander, just passing by. All you want to do is mind your own business and stay out of other people's way - neither to be a bother nor be bothered. Keep your nose clean, and enjoy a little peace. Is that really asking so much?

"And then, without asking for it, along comes life: Your peace is disturbed, your hands get dirty, and you're thrust into something you didn't ask for or want to be a part of. There's something you have to do something about.

"Bystanders sometimes just stand around and 'watch the show.' As long as they mind their own business, a certain morbid curiosity might apply. We wonder how a young woman can be assaulted in the middle of a party and yet nobody saw anything, said anything or did anything. More often, bystanders pretend 'not to see.' . . .

"Among the figures who cross the stage of the Paschal Triduum is a man I consider the patron saint of bystanders, as well as a pretend bystander. Let me introduce Simon of Cyrene.

"Jesus is on his way to his death, sentenced by Pilate to be crucified, carrying his cross down the Via Dolorosa out of the city he entered so triumphantly, as we read in the Passion narrative on Palm Sunday. . . .

"And, just as Jesus is in the midst of the central act of human history, there comes a passerby on his way back from the fields, a certain Simon. Was his day over? Or was he just on a lunch break? Was he hurrying home for that 'solemn feast day?' Or was he even a Jew? Had he stopped for a moment to see the show, maybe get a look at the unlucky guy who would soon be suffocating under the noonday sun, the full weight of his body suspended on spikes in his arms and legs? Or did he just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when he encountered the Way of the Cross?"

In a recent commentary, writer John M. Grondelski reflected on Simon of Cyrene and his ministry to Jesus on His Way of the Cross.

To access Mr. Grondelski's complete essay, please visit:

National Catholic Register: Simon of Cyrene: The Patron Saint of Passersby (14 APR 17)