BREWER, Maine — As Matthew Morrow, who portrayed Jesus of Nazareth in the fourth annual Way of the Cross Palm Sunday Community Procession, got dressed for his role on Sunday, his mother started to cry.
“It just gives me goosebumps,” Cheryl Morrow said, as she wrapped her son in shrouds so he could play the role of God’s begotten son.
More than six dozen members of St. Paul the Apostle Parish, which is made up of the Catholic churches in Bangor, Brewer, Hampden and Winterport, get dressed up in biblical costumes to take part in the annual pilgrimage of prayer in preparation for Easter.
“I’ve known the story my whole life,” Matthew Morrow, a second year pre-med student at Husson University, said of Christ’s condemnation, crucifixion and death. “It gives you an idea of what Jesus went through. And it teaches you how good we have it today and how bad it was back then. To be able to feel that is what I take away.”
The procession, which consists of prayers, readings, re-enactments and spiritual meditations, is based on the 14 traditional Stations of the Cross. It starts at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Brewer and ends at St. John Catholic Church in Bangor, where soup and bread are served to end the three-hour gathering.
A thurifer led the procession, swinging a thurible containing smoking incense that filled the air with ancient perfume. Torchbearers dressed in white followed him with Roman legionnaires, armed with swords, escorting Jesus in the middle of the procession that also included his mother, the Virgin Mary; more torchbearers; and Holy Land townspeople. The townspeople sometimes sang songs of prayer while walking along the 1.6-mile route.
Following behind them this year, with warm weather and sunny skies, were more than 100 residents who also sang and said prayers at the appropriate times in the procession.
Elizabeth Labun, a senior at Hampden Academy, portrayed Mary.
“It’s a very humbling experience,” she said in the church’s dressing room as others got prepared. “It’s such a powerful experience. I think it puts the Passion of the Christ in a whole different perspective for me. Christ gave so much.”
For Morrow, the 12th station, where Jesus dies on the cross after being stripped of his garments and nailed to it, is the most moving for him.
“It hits you hard. That’s difficult and that stands out to me,” he said.
The death of Jesus is also tough on his mother, who teared up just thinking about it.
“That is probably when I’m going to lose it,” Cheryl Morrow said just before the procession started.
Morrow’s mother said participating in the Way of the Cross gives people a first-hand experience that changes them for the better.
“It makes you realize you need to love the people in your lives and respect all the others,” she said. “If we would listen, the world would be a much better place.”