Perhaps on that day Simon of Cyrene could not imagine what the Roman soldiers would force him to do. He was not witnessing Jesus’ excruciating punishment, but happened to be passing by; perhaps he hoped to go unnoticed and reach his home as soon as possible. Instead, as we read in the Synoptic Gospels (that is, those of Matthew, Mark, and Luke), he was forced to take the cross upon himself and carry it in Jesus’ place (Mt 27,32; Mc 15,21; Lc 23,26). In wanting to “avoid” the cross, in his desire to bypass pain, Simon is very close to us, and his story has much to tell us.
Why is the name of Simon of Cyrene remembered in the Gospel of Mark?
The Gospel of Mark gives us the names of Simon’s two sons, Alexander and Rufus, who do not appear elsewhere in the Gospel. They are not prominent figures of the time, and Mark probably mentioned them with the intention of calling them as witnesses to the event involving their father.
This means that both are still alive when Mark writes his Gospel and that, in some way, the Christian community to which Mark is addressing it knows them. This community is the one in Rome.
The evangelist Mark mentions very few proper names, and the fact that he cites the name of Simon of Cyrene and his sons testifies to the importance attributed to them.
A little history
Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry the cross, and this was fully in line with the customs of the time. The Romans, who ruled Judea, oppressed the people under their authority through displays of force. There was a law that allowed Roman officials to force anyone to complete a task, even a very arduous one, regardless of the person’s social status. Simon of Cyrene was also a victim of this law: he was chosen to carry the patibulum, that is, the horizontal beam of the cross, behind Jesus. He, who according to some historical sources may have been a notable, and therefore a cultured man, was not only humiliated by such a task but would not even have been able to take part in Passover because, having touched the wood of the instrument of torture and death, he had become impure in the eyes of God and men.
Simon of Cyrene also speaks of us
Perhaps Simon of Cyrene resembles us; perhaps he represents all of us when we are faced with a sudden difficulty, a heavy burden to bear that we had not anticipated, a trial, an illness—in short, when we find ourselves having to bear the weight of the cross. We ask ourselves, as the Cyrenian probably did: «Why me? Why now?».
The path to follow was the one that Simon was forced to take; it is the same path that Jesus himself points out to us when he invites us to take up our cross every day and follow him. In doing this, we will experience that the light of hope continues to shine even in the darkness; that Jesus bears the cross with us and never leaves us alone… We will discover that, as he himself promised us, with him we taste life and true joy!
