About 1,000 people joined in praying for immigration reform and immigrant families, as well for solidarity with all people who are poor or marginalized as they followed the Via Crucis, or Way of the Cross, at St. Jerome Parish on Good Friday, April 18.

Cardinal Cupich joined the procession for the last portion.

Father Noel Reyes, pastor of St. Jerome, said there is a natural connection between Jesus’ suffering on the road to Calvary and what immigrants and migrants experience, and that many immigrants find inspiration in uniting their suffering to that of Jesus.

“An immigrant’s journey is at times painful, vulnerable, risky and challenging,” Reyes said in an email. “Jesus’ pain and resilience during the Way of the Cross inspire an immigrant who knows what it means to be an outsider and often insignificant, but also persecuted by the governing power that is frequently unable to see beyond the laws.”

At the beginning of the service, Reyes led the congregation in praying for an end to wars and persecution and for immigration reform.

The outdoor procession began with a cast of volunteer actors reenacting the first station, in which Jesus is condemned to death, in front of St. Ignatius Church, 6559 N. Glenwood Ave.

Jesus, portrayed by  Erwin José Martínez Blandon, was scourged and mocked by the Roman guards before the crowd called for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be crucified. Then he took up his cross – the second station — and began the roughly mile — long procession.

Along the way, the sounds of Roman guards whipping and yelling at both Jesus and the two men crucified with him punctuated the congregation’s prayers and songs in English and Spanish.

The events recounted at each of the Stations of the Cross, including Jesus falling and meeting his mother and the women of Jerusalem, were acted out.

At the fifth station, in which Simon of Cyrene is pressed into service to help Jesus, Reyes reminded the congregation, “We are gathering today not simply to recall an event, but to make it real to our own lives.”

“You have given all people one common origin,” he prayed, “and you gather us as one family to yourself.”

Each station also included prayers and a brief reflection from the perspective of Jesus’ mother, Mary.

Cardinal Cupich joined the procession at the seventh station, at which Jesus falls the second time.

“Teach us to pray like Jesus in Gethsemane,” he prayed, “so that we learn to share the pain and sorrow of all the world.”

The cardinal continued with the procession into the courtyard at St. Jerome Church, 1709 W. Lunt Ave., where the crosses were erected for the penultimate stations, in which Jesus is stripped of his clothing, nailed to the cross and dies before his body is taken down.

The final station, Jesus being laid in the tomb, was in the church, followed immediately by veneration of the cross.

Yesenia Rayo, Martinez Blandon’s wife, followed the procession with the couple’s young daughter. She said it was “beautiful” to see her husband portraying Jesus, and that she was very proud of how hard he worked in rehearsals.

It was very moving, she said, to see him portraying Jesus taking on all the sins of the world. The Via Crucis, she said, “makes us feel all the suffering that Christ went through.”

Reyes said that the parish felt it was important to emphasize immigration reform during the Via Crucis.

“Since the first Via Crucis was a difficult journey that required the total offering of the life of Jesus, the journey of an immigrant is also a total dedication to a challenging and perilous journey towards the betterment of one’s life,” he said. “The Via Crucis speaks to us of a complicated process, of a life-risking initiative, of violence that many immigrants experienced on the way to the country that they believe can give them a better future. On the other hand, while the Via Crucis was painful, Jesus walked the first one. The inspiration of the Via Crucis reassures someone of the presence of God amid pain and uncertainties.”