A number of years ago the New York Daily News carried a story about a television news anchorwoman named Pat Harper who left her luxurious East Side apartment with 80 cents in her pocket and spent five days living on the street "to learn what it's like to be homeless." Harper spent the days wandering the streets in the icy January rain and her nights sleeping in doorways, train stations and public shelters. She began to realize that most of the homeless people were not much different than she. Several people helped, giving her food and advice on how to survive without money. The undercover investigation made her realize that many homeless are simply normal people who have been hit with financial problems from which they have not been able to rebound. There was no other way to know how they felt than for this successful media person to walk where the homeless walk.

There is another who left comfort and convenience to walk where the outcasts walk. He was the same man who took compassion on the widow of Nain. That is essentially the message of the cross. He has walked where we walk. When it is time for us also to walk the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering, he walks with us. That has always been the hope of people whose dreams have been dashed, whose burdens have seemed unbearable.