As they led Jesus away,
they seized a certain Cyrenean, Simon, who was coming from the countryside and
they imposed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus.
A great crowd of the
people was following him including some women who were mourning and lamenting
over him.
Turning to them, Jesus
said: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me.
“Weep rather for
yourselves and for your children,
“for, behold, the days
are coming in which they will say,
“‘Blessed are the
barren and the wombs that have not born children and the breasts that have not
nursed.’
“Then they will start
to say to the mountains, ‘fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘cover us.’
“For if these things
happen when the trees are green, what will come to pass when they are dry?”
~~
It
wasn’t the first time Jesus had heard a woman cry out as he walked. Near the start of the great journey to
Jerusalem he undertook, a woman cried out, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and
the breasts at which you nursed!” Jesus
certainly does not deny the blessedness of his Mother Mary, but his response
expands that woman’s vision: “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and do
it.” The blessing of having the Word of
God be born in you is great, but Mary’s motherhood does not compete with or
eclipse, but begets the Church’s motherhood, and who is the Church but all who
hear the word of God and do it? Thus,
the word of God is born in us.
In
this exchange, on this new journey, Jesus expands the vision of some more women. They may or may not be followers of his, but
they see a suffering human and respond with as much compassion as Roman rule
will allow. They weep and wail and mourn
for one suffering body, Christ’s. Jesus
turns to look at them. With breath that
must have been hard to gasp for, he calls them to expand their compassion – do
not just weep for one human body, weep for the whole body of Christ, the People
of God, including yourselves.
Our
Holy Cross constitutions tells us that “For the kingdom to come in this world,
disciples must have the competence to see and the courage to act.” God acts to expand our vision, to expand our
joy, to expand our compassion, and yes, to expand our grief, because only with
eyes of faith that see clearly the needs of the Church and the World, can we
dedicate our lives to serving them.
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