Forgetting his own pain, Jesus consoles the woman who are weeping for
him. If we reflect on the millions who are facing death from hunger,
those imprisoned, those living under bridges, the jobless, we too may
feel like crying, but tears do not produce comfort or bread.
When
the institutional church fails to practice the justice it so movingly
proclaims to the world, we are diminished as Christians. How many tears
must a woman shed for her sons? How many tears are being shed today by
mothers for their children; by sisters for their brothers; by daughters
for their fathers? The tears of women around the world water the earth
every day. As I got off the bus which took me to visit a loved one in
prison, the women gathered in the waiting room with tears, fear, anger,
and eagerness. Some of them shared their stories and some of them
brought their children. Their tears were real and so was their faith.
I
volunteer for the wonderful prison ministry here at our church and it
was the week of Thanksgiving. I was hired to play the guitar for a
special Thanksgiving Mass to be held that week in a local jail. The
local Bishop and priests were invited to say Mass for the inmate
population. Over fifty priests showed up and the press was there to
take pictures of the church living its ministry to the poor, oppressed
and imprisoned. The tiny chapel could only hold about sixty people.
Only ten inmates were invited to attend this Mass. If there were not so
many priests present for this ministerial photo-op, there would have
been room for more inmates to attend. I can only imagine, if Jesus
were there, as in the temple, he would have stormed in and knocked over
the tables and maybe even punched a few priests in the noses. Jesus
wasn’t angry over money changing hands that day as much as he was angry
that the vendors displaced the poorest of the poor from being able to
enter the temple to pray.
Like Jesus himself, the women and
children and the inmates are like grain to be ground by the millstone of
injustice. The powers and principalities will one day be vanquished,
but in the interim, there is solace in mutual love and steadfast
resistance.
Jesus, as you carry your cross you see a group
of women along the road. As you pass by you see they are sad. You stop
to spend a moment with them, to offer them some encouragement. Although
you are have been abandoned by your friends and are in pain, you stop
and try to help them. Sometimes we act like children. We become so
absorbed in ourselves and in what we’d like that we forget about the
needs of others. We take them for granted, and often ignore their needs.
Help us to think more about others. Help us to remember that others
have problems, too. Help us respond to them even when we’re busy or
preoccupied with our own problems.
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