Scriptural Stations Meditations - Ninth Station

Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You.
Because by Your holy cross You have
redeemed the world.

A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including
many women who mourned and lamented him.
Jesus turned to them and said,
"Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me;
weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say,
‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.'
At that time, people will say to the mountains,
‘Fall upon us!' and to the hills, ‘Cover us!'
for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?"

~Luke 23: 27-31

We pray:

Lord Jesus, You are on the point of death, but even now
Your compassionate heart is looking for ways to give,
to comfort others, to save those along the way.
You pause and speak with these women,
weeping and mourning at the sight of Your suffering
and at the vulgar noise of the crowd.
Was Your face new to them, or had they been part of the crowds
that followed You and listened to Your words?
What must have been the reaction of these women to this encounter?
What did they see in Your face?
They could not have understood clearly
the meaning of the words You spoke, and yet,
what must it have been like
to look into the eyes of the Suffering Servant in His very agony?
You try to open their eyes to the wider realities around them,
to help them see that it is the
unwillingness to be open to the truth that causes this suffering,
that people have not recognized
the time of their visitation (Luke 19:44).

Lord, give us the grace to recognize Your presence among us,
in the people around us, in the activities of the day,
and especially within Your Church.
Help us to appreciate the truth that You are always coming to us,
particularly in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist,
so that we might open ourselves fully to the transformation You promise,
and live in gratitude for this Presence.

May Your Presence within us and among us
radiate joyfully, that we may be bearers of Your Light into
every darkened place in the world.