Ninth Station: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

And there followed him a great multitude of people, and of women, who bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning to them, said: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over me; but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For behold, the days shall come, wherein they will say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the paps that have not given suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us. For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?(Lk 23:27-31, Douay-Rheims Version)

There are many studies made about women’s intuition. Many of us have experienced how women are able to tell if their significant other is lying or telling the truth. Scientific studies have shown that women are somehow better than men in reading emotions and situations. How they are doing it? No one actually knows. There are many theories, from culture to genetics, that try to explain the phenomenon, but none are really conclusive. Anyway, women tend to know things without consciously reasoning it out. The same can be said for the women who were weeping for Jesus. They knew He was authentic, when the male-only Sanhedrin doubted and sought to destroy Him.

Instead of thanking them for caring for him, Jesus makes a strange remark: weep for yourselves, and for your children (Lk 23:28, Douay-Rheims Version). The reason he gives the women for this strange remark is that there will come a time when people will be so tormented that they wish they did not exist. Jesus knows why he is suffering His passion. In the future, many people will not know why they are being tormented. In the words of Jesus, He gives us a clue to the reason for the torment. The children of the women of Jerusalem would forget their origins. They would forget God their creator. Jesus knew where He came from although the Jews did not (see John 7:14). The people who had forgotten who God was would suffer torment.

There are many who call themselves Christian but have a flawed image of God. God as Father is more a vending machine, doling out gifts that are asked for. This is a flawed image of God. God is not in control here but the human being. It is not the human being living to what God expects but that God does what the human being expects in this flawed image. Thus, there is the torment of one who feels that God has abandoned them when things do not turn out as expected. It is also easy for a person with such an image of God to shift their focus from the creator God to created objects. The pandemic that we are facing now has caused many Catholic Churches to cease the public celebrations during Holy Week that form the most important part of the Catholic Liturgical Calendar. I have heard of irate people who cannot understand why there are no blessed palms. They question why they cannot be allowed to “kiss the cross”. Could not having palms or the public veneration of the cross be more important than the gratitude of our hearts for a God that loves us? The Liturgy are memorials. The Liturgy celebrate significant events in the history of humanity with regard to God and his promises. These memorials point us to God. When the importance moves from God to the things that aid us to remember God’s great acts, we forget, to some extent, the God who created us and continues to love us. We complain of the lack of what we have always had and expect to have, and miss the point totally. Like the “they” that Jesus refers to in his words to the women of Jerusalem, we might end up asking for mountains to fall on us.

Palms, the baptismal water, the wood of the cross and the paschal candle are all important items during Holy Week. Yet we must not forget the God who makes these created things important. It is He who gives meaning to them during this time of the year. The most impactful memory of 2020 in the world would most probably be “COVID-19.” In our life in Christ, let 2020 be the year when we, as Catholics, return to that which is more fundamental: the love of God who continues to love us despite not having palms, not being able to “kiss the cross” and not being able to witness the lighting of the paschal candle. Let us return to the memory of the great saving event of God in Jesus Christ at its most basic. This is expressed in the words of Jesus is the Gospel of St. John, which incidentally does not contain any mention of palms or the cross: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (Jn 3:16, Revised Standard Version)