Sister Marie Claire Naidu
(second half of the twentieth century)
Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Bangalore – India

NINTH STATION
Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

From the Gospel according to Saint Luke. 23:27-28

And there followed him a great multitude of the people, and of women who bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus, turning to them, said: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”

MEDITATION

Before the weeping women, Jesus is self-forgetful.  His anxiety is not about his pains, but about the tragic future that awaits them and their children.

The destinies of societies are intimately linked to the wellbeing of their women.  Wherever women are held in low esteem or their role remains diminished, societies fail to rise to their true potentiality.  In the same way, wherever their responsibility to the rising generation is neglected, ignored, or marginalized, the future of that society becomes uncertain.

There are many societies in the world where women fail to receive a fair deal.  Christ must be weeping for them.  There are societies too that are thoughtless about their future.  Christ must be weeping for their children.  Wherever there is unconcern for the future, through the overuse of resources, the degradation of the environment, the oppression of women,  the neglect of family values, the ignoring of ethical norms, the abandonment of religious traditions, Jesus must be telling people: “Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”[1]

PRAYER

Lord, you are the Master of history.  And yet you wanted our collaboration in realizing your plans.  Help us to play a responsible role in society: leaders in their communities, parents in their families, educators and health-workers among those who need to be served, communicators in the world of information.  Arouse in us a sense of mission in what we do, a deep sense of responsibility to each other, to society, to our common future and to you.  For you have placed the destinies of our communities and of humanity itself into our hands. 

Lord, do not turn away from us when you see women humiliated or your image disfigured in the human person; when we interfere with life-systems, weaken the nurturing power of nature, pollute running streams or the deep blue seas or the Northern snows. Save us from cruel indifference to our common future, and do not let us drag our civilization down the path of decline.

All:

Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a malo.

Eia mater, fons amoris,
me sentire vim doloris
fac, ut tecum lugeam.

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