In the Gospel of Luke we are told that while carrying His cross to Calvary Jesus encountered women in the crowd who expressed their sorrow at His suffering. In response Jesus said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children.”
(Lk: 23, 28).
This encounter comes after Jesus had already suffered greatly with the scourging ordered by Pilate. Subsequently, He picked up His cross for the agonizing walk to Calvary. Through it all He was jeered and mocked by the crowds.
This description, which is also highlighted in the eighth station of the cross, is a poignant reminder for us to think about what Jesus went through for us. The women were, perhaps, lamenting the signs of torture and the disfigurement already evidenced by Jesus as He approached them. Any rightly formed heart would recoil at the sight of any human being put through such suffering. As mothers with children they were particularly anguished.
Nevertheless, Jesus is more than another abused prisoner of the Romans. He is the incarnation of innocence, having done no wrong — as the Good Thief will later proclaim. He also bears the sins of the world to the cross — sins that are ours, not His.
His words to the women, however, show the need for an even deeper reflection. In this encounter, Jesus embraces once more the humility of His incarnation. Even though He is God who has willingly embraced this suffering, He urges the women not to weep for Him. He is fulfilling the Father’s will with every step on His Via Crucis.
Pope St. John Paul II reflected that Jesus’s urging to the women to weep for themselves and their children calls us to a deeper sorrow. That is the repentance for sin and for the involvement of our own consciences in the evil that He carried to the cross. “One cannot merely scrape away at the surface of evil; one has to get down to its roots, its causes, the inner truth of conscience.” (Way of the Cross, Meditations by His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Good Friday, 2003).
Each Lent the Church provides us with a new occasion to examine our hearts to identify the sins that added to the weight of Jesus’ cross. Our fasting, prayer and works of charity are meant to strengthen us to be done with those sins, especially those to which we are accustomed or even addicted. We need also to engage in prayers of penance and reparation, specifically directed to Jesus to express our sorrow for our offenses offered to the person of the Son of God.
Of course, the highest form of reconciliation with God is the forgiveness of sins. For this Jesus instituted the sacrament of reconciliation. Please be sure to make a good confession in the few weeks remaining in the Lenten season.
Our Be Reconciled Day, celebrated this year on March 25, provides a convenient opportunity to go to confession. All of our parishes in the Diocese of Rockford seek to make confessions available from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Check your parish bulletin, web site or bereconciled.rockforddiocese.org for specific times.
Each year on that day, many receive that sacrament, some after an absence of many years. With many articles in the press highlighting the increasing number of people coming to the Catholic Church or returning to the faith this Lent, reports also indicate an increase in the number of people going to confession. This resurgence is a beautiful example of people responding to Christ’s call not to weep but to be reconciled in order to more deeply return to God and the love He has for each of us. Please, come and join this movement.
