The Eighth Station of the Cross: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

[The following is from a series first posted during Lent in 2015.]

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Jesus tells the women to weep not for him but for themselves and for their children

Pablo Picaso's "The Weeping Woman"

Throughout the ages, it has been the women who bear so much of the suffering inflicted by Empire. When Jesus spoke to the women in Jerusalem on his way to the cross, he saw their weeping and knew the greater sorrow that they would endure in the years ahead when their children would grow up just to become fodder for the war machine of Empire. Picaso painted “The Weeping Woman” in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. He painted “Guernica” that same year to depict the tragedy and suffering brought on by the casual bombing of Spain by the Nazi war machine. While "Guernica" has come to be a reminder of the tragedy of war, "The Weeping Woman" is a universal image of suffering.

When you go out today, take note of the women you see. Many of them will be silently bearing the sorrow of having lost someone dear to them at the hands of Empire and its war machine. They bear the suffering brought on by lost lives, cripples bodies and shattered minds of their children who grew up to serve their country and were crushed by Empire.



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