Page 106 - laten-08-06-2020

were with them. But they stayed all through the end not only
for their concern and love for a good person Jesus but also to
earn their subjugated identity of their weeping before all the
huge crowds of gathering.

Jesus as a Jew understands these women from his
traditional perspective that these wailing women not only weep
for him but also for anybody that are sentenced to be crucified.
These subjugated women don’t understand their own tears.
They forget the empathy in their personal tears. Their tears
were not like the saying in the phrase “crocodile tears” but Jesus
understands their tears as “victimized tears” subjected by the
religious agency. Therefore in targeting the religious agency
and its regime, Jesus calls those women saying, “O daughters of
Jerusalem, weep not for me but for yourself and your children”;
if they cry for themselves they understand the pain of their
personal sufferings and if they cry for their children they
understand the pain of their children and teach their children
to live and not to die in weeping.
Wailing women at the cross of the Church: Today the
church as a body of Christ is marching with its witness in the
pilgrimage of suffering to reach towards the hope of Resurrection.
In this journey we have bible women, the sisterhood, widows,
women fellowship and transgenders following with their
lamentations. Paradoxically, the church demands them to
mourn not for themselves and their children but to mourn
for the church and its hierarchy. We the church, miss these
mourning groups to be our daughters; rather we want them be
bond-servants weeping for all in Church. In this passage, the
body of Christ owns the victimized sisters and breaks their
bonds in the religious tradition by calling them daughters and
shows empathy to their tears and sufferings. The church has lot
of space for women to share but the tradition needs to break the
silences and make her voices heard for herself and her daughters.
Wailing Women at the Cross of the Family Prayer:
Family prayers are to be the witness for the presence of Christ
(Matthew 18:20). The family that prays together stays together
100
Lenten Meditations Re - Imaging People