#WatchAndPray reflections – Holy Week: Monday
Holy Week: Weeping
Tears – whether silent or aloud – flow from the deepest of human experiences. Many of these are tears of heartbreak and despair, tears of the abandoned or forsaken. But tears also convey deep love. We will pay attention to the tears shed by Jesus and those around him during this Holy Week.
Prayer for the Week
We come to you, the One who weeps with us. Through your sorrows, soothe our deepest despair; through your sufferings, draw us into the comfort of your divine embrace. Amen.
Jesus weeps
Holy Week: Monday
Reading
Luke 19.41-44
As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’
Reflection
Chapter 19 is pivotal in Luke’s Gospel narrative. It records Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He rides through the crowds on a donkey, a sign of humility and servanthood. He goes to the temple and turns over the tables of the money changers, declaring that God’s house should be a house of prayer, not a den for thieves and robbers. However, between these two dramatic scenes is a moment where Jesus weeps over the city. He weeps for the judgement and pain which will follow the people’s rejection of him.
Luke’s Jesus is quite the weeper – deeply empathic, and in touch with the pain of those around him. He is the embodiment of a God who is not distant, but deeply weeps for his children. This is perhaps the most powerful image of the Jesus within Black Spirituality: the God who weeps with the forsaken, the broken and the crucified.
Watch
Notice what reactions you have to the idea that Jesus weeps.
…and pray
for a faith that is filled with empathy and concern for our neighbour.
Copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2024.