Hi friends. It’s Holy Week, and I wanted to share images and reflections I wrote a few years ago for a Stations of the Cross event at church. There are 14 Stations adapted for Substack and socials, so I’ll be sending out more emails than usual this week. Feel free to read what you like and skip what you need to, or read them all next Friday. Regardless of how you go about it, I invite you to reflect on the image, Scripture passage, and meditation/reflection question in each email.
A large crowd of people followed him, including women who were mourning and lamenting him. But turning to them, Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children. Look, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the women without children, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?" Luke 23:27-31
Mary, the mother of Jesus, knew the pain of being a refugee with a newborn infant. She and Joseph fled to Egypt with the child to escape from the evil and jealous King Herod. Refugee mothers and children around the world also face many unimaginable uncertainties. At a time which should be full of joy, parents fear for the safety of their children, and children go without basic necessities. This is an injustice no one should have to experience.1
The Bible is full of lament over injustice, and Scripture shows us it is natural and normal to lament and cry in response to suffering. Ignoring or glossing over sorrow is a way of refusing to live fully into our God-given humanity.
Suggested Activity: Write your own word or sentence of lament as a prayer to God, even if it is as brief as the questions “Why?” or “How long?”
Thanks for reading. I’m a book-obsessed pastor, seminarian, podcaster, author, and life and leadership coach. For essays and podcasts that come straight to your inbox, subscribe to this Dear Exiles newsletter in the subscription box above. Fun fact: I’m also the author of Dear Boy:, An Epistolary Memoir and the host of the Your Pastor Reads Books podcast.
Adapted from Jesuit Refugee Services 2020 Stations of the Cross guide.