Exhaling

I could use some suggestions for this meditation, as it doesn’t quite “hit the mark” in my mind…. 

A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.’ At that time, people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall upon us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?”
Luke 23: 27-31

We pray:
Lord Jesus, You are on the point of death, but even now Your compassionate heart is looking for ways to give, to comfort others, to save those along the way. You to pause and speak with these women, weeping and mourning at the sight of Your suffering and the vulgar noise of the crowd. Was Your face new to them, or had they been part of the crowds that followed and listened to Your words? What must have been the reaction of these women to this encounter? What did they see in Your face? They could not have understood clearly the meaning of the words You spoke, and yet, what must it have been like to look into the eyes of the Suffering Servant in His very agony? You try to open their eyes to the wider realities around them, to help them see that it is the unwillingness to be open to the truth that causes this suffering, that people have not recognized “the time of their visitation” (Luke 19:44). 

All:

Lord, give us the grace to recognize Your presence among us, in the people around us, in the activities of the day, and especially within your Church. Help us to appreciate the truth that You are always coming to us, especially in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist, so that we might live in gratitude for this Presence.  

May Your Presence within us and among us radiate joyfully, that we may be bearers of Your Light into every darkened place in the world.

They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.
Mark 15: 21

We pray:
Lord Jesus, You are truly man, one like us in all things but sin, and here we see You so weakened that You cannot go on – You are only a tormented bloody heap dragging through the dust of the road that will take You outside the walls of the city. In Your unprotected weakness, You need someone to help You reach the end.Simon does not want to get involved with this criminal, nor with the mess of an execution. He does not want this interruption in his life. But You want to give Simon the gift of helping you, the gift of the Cross, the gift of sharing in the work of redemption. Others’ needs are always an interruption for us, a crossroad; self-giving love is open to these disruptions and delays, and looks for places in which heartfelt giving can meet real need.

All: Lord, when faced with the needs of others, we are often tempted to turn away, to take the easy way, to declare that this is not our responsibility.  But we are called to “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal 6:2) and to “make up what is lacking” in the work of salvation (Col 1:24).  This is the mystery of self-giving love which You came to show us. We are Christ to one another when we remain open and available to the need and weakness in one another, willing to expose ourselves to the suffering of others, ready to bear what they cannot bear alone, offering ourselves for their good. 

May we accept Your invitation to be unmistakable witnesses to the unearthly truth of sacrificial love.

Then (Pilate) handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha.
John 19: 16-17

We pray:
Lord Jesus, the cross is the instrument of the most shameful execution, but You embrace it eagerly as the key that will open the floodgates of grace and the fullness of life to all. The rough beam burns deeply into Your wounded shoulders, the darkness of sin and rejection weighing heavily on Your generous Heart. You are already near death, barely resembling the charismatic rabbi so recently speaking with authority, healing the broken, and forgiving sins. But You choose this way freely: No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. (Jn 10) And this is the definition of true gift: the value of a gift is not in what we allow to be taken from us, but in what we freely give.

You told us in advance the way we must follow – we must take up our own cross and follow You (Mk 8:34). Of course, anyone carrying a cross was carrying it to death. We must follow You to the end, and embrace our daily deaths so that we can rise to new life in You. 

All:

Lord, we often place limits or conditions on what we will give or do for You. But if we will have life and have it to the full, we must give all and offer ourselves completely to You. We must be willing to pour ourselves out for others, to walk the way of the cross with You.Help us to say YES to Your way, to the crosses You ask us to carry, to be heedless of the thorns and splinters we will encounter as we embrace Your will for us each day.Give us the grace to fully and freely embrace the cross of our own immolation and carry it to the end, knowing that You have gone before us and carry it with us. 

May Your embrace of the cross inspire us to do the will of the Father as He wants it done, so that we are doing God’s work, not works for God.

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged. And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak, and they came to him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck him repeatedly.
John 19: 1-3

We pray:
Lord Jesus, this kind of cruelty is hard for us to imagine, and yet many people in the world are suffering horribly and being tortured at the hands of others even today. Man’s inhumanity to man is ever-present in this world. Your flesh, the flesh assumed by Divinity, is torn violently and Your blood flows to the ground. To mock You, the soldiers force a ridiculous crown onto Your head, blinding You with pain. Yet Your Heart saw clearly and continued to reach beyond the taunts and jeers, longing to gather all to the safety of love.

You endure this cruelty to show us the profoundest truth: that God is not a God of power and wrath to be feared, but that God is Love, and Love will give all and suffer all things,even to death, so that we can be free to love in return.  

All:

Lord, You are like a mother who longs to draw us all to Your Heart, but we refuse to be gathered, running with false independence toward an abyss we refuse to acknowledge. Humanity’s distorted desire for power and freedom has lead to the most hideous violence and injustice. Help us to see that only in You can we find our true selves and be free. Give us the grace to embrace whatever Your will puts before us each day, without fearing the thorns we encounter in the physical or emotional pain we endure – you have suffered before us, and walk with us, and we can unite our suffering with your own. 

May the suffering and ridicule You endured for love of us ignite deep within our hearts the desire to suffer for love of You.

(Now I am cranking, and I have no excuse but grace at work. And that fair trade coffee CO is brewing nonstop… No, I think it’s the prayers more than the coffee, but the coffee is tangible. And hot. And strong.)

We pray:
Lord Jesus, Pilate embodies the acclaimed powers of this world, parading authority and wealth that are not their own. Before this lie, You stand firm – Your power and authority are independent of this world. Pilate expresses his own struggle of conscience before all, trying to appease the mob and ease his conscience by compromise and ceremony. But the crowd is not appeased and he will still be tormented by his decision to hand You over though he finds no guilt in You. His fear of losing what he has outshouts his sense of justice, so he washes his hands of the matter, but our actions and inactions have consequences that water and words cannot erase. Maintaining the status quo or protecting one’s interests causes the innocent to suffer and allows evil to gain a foothold. 

All:

Lord, in this world, unjust power often prevails and the innocent suffer needlessly. Give us the wisdom to know when it is better to bear injustice patiently and when we should speak out. Help us to see in Your example the need to bear each day’s injustice toward us, especially the confusion of those who know what is true but refuse to act. Give us the grace to trust that you can use even the injustice of the world for your greater glory, because light shines brightest in the darkest night. Help us to act always with prudence and charity, without judging others. 

May Your meekness be our guide in the face of every injustice.

(The coffee must be REAL, organic, fair trade coffee!)

We pray:
Lord Jesus,
at the very moment when You are witnessing to the truth even though it will cost You Your life, Your friend Peter is demonstrating our natural and fearful response to danger. He is saying whatever is necessary to “save his own skin,” even to the point of swearing that he does not know You. He is denying his own identity in denying You.

Peter heard You say “Blessed are those who endure persecution for my sake,” but he now knows experientially Your more recent words: “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 

All:

Lord,we are short-sighted and self-preserving by nature, but You came to show us a new Way of living: the way of self-giving love. Open us to Your glance – that glance of mercy and love that will draw from us cleansing tears of healing and renewal. In this restoring grace, may we find the strength to witness to truth and hope, without being preoccupied with ourselves.

May Your abundant mercy give us courage to admit our failings, ask Your forgiveness and return to You, ready to follow You anew.

(Thanks for the coffee – it must be strong enough ) 

 We pray:
Lord Jesus,
Your friends have all scattered in fear, and You now stand alone before the powers of this world. In a mockery of justice that holds no hope for You, the Sanhedrin poses questions, but You refuse to “play the game” or plead Your case; word games and compromises have no place in You.

The Truth will stand free, and if those who prefer the lie will distort it and ignore it and muffle it and pretend to destroy it, yet Truth will triumph. You are not concerned with winning this unwinnable argument; Your only concern is Truth. Without Truth, there is no justice.

All: Lord,we are weak and wounded, and prone to waver in our generosity and our commitment. Help us to remember to temper justice with mercy, and to uphold the truth with love. Without Your wisdom, we often allow our fear or selfwardness to distract us from standing up for what is right. Or we become so zealous about one particular truth that our efforts become exaggerated and even offensive to others.

Give us the courage to witness to the truth, with love, regardless of how it is received or what it will cost us. Give us the clarity to see that we are not responsible for eradicating every evil, every distortion, and every injustice; we are only required to speak the truth plainly, gently, with love.

May Your meekness guide our every effort to bring Truth to others.