Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

V. We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee.

R. Because by Thy holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

"A large number of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him" (Luke 23:27). These are not his disciples, who have mostly fled; these are women of Jerusalem, Jewish women who look upon this condemned man and weep out of human compassion. Jesus turns to them — this is the last recorded conversation of Jesus before he reaches Calvary — and he speaks not of his own suffering but of theirs and their children's. "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children" (Luke 23:28).

This is a remarkable moment. Jesus, in his agony, is not focused on himself. His attention turns outward to the grief of others, and his words carry a prophetic weight: he is warning of the coming destruction of Jerusalem that would occur in 70 AD, when the city would be besieged and destroyed by the Roman army. He speaks of the terrible suffering that awaits a generation that rejected its Messiah — not as a condemnation, but as a lamentation.

Jesus' words to the women of Jerusalem remind us that authentic compassion is not mere sentiment. True Christian compassion, modeled on Christ's, sees beyond the immediate moment to the deeper needs of those who suffer, and speaks the truth in love even when the truth is hard. He wept with those who wept, and then he pointed them toward something larger than their grief: the movement of salvation history, with all its weight and urgency.