VIII- Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

"Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem" by Eustaquio Santimano is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you. For by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world. 

"Weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say blessed are the barren and the womb that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck!...for if this happens while the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?" 

This whole episode is pretty disconcerting. 

I'm no theologian. I don't know if this passage counts as a prophecy (and if it is, if it's about anything beyond the destruction of Jerusalem) or just as a philosophical truth. 

It just seems downright eerie to be reading this during an era where a lot of women are choosing to be childless not because of some cataclysmic event, but because the state of childlessness itself is seen as "blessed". I know individual reasons for that vary, but I don't know if any other era in history has had as many women finding reasons for it on as wide a scale. 

I'm also completely perplexed by reflections on this station that talk about this being a moment of reassurance and compassion. About looking away from your own pain to minister and to love another. 

 Am I missing something? I look at this station and hear, "you think this is bad? It's only gonna get worse. Buckle up."

It's not a reassurance or comfort. It's a warning, and a pretty stark, startling one at that. 

Go to ninth station.