Deacon Tom's Reflection on Good Friday

The Eighth Station: Jesus consoles the weeping women.  At this station, we see a group of unidentified women.  With broken hearts, they’re sobbing because Jesus, who has done so many good deeds, has been brutally tortured and is being led off to be executed like a common criminal.

Who do you see standing among this group of women?  Do you see Martha and Mary, whose brother Lazarus was raised from the dead by Jesus roughly one week before?  I see the woman caught in adultery standing right in the front.  She says “Thank you” to Jesus as He approaches.  He reaches out His hand and touches her cheek. 

Next to her is standing the mother of the young man born blind.  To whom Jesus gave the gift of sight.  You remember her.  She told the authorities, “You want to know what happened? Ask him; he is of age!” I see the wife of Jairus, the synagogue official into whose home Jesus took Peter, James, and John when He raised her daughter from the dead, saying “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”

Scattered among the group are almost all of the mothers of the ten lepers Jesus healed.  Over to the right is the widow from Nain, standing next to her son, whom Jesus raised from the dead and returned to her.

Who do you see standing among these witnesses to Jesus’ wondrous deeds? Who do you see?