We adore you O Christ and we bless you
Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world
When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him. Matthew 27:54-55
Jesus is dead. He is lowered from the cross and his limp lifeless body is placed into the arms of his mother.
The peasant woman of Nazareth, who had held him to her breast as a baby, now receives her son’s body back to her and holds him in deep sorrow. Her motherly love once more receives him and protect him. Her embrace enshrouds her child. And there, in that loving embrace, etched in the imagination and history of humanity, is a sorrowful and profound time of new and mysterious maternal fruitfulness.
Loving Mary, our Mother, teach us to show true compassion, an active compassion, which embraces the suffering and those who have died, and which raises suppliant eyes towards heaven.
Revd Canon Ian Gomersall, Rector of St Chrysostom’s.
Now move to the final station, the Fourteenth Station.
