The Via Dolorosa was about 600 meters long- only a little more than a third of a mile. But when you are carrying a heavy cross, and you are bleeding profusely, and when your body is no doubt in shock and weakening dramatically, it must have seemed like 100 miles to our Lord!

Though all his friends had left Him except John, there remained a group of women who followed behind Him as He made that awful walk. They were no doubt wailing in the middle-eastern way of showing grief still in use today. They were devastated by His suffering and dreading His death. And somehow, despite the noise of a busy street, and the angry taunts and jeers from the crowd, Jesus heard them. The Bible says, “Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and your children…’”

What did he mean that they were to weep, not for him, but for themselves?

Christ was suffering for a purpose and in accordance with God’s circumstantial will for our salvation.

They were suffering for their sins.

Jesus’ death would lead to a victory they could not even imagine at this point.

Their unrepented sins would lead to an eternity without joy.

Jesus might also be an allusion to the coming destruction of Jerusalem which would happen in 70 AD. If you look at it that way, He was reminding them that life is finite, death will come, and time moves inexorably along. Until it stops. There should be sorrow if we arrive at our last breath and have no hope for eternal peace! But because of the sacrifice about to occur on the cross, there is hope for them if they will persevere.

For me, the most revealing thing about Jesus in these verses is that by this point, Jesus had the strength or inclination to console anybody! The women were behind Him, so He could not see them. But He heard their cries. A few weeks earlier, when he was walking along the crowded, noisy road near Jericho, he stopped when a blind man called out to Him. It reminds me that Jesus always hears the call of the sorrowing and the sad. Always. Even when His own suffering on the way to the cross must have been appalling.

How much do I consider the sufferings of others when I am suffering?

Too often, I fail to even notice the pain of others even when I’m not suffering!

How much do we care about others when we are being mistreated?

How much forgiveness are we able to offer when we are being wronged?

How much love can we show others when we are surrounded by hate? If we fail to show compassion for each other, then we too must “weep for ourselves.”

In the beautiful prayer of St. Francis we find,
O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Jesus lived these words on the way to His cross.