Friday, September 16, 2011

Meditating on the Passion

In the liturgical celebrations of this past week, we honored the triumphant Cross of Christ and Our Lady's Sorrows. Somehow it is the Church's intuition that these aspects of Good Friday deserve our special attention and remembrance. The Cross is key to our freedom in Christ, our release from the clutches of sin and death forever. We need no longer be afraid. Standing with Our Lady by her suffering Son, we are in solidarity with all the suffering members of his wounded Body. We remain there meditating in sorrow but also in hope. Jesus now risen from the dead has turned our mourning into gladness. We promise to be hope for one another in him.

Christ Crowned with Thorns and the Mourning Virgin (Ecce Homo), detail
Adriaen Isenbrant, Netherlandish, active by 1510, died 1551
Oil on canvas, transferred from wood
41 1/2 x 36 1/2 in., ca. 1530-40
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Used with permission