Some realities in life can only be known through tears. The participation of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) members in antiracism is not a hobby or an optional venture: it's a matter of survival. They do not have the luxury that White people have to retire from the conversation of racism and flee from its painful realities. Matt Briand, SJ, invites us to put aside our fear to weep with those who weep because of racism, for true Christian love suffers along the beloved, and commits to justice.
Questions and Verses for Prayer:
- Ask God for this grace that St. Ignatius encourages for the Third Week of the Spiritual Exercises: “ask [God] for grief with Christ in grief, anguish with Christ in anguish, tears and interior pain at such great pain which Christ suffered for me.”
- Read John 19:16-30 two or three times.
- Meditate on the scene by offering your imagination to God. Be patient and let God reveal the scene to you. Engage your senses. Imagine standing with Mary, Mary Magdalene and John. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel?
- After contemplating the scene, have a conversation with Jesus. Ask him, “Lord, how are you still suffering in the bodies of black people, indigenous people, and other people of color? And how am I to love those in my own community or city and resist the structures and forces that cause them to suffer?”