God, in his mercy, suffers with us. He is not impassive, he is not heartless. On the contrary, God has a heart bigger than all of us have. God is an immense heart. The suffering of God which we do not know, is not like ours; but he suffers, he suffers divinely; and in some way humanly, because he assumes our pain. And God suffers because he loves. He suffers from love, which is the greatest suffering. Whoever has experience of love knows this. He suffers because his children suffer; he suffers when we make each other cry. Every pain or offense we inflict on our neighbor has something sacrilegious about it. God suffered, agonized, and died in his Son; and
he suffers, agonizes and dies when one of his children suffers, agonizes and dies. These are elements of a Father's passionate love.
- My God, come to my aid
- Lord, make haste to help me
- Glory be to the Father...
- As I was in the beginning... Alleluia
Hymn.
Oh God, I bleed.
Oh God, I bleed.
Oh God, I bleed.
Oh God! You bleed
Oh God! I agonize.
Oh God! You agonize.
Oh God! I die.
Oh God! You die.
Oh God! I died.
Oh God! You died.
Oh God! You died.
Oh God! You died.
Oh God! You died.
Oh God! You died.
Silence to adore.
Poem.
From the dawn of time, the cry of the oppressed is heard,
a cry that cries out with the voice of God.
God calls out to us from the dawn of time with the cry of the oppressed.
The cry brings us the voice and the voice brings us the word...
Everyone who hears the cry experiences what love is: love is the light of humanity.
The light illuminates the darkness,
but those who live in darkness do not want to recognize it...
Its voice is heard from every corner of the world.
It shouts in the Third World, it shouts in our cities,
it shouts in our own homes, it shouts within us,
but people do not want to hear it.
Those who hear it, those who feel challenged and receive it,
are given them the strength to live according to God.
For these have had hope and believed in the cry of the oppressed,
because they knew no privileged classes, nor were they governed by selfishness,
nor did they seek vainglory but had God as their Father.
They saw how the Father manifested all his love in the Son ;
as the Firstborn that he is,
full of solidarity with the oppressed who cry out for redemption.
No one knew the God of Love;
compassionate and rich in forgiveness;
but Jesus, the one who cries out from the dawn of time,
has manifested him to us.
Silence to meditate.
Do you weep for your brother/sister who suffers and assumes their suffering? Yes? Then you are of God's race. Reread the poem and see for yourself.
Reading.
The leper is in prison with Jesus, who has been imprisoned at the behest of politicians, businessmen and religious officials. The leper asks Jesus, "What can we do to set you free and bring you back to life; so that you can come to us?" And Jesus replies, "My own power is not enough. It is people like you who must help to free me. Only those who, in spite of their extreme poverty and sufferings, as in your case, possess a generous spirit and try to help the poor and unfortunate, can make me come back to life.... People like you will be my liberators" (Kim Chi Ha).
Silence for reflection.
Is your Christian life a journey of love? Do you hear Jesus in the cry of those who suffer? Remember his words, "Truly I say to you: whenever you did this to one of these little ones, you did it to me." Mt 25:40.
Petitions.
- For the Church. to be "the voice of the voiceless" and to engage in the struggle for their liberation....
- For all those men and women, believers, and non-believers, committed to the defense of the dignity and rights of those who are excluded...
- For those who suffer, for the poor and marginalized, that they may recover their dignity and be considered temples of God....
- So that we may hear the cry of God in the cry of our suffering brothers and sisters...
Add your own petitions….
Our Father.
Prayer.
Help us, Father, to rebuild these ruined living temples, all of whom are victims of injustice and violence. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash
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