On Wednesday, I wrote an article imploring a US bishop to reach out to a congressman he has praised and with whom he is a friend on behalf of immigrants who were — without due process — deported and imprisoned in a supermax facility in El Salvador. It seemed apt to draw attention to betrayals of our religious leaders on Spy Wednesday, the day when we recall Judas’s betrayal of Christ.
Today, Good Friday, we recall the Sacrifice that Christ made for us all. As we continue to pray for Bishop Barron to have a change of heart and raise his voice to defend human dignity, I would like to highlight the words of a bishop who has spoken out for the rights of others: Bishop Evelio Menjivar. I am proud that he serves as an auxiliary bishop in my Archdiocese of Washington. He recently wrote a powerful article that was published in the Catholic Standard..
I would also like to draw attention to the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) meditations that were prayed this year at the Colosseum in Rome. Most years, the pope designates someone (or multiple persons) to write the reflections, and often they are centered around a specific theme, such as the family, the poor, or peace in the world. This year, Pope Francis wrote the reflections himself. These are deeply spiritual and theological reflections, focusing on Christ’s Passion in light of human dignity, solidarity, and the journey of faith.
Below are excerpts to aid in your personal reflections.
Bishop Menjivar
From “This Ordeal is the Passion” by Bishop Evelio Menjivar, April 11, 2025:
Each day this situation is getting worse and more ominous. For weeks now, the federal government has pursued a “shock and awe” campaign of aggressive threats and highly visible operations of questionable legality that go far beyond mere immigration “enforcement.”
Cardinal Robert McElroy has bluntly called this unfolding misery and injustice a “war of fear and terror,” and it is. In fact, it could be said that “this war is Christ’s Passion in us,” which is how spiritual author Caryll Houselander described the experience of the English people during World War II in her book, This War is the Passion. And as with Jesus in the Garden and after His arrest, this suffering includes not only the abuse inflicted upon migrants and refugees by the government, but the lack of noticeable support by people they considered to be friends.
Many fear this crisis will lead only to ruin, but there is one thing in our lives that is not endangered and in which we can take hope – and that is the ongoing presence of Jesus the Risen Lord among us. In that knowledge, Houselander added in her book, “we can face the war in His spirit.” This includes offering up these trials and worries to our Redeemer and also completing in ourselves what is lacking in His afflictions, as Saint Paul did (Colossians 1:24). In the Gospel mystery of human suffering, where Jesus, the Crucified One, comes to meet us and takes our adversity upon Himself, “We can carry our share of the Cross as a loving work for each other to help our common redemption,” urged Houselander.
Yet, while redemptive suffering is a grace, it would be better still if these injustices and infamies did not happen at all. This is why we need to speak up as Saint Óscar Romero did and as Cardinal McElroy emphasized at a recent information session on this current crisis for parish and ministerial leaders. We must stand with those at risk, His Eminence said, and we cannot let the dark side of anti-immigrant animus take hold.
Tragically, this onslaught is instead being met with silence by many – or even approval. To those of you who are silent or think this does not involve you, to those of you who are not troubled by this – or worse, who applaud it – particularly those who are Catholic, I ask you: Do you not see the suffering of your neighbors? Do you not realize the pain and misery and very real fear and anxiety these unjust government operations and policies are causing? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet? In the final teaching of His public ministry, Jesus warned that we will be judged on how we respond to others in distress (Matthew 25:41-46).
Seventh Station: Jesus falls the second time
Excerpt:
From the Gospel according to Luke (15: 2-6)
And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’”
Fall and get up again; fall and get up again. That is how you taught us, Jesus, to approach the adventure of human life. A life that is human because it is open to the future. We do not permit machines to make mistakes: we expect them to be perfect. People, on the other hand, get confused, distracted, lost. Yet they also know joy: the joy of new beginnings, the joy of rebirth. Humans are not mass-produced but handcrafted: we are unique treasures, a blend of grace and responsibility. Lord Jesus, you made yourself one of us; you were not afraid to stumble and fall. All those who are embarrassed by this, those who want to appear infallible, who hide their own falls yet refuse to pardon those of others, reject the path that you chose. You, Jesus, are the Lord of joy. In you, all of us were found and brought home, like the one sheep that had gone astray. An economy in which the ninety-nine are more important than the one is inhumane. Yet we have built a world that works like that: a world of calculation and algorithms, of cold logic and implacable interests. The law of your home, the divine economy, is different, Lord. When we turn our hearts to you, who fall and rise again, we experience a change of course and a change of pace. A conversion that restores our joy and brings us safely home.
Let us pray, saying: Raise us up, God, our salvation!
We are children who cry at times:
Raise us up, God our salvation!We are adolescents who feel insecure:
Raise us up, God our salvation!We are young people dismissed by many adults
Raise us up, God our salvation!We are adults who have made mistakes:
Raise us up, God our salvation!We are elderly people who still want to dream:
Raise us up, God our salvation!
Image: Screenshot, YouTube.
Mike Lewis is the founding managing editor of Where Peter Is. He and Jeannie Gaffigan co-host Field Hospital, a U.S. Catholic podcast.
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