Throughout the Lenten season, we’ve been posting reflections for holy days and Sundays from previous Lenten reflection booklets, like the one below, written by Anne McCarthy, OSB, for the 2022 Lenten guide, “The Beauty We Must Hold Fast To: Reflections for Lent 2022.” Click here to see all reflections as they are posted as well as links to other Lenten resources on our Lent 2025 webpage.
reflection for GOOD FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2025
By Anne McCarthy, OSB
originally published in 2022
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 | Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9 | John 18:1-19:42
Now beside the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister,
Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. (John 19:25)
I wish I remembered her name, the woman whose death was the first I witnessed. I was only 17 but I remember vividly that she was an elderly, infirm Black woman who had the audacity to complain about her care and demand better in the overcrowded county nursing home. She was then prescribed thorazine to sedate her for weeks until infected bed sores took her life. But in the midst of that truly awful experience, I remember with gratitude the other nurses’ aides I was with that day. Hilda, Martha, and Nancy, one of them African American, two of them white, who were my mentors. They recognized the racist, sexist system that killed her and fought for her with skilled care and loud voices. And then held her hand when she died and softly sang hymns as we tenderly washed her body.
They were the women at the foot of the cross with their anger, rage even, at evil systems and with trembling reverence toward its victims. They invited me into that terrible place with them, the place from which compassion can grow.
FOR REFLECTION:
- How have you experienced/witnessed the effects of violent systems?
- Have you been impacted by faithful disciples in the model of the women at the foot of the cross?
>> Click here to see more resources for prayer, study and action from this Lenten season.
Anne McCarthy, OSB was the national coordinator of Pax Christi USA from 1991-94. She coordinates Benedictines for Peace and leads retreats on nonviolence and monastic spirituality. She is a member of the Mary the Apostle Catholic Worker community in Erie, PA.
Thank you Anne for this moving Good Friday reelection as we gather in community at the foot of the Cross. I wish you Easter blessing of Hope and promise of the Kindom. With living memories.