Jesus is laid in the tomb “It is finished” (Jn 19:30)

Meditation:

The desert and the seas have become the new cemeteries of our world. These deaths leave us speechless. Yet responsibility has to be taken. People let their brothers and sisters die: men, women, children that we could not, or would not, save. While governments, closed off in their palaces of power, debate, the Sahara is filled with the bones of men and women who could not survive exhaustion, hunger and thirst. How much pain is involved in these new exoduses! How much cruelty is inflicted on those fleeing their homelands: in their desperate journeys, in the extortion and tortures they endure, in the sea that becomes a watery grave.

Prayer:

Lord, make us realize that we are all children of one Father. May the death of your Son Jesus grant to the leaders of nations and lawmakers consciousness of the role they must play in the defence of every person created in your image and likeness.

(Sr Eugenia is a Consolata Missionary and President of the Association ‘Slaves no more’. Pope Francis invited her to prepare the meditations for this year’s Way of the Cross, at the Colosseum in Rome on Good Friday. Drawing from her experience in fighting the scourge of human trafficking, Sr Bonetti has highlighted the plight of those who are suffering new forms of crucifixion in society today.  Reflect and pray the Meditations here: http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/2019/documents/ns_lit_doc_20190419_via-crucis-meditazioni_en.html).