VIII. Jesus meets the Women of Jerusalem
Anita Horton

Daughters of Jerusalem Luke 23:27-31 -A large number of people followed him including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for your children. For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then they will say to the mountains, 'Fall on us!' and to hills, 'Cover us!' for if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"This Eighth Station of the Cross, according to more than several commentaries and pastors, was described to me as the point when Christ, on his way to his crucifixion and under the weight of his own cross, turned to the weeping women of Jerusalem and forgets, for the moment, his own pain and comforts the women who followed him. How sweet. As I studied and prayed, however, I couldn't disagree more. Putting myself in what I imagine Jesus' condition, after being up all night long, betrayed, beaten and whipped, almost to the point of death - forgetting your pain? I don't think so. Jesus was a man, after all. We sometimes forget that. And now the sun is up and it's not enough that your body hurts, you are sleepy and you are expected to bear the incredible weight of a wooden cross that you will eventually be hanging from, this group of women is following you wailing and moaning. Can you imagine? That would drive me crazy. That sound. On top of the pain from your wounds. What Jesus turns and says to them is frightening, desperate and foretelling; many things, but not comforting. As a woman and a mother, these words, that I interpret are about the end times, are bothersome when I allow myself the time to dwell on what might be for unbelieving souls. What I picture is anguish; gnashing of teeth and wailing. Capa's photos capture that picture in my mind.

ROBERT CAPA (1913-1954)
Robert Capa was born Andrei Friedmann in Budapest in 1913. Deciding that there was little future under the regime in Hungary, he left home at 18 and found a job as a darkroom apprentice with a Berlin picture agency. He shot pictures on the side, and scored his first scoop with some exclusive pictures of Leon Trotsky.
When Hitler took over, Andrei Friedmann took off for Paris and struggled to get established in the rugged business of free-lance journalism. He worked for such publications as Vue, Collier's and Life and covered wars in Spain, China, Italy and North Africa. He was to see World War II through to its bitter end, actually photographing the death of one of the last Americans killed. Capa wanted no more war, but he could not resist covering the birth of Israel in 1949 with Irwin Shaw.By this time Capa had also participated in the birth of Magnum Photos, the first and still the only international cooperative agency of free-lance photographers. In 1954 Capa went to Japan with a Magnum exhibition. While he was there, Life suddenly needed a photographer on the Indochina front. Capa volunteered. But it was one war too many. On May 25, 1954, the career of Robert Capa came to an abrupt end when he stepped on a land mine on an obscure battlefield in Indochina. Robert Capa was somewhat careless as a photographer but was carefully dedicated as a man. He participated with courage in almost every great tragedy of his time, and never lost heart nor faith. He knew war well, so well he despised it. He sought peace without expecting it. He suffered behind the scenes from loneliness, insecurity, heartbreak. He leaves a legend, for which there is no other description than...Capa.