The Sixth Station: Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

This photograph was taken by Erin Schaff of the New York Times about a block from St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C. on June 1, 2020. That day President Trump infamously cleared Lafayette Square of peaceful protesters with tear gas and riot control so that he could have a picture of himself taken holding a Bible in front of the church. In the photograph we see an unnamed man is having the tear gas washed off his face and out of his eyes with milk.
 
Of course, we could ask why peaceful protesters were gassed, shoved, and hit with batons merely to make way for a presidential photo op. But maybe we should also be asking why police are allowed to use tear gas (a powerful, aerosol, chemical irritant banned in warfare by the Geneva convention) on anyone at all.
 
Let us pray:
 
God, even if all we have is a cloth, or a bottle of milk help us do whatever we can with what we have been given. Amen.