The raising of the widow’s son

It’s the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time and today’s gospel reading comes from Luke 7:11-17. It is about the raising of the son of a widow in the City of Nain. When we visited the Holy Land, we passed through the City of Nain, which is very close to Mt. Tabor. This is the first miracle of raising the dead that our Lord Jesus Christ did.

“11 Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him. 12 As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, “Do not weep”.

14 He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” 15 The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, exclaiming, “A great prophet has arisen in our midst.” And God has visited his people.” 17 This report about him spread through the whole of Judea and in all the surrounding region.”

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Funerals are common in our community. Try taking a trip either to the north or south of Cebu City, especially on a Sunday afternoon, and chances are good that you will meet many funeral processions happening in many towns that you pass by. Just imagine on one Sunday, you meet a funeral cortege and notice that there is a commotion in that funeral because a man has touched the coffin of the deceased and the dead person woke up! I’m sure that you’d get startled if that happened to you on your way to the south.

That’s exactly what happened to the funeral cortege of the widow’s son in the City of Nain. As written in the Scripture, “When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep’.” This statement gives us an idea of the Divine Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for he knew that the dead boy was the only son of this widow and in ancient Israel, when a woman is widowed, she becomes a non-person, an outcast of society.

So what our Lord Jesus Christ showed to the grieving widow was mercy and compassion because she did not only lose her only son, she was now all alone and would be rejected by society. But unknown to the grieving widow, the day of the funeral of her son was a day of great blessing because God himself came across the funeral cortege and Jesus told the widow not to weep, for indeed, she had no reason to grieve because her son wasn’t really dead. Before this incident, our Lord Jesus healed the sick and gave sight to the blind.

This was the first time he would raise someone back to life, and all it took was for our Lord Jesus to show pity to the grieving widow. Then the Lord touched the coffin of the son and told him to arise. Then the dead son rose up and spoke and the Lord Jesus gave him to his startled mother and the crowd was seized with fear of the Lord and they said, “A great prophet has arisen in our midst. And God has visited his people.”

But we all know that our Lord Jesus Christ was no great prophet for he is God personified. Later in another chapter in his Galilean ministry, he would raise another man to life. Lazarus, who was a very close friend of the Lord, lived in Bethany with his sisters Mary and Martha. In the raising of the widow’s son, the Lord came upon his funeral cortege when they were on their way to bury the dead son. But in the case of Lazarus, when the Lord Jesus Christ was told that Lazarus had taken ill, he did not immediately rush to his aid. When he finally came to Bethany, Lazarus was already dead and buried for four days inside the tomb.

What is interesting in the raising of Lazarus is the conversation between the Lord and Martha, the sister of Lazarus, who told the Lord, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” This shows that Martha was confident that if only Jesus came right away, he would have healed Lazarus, and the latter would not have died. But she also showed her trust and faith in the Lord that God would grant him anything that he would ask for.

Then Jesus replied to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Clearly Martha had been evangelized about the afterlife. But then Jesus told her clearly, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Martha then replied, “Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” Today’s gospel reading is not just plain and simple healing of the sick; it is a dramatic raising of the dead and a great miracle of the Lord.

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