Synopsis of OT X Sunday homily (June 5) on Luke 7: 11-17 (L/16)
Introduction: The central theme of today’s readings is that, in a world of broken hearts, God sees and cares for us in our grief. He has compassion on our miseries and gives us His healing touch. Today’s Scripture readings challenge us to become channels of God’s compassionate and healing love and to place our hope in Jesus who gives us resurrection and eternal life.
Scripture lessons: The first reading, taken from I Kings 17, shows us how our merciful God uses His prophet Elijah to resuscitate the only the son of the poor widow of Zarephath who had given the prophet accommodation in her house during the famine. In the second reading, taken from the letter to the Galatians, St. Paul declares that the Good News of God’s love, mercy and salvation which he preaches has been directly revealed to him by God, Who had chosen him for ministry from his mother’s womb. Today’s Gospel story reveals to us the compassionate heart of God in Jesus. Meeting a funeral procession coming out of the village of Nain, Jesus was visibly moved at the sight of the weeping widow, going out with the town to bury her only son. Perhaps he could foresee his own mother in the same position at the foot of his cross. So Jesus stopped the funeral procession, touched the bier, consoled the mother and surprised everyone by resuscitating the boy, thus extending God’s love and compassion to the grieving mother.
Life messages: 1) We need to become channels of God’s compassionate and healing love as Jesus was: The Gospel reminds us to have the same love and compassion for those who suffer that Jesus had. Our deeds of love will transform the broken-hearted and help them to experience God as the Father who has come among His people. We need to ask God for the grace to become like Christ for the others in our daily lives. Our society needs saints, and we can each be one in our own environment. As our Lord comforted this woman, let us comfort others.
2) We need to be spiritually alive: This story should help us to look at our own situation and see, first of all, how alive we really are. When we live in mortal sin, we are physically alive and spiritually dead. We receive spiritual revival in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. St. Augustine comments, “Our Mother, the Church, rejoices every day when people are raised again in spirit sacramentally.”
3) We need to offer our broken hearts to Jesus: We need to bring our deepest hurts and broken relationships to Jesus and experience how he reaches out to us and grants us his loving reconciliation. Let us invite Jesus to transform even the most difficult situations in our life. The Lord Jesus still raises the dead. We trust that promise each time we bring our shattered lives, our broken hearts, our anger, our depression, our deepest hurts to the table of the Lord and, in the priest, hear him say: “This is my body; this is my blood given and shed for you!”
OT X [C] (June 5): I Kgs 17:17-24; Gal 1:11-19; Lk 7: 11-17
Anecdotes: # 1: “And I know, there’ll be no more tears in Heaven.” Many of you are familiar with Eric Clapton, the Grammy Award winning English guitarist, singer and composer. Clapton is one of the most influential musicians of the rock era. He has been honored an unprecedented three times by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On a warm spring day in March of 1991 Eric Clapton received a phone call from his wife, Lori. In a frantic voice she told him that their four-and-a-half-year-old son, Connor, had just accidentally fallen to his death after crawling out of an open window of their 53rd floor Manhattan apartment. Clapton could not believe what he was hearing and rushed over the ten blocks to find paramedic equipment everywhere, and ambulances, and police cars. Only then did he begin to realize with a sinking heart, “Oh my God, it is true.” Out of his suffering, Clapton turned to his music and wrote a very personal song to express his grief . . . his struggle to live with the loss of his son . . . his yearning to know peace in his life again. You may remember the song. It became a popular hit. It is called, “Tears in Heaven,” and its lyrics speak of Clapton’s search for the healing of his shattered heart. These are the words he wrote to his son:
“Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?
Would you hold my hand, if I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong to carry on, ’cause I know I don’t belong here in heaven.”
The last words of the song are these:
“Beyond the door, there’s peace for sure,
and I know, there’ll be no more tears in heaven.” (“Tears in Heaven,” Published by Hal Leonard. Cited by Benjamin R. Bishop:video:
# 2: No kissing of Bible for his Presidential inauguration: Did you know that the first president of the United States to refuse to kiss the Bible after his oath at his inauguration was Franklin Pierce, the 14th President? The reason is rather interesting. When Pierce had been elected, he and Mrs. Pierce and their son, two weeks before the inauguration, were taking a trip to Concord, New Hampshire, and, of course, they were doing it by train. The train had not gone far out of the station, when there was a lurch, a jolt, and the car the Pierces were in, tumbled off the tracks and down an embankment. Neither the president nor his wife was injured in the accident, but their son was killed. Franklin Pierce brooded over this, as would most of us. He asked the question of God that so many of us would have asked. Why would God at this moment of triumph permit this tragedy in their lives? Although a former Brigadier General and a famous lawyer, he was so upset by the personal tragedy and angry with God that he refused to kiss the Bible used at the inaugural oath taking ceremony. [People (February 6, 1989), pp. 47-51.] (John Quincy Adams was the only previous President who placed his hand on a Constitutional Law volume instead of a Bible. But it was not because he was angry with God). Today’s Gospel story describes how Jesus transforms the despair and sorrow of a widow by raising her only son from death.
# 3: “That crypt’s got the most lipstick on it.” Frances Jerz, sixty-five, lost her husband. She told columnist Roger Simon of theChicago Sun-Times that even after three years, she still cries. Mr. Jerz had been a machine operator and was approaching retirement when he succumbed to cancer. Every Sunday Mrs. Jerz gets dressed up like he’s there in the house with her. Her daughter drives her to the cemetery. She touches the stone and she feels like he’s close to her. “That crypt’s got the most lipstick on it,” she says. “I kiss it every time I’m there.” [James C. Hefley, Life Changes (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1984), p. 97.] Some of you can relate to her pain. Some people have a terrible time dealing with the loss of a spouse. Life comes to a grinding halt. That’s what happened to the widow in today’s Gospel who lost her only son in death.
Introduction: The central theme of today’s readings is that, in a world of broken hearts, God sees and cares for us in our grief. He shows compassion on our miseries and gives us His healing touch. Today’s Scripture readings challenge us to become channels of God’s compassionate, healing love and to place our hope in Jesus who gives us resurrection and eternal life. The first reading, taken from I Kings 17, shows us how our merciful God uses His prophet Elijah to resuscitate the only the son of the poor widow of Zarephath who had given the prophet accommodation in her house during a famine. In the second reading, taken from the letter to the Galatians, St. Paul declares that the Good News of God’s love, mercy and salvation which he preaches has been directly revealed to him by God, Who had chosen him for ministry from his mother’s womb Today’s Gospelstory reveals to us the compassionate heart of God in Jesus. Meeting a funeral procession coming out of the village of Nain, Jesus was visibly moved at the sight of the weeping widow going with the town to bury her only son. Perhaps he could foresee his own mother in the same position at the foot of his cross. In addition, Jesus knew that the widows were one of the most destitute, dependent, and vulnerable classes of Israelite society, totally dependent for support on the mercy of others, of the local synagogues and of the Temple in Jerusalem. So Jesus stopped the funeral procession, touched the bier, consoled the mother and surprised every one by resuscitating the boy, thus extending God’s love and compassion to the bereaved mother.
The first reading: In the story from I Kings, the prophet Elijah is a lodger in the upper room of the house of a widow during the great famine. This widow had been very kind to Elijah. But tragically her only son became very ill and stopped breathing. In utter desperation and anger the poor widow struck out at Elijah, as if somehow this were his fault. Grief often gives rise to misplaced anger, and hurting people hurt other people. This woman was hurting, and so she struck out at Elijah. Elijah realized that it was his turn to help her in her tragedy. He took the boy from her arms, carried him to his own bedroom, and laid him on the bed. Then Elijah cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” And the writer of I Kings tells us, “The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”
The second reading: In Galatia, Paul encountered conflicts caused by hostile elements, people whose misguided efforts threatened to stifle the Church’s growth among the Gentiles. St. Paul had to clarify both his authority to preach and the source of his teaching to his opponents. Here in his letter to the Galatians, he declares that the Good News of God’s love, mercy and salvation which he has been preaching have been directly revealed to him by God who chose him for this ministry from his mother’s womb.
Exegesis: The context: Today’s Gospel presents one of the three accounts in the Gospel of Jesus’ raising of a dead person to life. The other stories are those of Lazarus and of Jairus, the synagogue leader’s daughter. Today’s story is found only in Luke. Nain is a village six miles SE of Nazareth, and it is mentioned nowhere else in the Bible.
A great, irreparable loss ruining the life a widow: Widows formed one of the most destitute, dependent, and vulnerable classes of Israelite society. To be a widow was to be completely dependent upon others for the provision of shelter and daily sustenance. Under the Israelite theocracy, it was through the husband that wife received the inheritance of land, financial security and physical sustenance. Unlike our society in which the modern woman has the freedom to work and to care for herself, the Israelite woman could not provide for herself. As a result, the worst thing that could happen to a woman was for her to lose her husband. Then she was left in the most vulnerable and destitute of conditions. As a result, the Old Covenant law protected widows and made provision for them. For example, in Deuteronomy 24, there are regulations that prevent the Israelites from harvesting their fields more than once. Why? So that whatever remained of the harvest after the first pass would then be given to the destitute of society, which included the widows. The first harvest was for the land-owner. The remaining harvest was given to the poor. Even then, the widow was left completely dependent upon the graciousness of the landowners and their obedience to the Mosaic Law.
First century Jewish burial customs: Among the Jews, burial was required before sunset on the day a person died. The Jewish law severely restricted who could touch a dead body. Basically, only those who prepared the body for burial ever touched a corpse, for to do so made a Jew religiously unclean and temporarily disqualified from participation in religious services. A high priest was not allowed to do so much as to enter the room with a dead body, even if it were the body of one of his parents. On the practical side, this was probably a good public health measure to limit the spread of infectious diseases. On the cultural side, it had been ingrained into the minds of the people for generations. No one, especially very religious people, touched dead bodies unless they absolutely had to.
Jesus’ touch of human kindness: The Scriptures make clear that God takes no pleasure in the death of anyone (see Ezekiel 33:11); God desires life, not death. The story of Naomi in the book of Ruth reminds us of what happens when sons die. After losing both her husband and her two sons, Naomi laments, “Call me no longer Naomi (that is, pleasant), call me Mara (that is,bitter).” In the story of the widow of Zarephath (I Kings 17:8-16), the widow announces, “Just now, I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shall die” (1 Kings 17: 12), the famine having made even the meager existence they had had impossible. Widows and orphans were a particular concern of the prophets. Jesus stands in that prophetic tradition. The scene at Nain is particularly sad because the mother in this story, who had already lost her husband, has now lost her only son and her only means of support. Jesus was visibly moved by the sight of the weeping widow, perhaps because he could foresee his own mother in the same position at the foot of his cross. His compassionate heart prompted him to console the widow saying: “Do not weep.” Then Luke reports, “He touched the bier and when the bearers stood still, he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise.’ And the dead man sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother,” and participated in her indescribable joy.
Revelation of Jesus’ Divinity and humanity: Jesus’ physical touch not only restored life but brought freedom and wholeness to soul as well as body. Christ comes to restore what was lost. He, in fact, acts to remove the cause of pain and sorrow, “for I, the LORD, am your Healer” (Exodus 15:26). In reading this fragment of the Gospel about the resuscitation of that young man of Nain, we could emphasize Jesus’ Divinity alone by saying that only God could have brought back his life to this young man. But here we see Jesus’ humanity as well. We don’t see Jesus in the Gospel episode as a remote Divine Being, but as somebody close to us, sharing our loss and sorrow. Jesus’ raising of the widow’s son was also a sign of the spiritual resurrection offered to all people. Jesus is showing concern about the need for us to be spiritually alive here and now.
The reaction of the people around was one of awe and admiration. “A great prophet has risen among us and God has visited his people.” They had no doubts about the origin of what they had seen taking place; it was the work of God. Not surprisingly, the story spread like wildfire all through Judea and beyond.
Old Testament parallel cases: There were instances in the Old Testament of people being raised from death: by Elijah (1 Kings 17:17-24), and Elisha (2 Kings 4:32-37). This miracle of Jesus took place near the spot where the prophet Elisha had brought another mother’s son back to life again (see 2 Kings 4:18-37). These miracles were signs of the power of God working through His prophets. In the case of the widow’s son in today’s Gospel, the miracle showed the people that Jesus, like Elijah and Elisha, was, at the least, a great prophet.
Life messages: 1) We need to become channels of God’s compassionate and healing love as Jesus was: The event also reminds us to have the same love and compassion for those who suffer that Jesus had. Our deeds of love will transform the broken-hearted and help them to experience God as the Father who has come among His people. We must ask God for the grace to be like Christ for the others in our daily lives. Those who saw St. Francis of Assisi, for instance, were also seeing Jesus in him. Saints are those who carry Jesus in their words and deeds, imitating his way of doing things and his goodness. Our society need saints, and we can each be one in our own environment. Those who hurt also need comfort, and again, it is our responsibility to offer that comfort. As our Lord comforted this woman, let us comfort others (Galatians 6:2, Romans 12:15).
2) We need to be spiritually alive: This story should help us to look at our own situation and see, first of all, how alive we really are. When we live in mortal sin we are physically alive and spiritually dead. We need the spiritual revival offered to us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. St. Augustine comments, “Our Mother, the Church, rejoices every day when people are raised again in spirit sacramentally.”
3) We need to offer our broken hearts to Jesus: We need to bring our deepest hurts and broken relationships to Jesus and experience how he reaches out to us to grant us his loving reconciliation. Let us invite Jesus to transform the most difficult situations in our life. The Lord Jesus still raises the dead. We trust that promise each time we bring our shattered lives, our broken hearts, our anger, our depression, our deepest hurts to the table of the Lord and hear, in the voice of the priest, His sure and certain words: “This is my Body and this is my Blood given and shed for you!”
Joke of the week
1) Life after death: The boss asked one of the employees whether he believed in life after death. “Yes, Sir, the employee replied. “Well, then that makes everything fine,” the boss said “After you left yesterday to go to your grandmother’s funeral, she stopped in here in the office to see you.”
2) How to get to Heaven from Ireland: The Sunday school teacher was testing children in her Dublin Sunday School class to see if they understood the concept of getting to Heaven. I asked them, “If I sold my house and my car, had a big jumble sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into heaven?” “NO!” the children answered. “If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the garden, and kept everything tidy, would that get me into heaven?” Again, the answer was ‘No!’ By now I was starting to smile. “Well, then, if I were kind to animals and gave sweeties to all the children, and loved my husband, would that get me into heaven?” Again, they all answered ‘No!’ I was just bursting with pride for them. I continued, “Then how can I get into Heaven?” A six-year old boy shouted from the back. “First, you have to die!”
3) Nearness of death: There was a man who went in for a physical and got a call from the doctor a couple of days later. The doctor said that he had bad news and worse news. “Give me the bad” the man asked. “Your tests showed that you had 48 hours to live.” replied the doctor. “That’s the bad news! That’s the worst thing I have ever heard! How can there be worse news that that?” The man asked. The doctor paused for a moment then replied, “Well, I’ve been trying to reach you for 2 days now.”
4) What they’ll say when you’re dead: Three highly decorated police officers die in a wild shoot out with narcotics dealers and go to Heaven. God greets them and asks, “When you are laid out in your casket, and your fellow officers and family are mourning you, what would you like to hear them say about you?” The first cop says, “I would like to hear them say, that I was the bravest cop on the force.” The second police officer says, “I would like to hear that I was a terrific cop who died in the line of duty.” The last cop replies, “I would like to hear them say … ‘Look, he’s moving!”