Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 6-3-16
Peace be with You,
Having celebrated the feasts of the Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi on the heels of Pentecost, we now settle into Ordinary Time a bit more this weekend. However, though our festive season may have passed, we continue to have set before us the reality of who Jesus Christ is and what He means for us.
In today’s Gospel reading from Luke, we meet Jesus and the disciples as they are approaching a small Galilean village called Nain. As they are near the edge of the village, mention is made that they are near the city gate. This is significant because Luke is making connection to the Old Testament practice of having seats of judgement located at the city gates. It was here that disputes would be resolved for the people of Israel. Therefore, let us look at today’s gospel event as a resolution of conflict.
The conflict: a widow has lost her only son. In those days, what this meant for her is that her very life is at risk. For having lost her only two providers, her husband and son, she will now be completely dependent upon the community to provide for her. Therefore, in a very real way, the difficulties of the human experience are brought before our eyes in order that we may see the response of Jesus. Luke tells us that the response of Jesus was compassion. The word “compassion” means, literally, to suffer with another. Confronted by the suffering of another, Jesus chooses to suffer with her, which he continues to do with each and every one of us who allow him to approach us in difficult times. But not only does Jesus suffer along with us in our moments of trial, he transforms these moments.
Approaching the bier, Jesus touches it, and commands the dead body to rise. This is reminiscent of the work of God in creation, Who spoke all things into existence. By relating this miracle, Luke, then, is sending a very clear message: this man is indeed God. My friends, it is precisely that we might not have to experience the lasting affect of death that the Son of God came into the world! But it is not only the death at the end of life that God desires to liberate us from, it is the death that sin causes here and now as well. Like the widow’s son, today we too are called to life by the Savior, who gives us breath that we may resolve the conflicts around us as we imitate His love.
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
Tony Crescio is the founder of FRESHImage Ministries. He holds an MTS from the University of Notre Dame and is currently a PhD candidate in Christian Theology at Saint Louis University. His research focuses on the intersection between moral and sacramental theology. His dissertation is entitled, Presencing the Divine: Augustine, the Eucharist and the Ethics of Exemplarity.
Tony’s academic publications can be found here.