Today is the 15th Sunday after Pentecost. In the introit prayer, we say, “Have mercy on me Oh Lord, for I have cried to Thee all day. Give joy to Thy servant for to thee, Oh Lord, I have lifted up my soul.” Truly, we must offer all our humility, our sadness, frustrations, heartaches and sufferings for the Lord because He will always heed our prayers and supplications to lift us up constantly. The Lord never plays deaf to us for He sees what is best for us.
The epistle is taken from the letter of St. Paul to the Galatians. St. Paul writes, “If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.” He is teaching us that if we truly embrace the life of Christ, we will certainly manifest the life of the divine because the Holy Spirit has brought us into the life of Jesus by way of our attitude, how we conduct ourselves, in union with God and in whom we are aware of the indwelling of the Spirit that is at work in us. He continues that we must “Bear ye another’s burden, and so you shall fulfill the law of Christ.” I cannot imagine that our Christian life is a personal matter. It has something to do with our relationship with others; we journey with others towards the path to holiness and to Christ. We feel good when others share the load of the burden with us. It becomes easy to carry all our trials, like problems in the family, loss of job, and attacks by the devil. We can overcome them with the help of our brothers. This passage encourages us to practice the spirit of generosity, especially to those who are in need. In our work of ministering to others, we are called to reflect the attitude of Jesus to those who are poor, widowed, possessed by evil and the sick. We are obligated to extend our hands to those people.
The gospel narrates to us how compassionate He is, especially to the widow who lost her only begotten son. He was with His disciples as they went to the City of Naim. Jesus saw a funeral and was deeply moved with compassion. He approached the funeral and spoke to the dead man, “Young man, I say to thee, Arise.” The dead man sat up and began to speak. Jesus then turned him over to his mother. We are invited to learn and reflect on lessons we can derive from this story.
First, God is truly compassionate and merciful. In the scripture, it says that Jesus had shown compassion to the widow. The fact was that becoming a widow during those times had been difficult. Because of the death of her son, that woman became a second class citizen with no voice in society. Jesus knew so well about her future which would be vague and unpredictable. However, Jesus came to her rescue to make her life better by having her only son live again to take care of her.
Second, God has always been on a journey with His people, especially in times of suffering and needs. Shortly after Jesus noticed the funeral procession, He could have continued to do other business and be unmindful of what was going on. He could have been insensitive to the plight of this poor widow; however, Jesus took that big step to cancel His other plans. He could have walked away from the funeral procession, but instead He immediately responded to that grieving widow. Jesus offered comforting words, “Don’t cry.” Then He turned the atmosphere to happiness because Jesus raised her son from the dead.
Third, God certainly gives us a glimpse of what is heaven and earth for us. When Jesus manifested His power to raise the dead, it was a clear signal that Jesus is the true Messiah. He revealed His own power to defeat death. He was not concerned of His own actions with regards to His safety and comfort; He just wanted to tell us that even during His time, the promise of the resurrection had been revealed to many people thru that wonderful story of raising the widow’s son from the dead.
After the performance of this great miracle by Jesus, the widow was touched by what she saw in a positive way, maybe leading her to change and to believe in Jesus. Touching the dead body of that man, Jesus would risk being uncleaned according to the old law; however, His priority was not about being allowed to enter the temple, but it was about that human being, who certainly needed help to be restored again to her community.
In our life, we search for God’s consolation and blessings upon us. Just like this inspiring story about the widow, who we were taught would be left helpless throughout her life. Now we figure out that in our lowest point in our life, Jesus has been inserting himself to be part of our story. How many of us are able to realize that we cannot just be by ourselves to feel lonely and to suffer alone?
Today, we are given the vision that God provides, which is an opportunity to take part in our private life. There is an attitude that must permeate such a significant relationship with God for we cannot handle everything that comes our way. Our greatest source of help is God, who is all-knowing, all-powerful and ever loving. He knows what you need. Let us abandon ourselves to His care today because He truly cares.
God bless you.
Fr. Arlon, osa
