Word to the Wise
Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - Tuesday in the 24th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Tim 3:1-13 and Luke 7:11-17]Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, exclaiming, "A great prophet has arisen in our midst," and "God has visited his people."
The story of Jesus' restoring the son of the Widow of Nain, like so many gospel stories, can be approached on more than one level. There is the human situation of the widow, who would be in a very difficult and social condition since she would have no male figure to accompany here in that society. Not only does Jesus raise the man from death but he rescues the widow from destitution and isolation. The compassion of Jesus is on full display here.
In a bigger picture, I recommend reading the "Canticle of Zechariah" in Luke 1:68-79 to understand why the evangelist has recounted this story and why the crowd reacts with certain words. The "infancy narratives" in the gospels of Luke and Matthew are meant to serve as overtures to the rest of the work. The first lines of the Canticle of Zechariah (the "Benedictus") proclaim: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and brought redemption to his people...."
It is not just Jesus' compassion for the poor widow and her dead only son, it is God's compassion for all of us that is on display. This is Jesus' mission and the evangelist Luke tells the story of that mission with wonderful incidents that illustrate it. Re-reading the first two chapters of the gospel can shed light on the whole story. AMEN
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