10TH SUNDAY
IN ORDINARY TIME – C
Luke 7: 11-17
Does God ever care when we are in
pain? Can He feel our sorrow? What does He do when we are grieving?
In the Gospel this Sunday, there were
two movements, namely the people walking through a funeral procession and the disciples
following Jesus. One was a death march
represented by the corpse, the other was a walk of life represented by Jesus. The funeral group symbolized humanity
carrying death advancing through history while the disciples of Jesus were a
symbol of the New Humanity celebrating life.
In these two movements, life and death came face to face with each other
with life achieving victory at the end.
Jesus was moved with compassion, not on
the dead son, but on the mother who was also a widow just like Elijah on the
widow in the first reading. For Jesus,
it was not ordinary pity but a compassion that moved Him to the very depths of His
being. Without being asked of any favor,
Jesus Himself took the initiative to reach out because one day He would also be
a dead son to His mother. Before
attending to her dead son, Jesus first comforted the widow saying “Do not
cry.” Without minding the social taboo
of incurring impurity, Jesus touched the bier.
Suddenly the death march stopped in the presence of Life! Jesus said “Young man, I tell you, get up!” The power of the Word commanding, re-creating
life once again. As most of the stories
of St. Luke, the twist and surprise of this story was not the raising of the
dead but Jesus giving back the son to his mother. Jesus knew one day His mother would grieve
over His death but at the end, He would be given back to Her alive!
No parents would want to bury their
children! Parents who have experienced
the loss of their children could easily identify themselves with the widows in
the readings today. God the Father
fully understands the feeling of parents losing their children when He lost His
only begotten Son! He experienced every
inch of the pain, the grieving, the sorrow and everything there is in death.
The God who created us is not stoic and
indifferent like the pagan gods who did not feel the emotions of people. God through
Jesus has entered into the very fiber of human feelings and emotions. Jesus is the personification of the
compassion of God!
When
we are walking in a “death march” because of the loss of someone very dear to
us or when we are grieving over our own dying to self, God meets on the way and
cries with us but most especially He comforts us and gives our life back to us. Our “death marches” stop in
the presence of Jesus and we continue to journey through life by following
Him….
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