Today’s Scripture Readings

Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, rise!’ The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us!’ and ‘God has looked favourably on his people!’ This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

On the site of today’s gospel story, the village of Nain in the southern Galilee region, there stands a small Franciscan church commemorating the beautiful story of the raising back to life of the only son of a widow. The small town itself is mentioned only in Luke’s Gospel and today is inhabited mainly by Muslim families.

There is a gentle simplicity in this very special scenario: the bleak sense of loss of the widow, the openly compassionate response of Jesus, the demonstration of the power of God and the exclamation of faith by those present.

Meeting the funeral bier, which is followed by the distraught widow, Jesus is moved: ‘he had compassion for her,’ a totally human response. But the three words that follow – ‘do not weep’ – are not those reflective of the awkwardness we sometimes feel at tears flowing, rather they are words of hope. Jesus chooses to reveal the hope-filled power of a compassionate God. With the voice of authority coming only from God, he raises the young man from the grip of death and restores him to his mother.

When we remember all those who have gone before us ‘marked with the sign of faith,’ that same hope is present. We believe in the mercy and compassion of God in granting them eternal peace as we are one with those present in the story to exclaim: ‘God has visited his people!’

A church is a sign of the presence of God, a place of silent reflection, a place where life, death and new life are celebrated in the Eucharist. That small little church in Nain stands in quiet witness to all this, but above all to the wonder and beauty of hope that only Jesus can bring.

May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.