Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
A
Funeral Mass was offered
for
a woman who had just passed away.
As
the pallbearers carried her casket
to the church door,
they accidently bumped its corner
they accidently bumped its corner
into the wall, jarring the coffin.
A
faint moan was heard inside.
So
they quickly opened it up
and
found that the woman
was amazingly still alive.
In
fact, she lived for ten more years
before dying.
A
second Funeral Mass was then offered
in the same church,
and
the pallbearers again
carried out her casket.
And
as they made their way
toward the church door,
the
woman’s husband
was heard shouting,
“This
time, watch out for that wall!”
Because
we always feel like we ought to say something,
people
are prone to giving all kinds of advice at funerals.
Some
of the worst advice is also, unfortunately, the most common:
“Be
strong!” is how it’s generally conveyed.
The
idea is usually to keep a stiff upper lip
in
order to be of steady support for somebody else.
In
my experience, anyway, that’s pretty bad advice.
What
a grieving person often needs most
isn’t
a strong shoulder on which to lean,
but
another pair of teary eyes along with which to cry.
But
here comes Jesus—in our Gospel this Sunday—
meeting
a funeral procession on its way to the cemetery.
And
what, pray tell, does Jesus say to the widow
who’s
now lost her only son?
When the Lord saw her,
he was moved with pity for
her
and said to her, “Do not
weep.”
So
much for my opinion on funeral advice!
…Or
is it?
Let’s
take a closer look at that single verse
from
Luke’s gospel.
When the Lord saw her…
We
take for granted that “Lord” is an appropriate title for Jesus,
and
can forget what a weighty word it is.
Only
a few lines before this one
is
Jesus first addressed as Lord:
not
by one of his disciples, nor by a pious Jew,
but
by a Roman centurion—a pagan—
expressing
his complete confidence in Jesus.
The
centurion’s words are very familiar to us:
“Lord, …I am not worthy to
have you enter under my roof,
…but say the word and let my
servant be healed.” (7:6-7)
To
call Jesus, “Lord,” is a profound expression of faith.
In
the Old Testament, the name is reserved for God alone.
Jesus
is not one mourner among so many others,
just
waiting his turn to sign the guest register.
The
crowds may soon come to think of him as a great prophet,
but
from the start Luke wants us to know:
Jesus
is Someone far greater than that.
When the Lord saw her,
he was moved with pity…
The
original Greek text is a bit more earthy:
it
says that Jesus “felt it in his gut.”
The
expression shares roots with the Greek word for “womb.”
Jesus
is able to identify completely
with
the gut-wrenching loss this mother is suffering
because
he himself knows the labor pains
of
bringing new life into the world. (cf. A. Matt)
How
can he—you ask—
a
man, a man who’s not a husband nor a father,
even
begin to understand such a thing?
Because
Jesus is not only a man:
he’s
the Author of Life;
he’s
the eternal Word which existed before the beginning
and
through whom all things came to be;
he’s
the Lord.
When the Lord saw her,
he was moved with pity for her
You see, Jesus can give funeral advice that we shouldn’t
because
he’s able to do things that we can’t.
In
Jesus, God himself is visiting his people.
Jesus
has the uniquely divine power to give life!
And
Jesus has the uniquely divine power to restore life again!
Blessed
Pope John Paul II frequently pointed out
that
contemporary society is caught up in a dramatic struggle
between
the “culture of life”
and
the “culture of death.” (cf. Evangelium Vitae)
This
potent language is most often used
in reference to the pro-life movement:
in reference to the pro-life movement:
the
“culture of death” referring to specific issues
such
as abortion and euthanasia,
unjust
war and environmental devastation.
But
there are lots and lots of areas in modern life
where
we run into this culture of death, aren’t there?
We
can observe a death of manners and morals,
and
the impact it is having on family life.
We
see the global economy dying,
especially
for the chronically unemployed and the working poor.
We
witness death in politics,
as many
elected officials seemingly have given up
on
civil discourse and the primacy of the common good.
We
perceive the Church to be dying,
as
congregations are aging and parishes closing.
We
experience so much death personally, too:
the
loss of good health, the passing of a relationship,
the
demise of hopes and dreams.
A
culture of death is all around us.
Are
we satisfied with this state of affairs?
Have
we come to except
that
this is simply the way things have to be?
Or
can we recognize that there is another way?
What
if we dared to honestly believe that this Jesus is Lord?
What
if we actually believed that Jesus—
just
as he did for that young man in Nain—
is still
stepping forward to touch our coffins…
…and
not simply to wipe away the tears of the grieving?
What
if we genuinely believed that Jesus wants
to revitalize
us and our families,
to reawaken
faith in our parishes and community,
to revive
our nation and mortally wounded world?
What
if we truly believed
that
Jesus can command what is dead to arise,
not
because his word has the borrowed authority of a prophet,
but
is itself the very breath of life?
My
friends, I declare with St. Paul:
this
is the Gospel—the Good News—that we preach!
We
preach it in proclaiming the holy Scriptures.
We
preach it celebrating the Eucharist and the other Sacraments.
We
preach it serving the least of our brothers and sisters.
We
preach it in the fact that we assemble—Sunday after Sunday—
on
the selfsame day of the week
when
Jesus was raised from the tomb.
This
Gospel is not of human origin, but of divine revelation.
And
it’s the Gospel of Life!
It’s
all about resurrection.
Imagine
how the culture would change around us
if
we all lived like people who really believe
that Jesus Christ has conquered death—once and for all—
that Jesus Christ has conquered death—once and for all—
and
has both the power and the desire to bring us back to life.
The
world desperately needs us to be men and women
who
carry this faith, this promise,
this
everlasting hope within us.
If
we believe this Gospel,
if
we believe that Jesus Christ is Lord,
then
when people who’ve already crawled into their caskets
happen
to bump into us
they,
too, will be awakened to life again
and
say as did those folks at a funeral long ago:
“God, indeed, has visited
his people.”
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