10th
Ordinary Sunday (Year C)
First
Reading: 1
Kings 17:17-24 Second
Reading: Galatians
1:11-19 Gospel
Reading: Luke
7:11-17
“I WILL PRAISE YOU, LORD, FOR YOU HAVE RESCUED ME.”
Once a Church had fallen upon hard times. Only five members were left: the pastor and four others, all over 60 years old.
In
the mountains near the Church there lived a retired Bishop. It
occurred to the pastor to ask the Bishop if he could offer any advice
that might save the Church. The pastor and the Bishop spoke at
length, but when asked for advice, the Bishop simply responded by
saying, "I
have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the
Messiah is one of you."
The
pastor, returning to the Church, told the church members what the
Bishop had said. In the months that followed, the old church members
pondered the words of the Bishop. "The
Messiah is one of us?"
they each asked themselves. As they thought about this possibility,
they all began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the
off chance that one among them might be the Messiah. And on the off,
off chance that each member himself might be the Messiah, they also
began to treat themselves with extraordinary care.
As
time went by, people visiting the Church noticed the aura of respect
and gentle kindness that surrounded the five old members of the small
Church. Hardly knowing why, more people began to come back to the
Church. They began to bring their friends, and their friends brought
more friends. Within a few years, the small Church had once again
become a thriving Church, thanks to the Bishop's gift.
The
dead Church had come to life again.
Yes, Jesus is the Messiah
who rescues and restores all of us back to life. We may not be
physically dead, but there are other levels – social, emotional,
moral, spiritual etc. that we may rarely be alive in a real sense.
Jesus promised to give us life, life in great abundance. So, we
joyfully proclaim, “I will praise you,
Lord, for you have rescued me.”
Today is the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Usually on Sundays the Church gives us a First Reading that in some way points forward to the Gospel Reading, and today's is a particularly obvious example. Both the First reading and the Gospel story are about the restoration of life.
The First Reading from the Book of Kings tells the story of a woman’s dead son being restored to life. Escaping from a terrible drought and famine, the prophet Elijah came across a widow at the city gate of Zarephath and asked her for a cup of water and a piece of bread. The woman told him that she was just then gathering some wood with which to cook her and her son's last meal. But Elijah insisted with the assurance, "The Lord, the God of Israel, says, 'The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.'" She then did as requested and the Lord's promise was fulfilled. He stayed with them till the end of the famine.
Some
time later, the woman's son got sick and died. In no uncertain terms,
she took it out on Elijah and blamed him for her son's death. She saw
Elijah as a man of God bringing punishment on her former sins. In the
face of this, Elijah could have left right away. But moved by her
grief, he brought her son's body to his room, laid him on his bed,
stretched himself over him, and prayed for the return of his life. It
did and Elijah gave him back to his mother. At this, the woman said,
"Now
indeed I know that you are a man of God."
She now sees Elijah truly as a man of God bringing life to his
people.
We see something similar happen in the Gospel Reading of today from St. Luke. The story St. Luke recalls is a very striking one, and he tells it with a sensitivity that moves us each time we hear it. Jesus, accompanied by his disciples and a large crowd, is on his way to the city of Naim when he comes across a tragic funeral procession. A young man, the only son of his widowed mother, had died and was being brought out of the city to the cemetery. She was accompanied by a large number of her neighbors to somehow assuage her grief. Moved with compassion, Jesus comforts the unfortunate woman, and stopping the procession by putting his hand on the bier carrying the dead man, he calls him back to life, and gives him to his mother. Seized with fear, everyone glorifies God and exclaims, "A great prophet has arisen in our midst," and "God has visited his people."
This
simple story is only
one of the three occasions in which Jesus restored a dead person to
life, but the restoration of the widow’s son is unique
to St. Luke’s gospel. All three synoptics have recorded the raising
of Jairus’ daughter and only St. John has narrated the sign of
Lazarus. Because the Naim story has been told by St. Luke alone, the
reader should be aware of certain Lucan themes and emphases. For
example, the fact that the story centers upon a woman, and a
'widowed'
woman
at that, reflects the evangelist’s penchant for showing Jesus’
concern for the disadvantaged of society. Also, the whole event has
been cast in such a way as to recall the same deed as performed by
the prophet Elijah in the First Reading. By presenting Jesus in the
same light as the ninth century prophet, who had become an
eschatological figure connected with the advent of the messiah, St.
Luke underscored the actions of Jesus as looking toward the end time
and his role as Messiah.
The above two readings of the day have a lot in common – a poor widow, a sad and tragic situation, a young deceased son, restoration of life, and astonishment in Divine presence! St Luke can't possibly have missed the strong similarities between these two stories. However, there are also some striking differences/contrasts between the two stories:
The
restoration to life of the dead is a prophetic act of Jesus! However,
it is clear in the narrative that St. Luke did not wish to present
Jesus only as
an Elijah figure. Indeed, the evangelist has stressed the difference
and superiority of Jesus’ power by explaining that he
healed 'with a
word.' There are none of the mysterious rituals
(stretching out, breathing, etc.) in Jesus’ simple actions.
Moreover, whereas Elijah performed his rite over the boy three
times and prayed to God for success, Jesus had power of himself
to effect what he willed. While Luke wished his readers to 'remember'
Elijah, he did not want them to misconstrue Jesus’ identity.
While Elijah was anticipated as 'herald of
the kingdom' and of a renewed humanity, Jesus was 'himself
that kingdom' and the bringer of a new life to all
of mankind. Elijah is a prophet of the Lord; Jesus is the Lord, he is
the Resurrection and the Life.
Again, we mustn't lose
sight of the source of Jesus' prophetic ministry. That he is a
prophet who works mighty wonders, there can be no doubt, and we agree
entirely with the people, but we want to say more, and St. Luke tells
us more. Jesus doesn't raise up the widow's son because that will
prove to the people that he's a prophet; he doesn't do it for himself
at all - he does it for her. It is significant that faith was not
mentioned as a motive for Jesus’ action; indeed, from the story, it
would appear that compassion had moved him to act, for we are told
“when the Lord saw her, he had compassion
on her.…” This act, plus the nature of the miracle,
underscored Jesus’ work as a signal of 'the
messianic era.' Jewish tradition anticipated the age of
the messiah as one in which all the suffering and the poor would be
restored.
Moreover, St. Luke wants
us to find more in this story than evidence of the compassion of
Jesus. An examination of the context of this miracle with regard to
the rest of the gospel would indicate that Luke had so placed it to
prepare for the answer of Jesus to John the Baptizer’s disciples in
7:22. Immediately after describing this incident, he recalls the
messengers who came from John the Baptist to ask Jesus, “Are
you the one who is to come?” To this question Jesus
replied by reminding them of the signs spoken of by the prophets,
signs that would announce the coming of the Messiah, “Go
and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind recover
their sight, cripples walk, lepers are cured, the deaf hear, 'dead
men are raised to life'
and the poor have the good
news preached to them.” In answering the needs of the
blind, the deaf, the poor, etc. Jesus had answered as well the
questions about his identity, his power and his saving purpose.
In this miracle, Jesus demonstrates his invincible power over death, ‘the last enemy to be destroyed’ as Paul tells us. He is anticipating the ultimate triumph of his Paschal Mystery. Today’s Second Reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians – recalling his sharing in Christ’s triumph, when God ‘called him through his grace, and chose to reveal his Son to him’ – reminds us that we can all know the compassion of Jesus, as he shares with us his triumph over the reign of death.
To conclude, the two stories of today's Scripture Readings should help us to look at our own situation and see, first of all, how alive we really are, or how fully we are living our lives! Someone has said that most of us are dead or asleep. We do not live in the real world of the now. We are nostalgically looking at the past or we are dreaming about a future that never comes. In the meantime, the real world just passes us by.
At the same time we are
surrounded by lots of people who are barely alive in the real sense.
Maybe we can do something to lift them up and give them new life or
improve the quality of their living. Jesus promised to give us life,
life in great abundance. Also, God
wants no one to suffer unnecessarily. What
have we done when we are confronted by the concrete suffering of
other people? What have we done when people share their pains and
sufferings with us? Have we remained unmoved or have we involved
ourselves in their suffering by lending a compassionate ear or
extending a helping hand?
God
wants life! This is clear in both cases. Life is God’s plan on
earth. Death is where relationships break, and where hope dies, where
love is lacking. Yes, there are many ‘dead’
around us. It is now our task to further the action of Christ in
giving life to them. As Christians, we bear Christ, his life and his
joy in our lives and in our activities. We often meet people in our
life, many who have lost their hope; those who are in need of help.
Can we give the divine joy for others through our presence? Is my
life a living testimony of God, his love and mercy? Our God is a God
of life! We are his children! Let us be the messengers of life! And
this is the Good News of today.
********************************
No comments:
Post a Comment