Restoring Life, 10th Sunday Ordinary Time

“The sufferings of the present are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed”  St Paul confidently proclaims.

But human suffering still cuts deep.  We suffer mightily and sorrow can bury us in its darkness.

We grieve loss and tragedy dims the light of human existence.

Our very humanness is bound up in the transitory nature of the world and death as its endgame is a hard and often a fearful mystery.

At its best human compassion looks upon this mystery, and its finality, and moves us to reach out;

 to embrace, comfort and strengthen one another in times of suffering.

As People of God, our innate human compassion is bound up in Christ’s own compassion, and its outpouring upon those who suffer is encouraged by the Holy Spirit.

This world can bring us to a place where we forget that God’s life affirming love for each of us is our true reality.

This true reality encompasses the transitory, natural world, and us in it, but it is also stretches beyond the world’s natural boundaries.

The final manifestation of this true reality; of God’s eternal, absolute and unconditional love for us is the “glory to be revealed”.

This Glory is ours as the children of God, co heirs with our Lord, who was the 1^st fruit of the resurrection.

 It is always Jesus, his life, death and resurrection that says to every human person

Be not afraid – see - I am Life.

But, I have gotten a little ahead of myself.

Today we have two accounts of restoring life, two accounts of human compassion and divine power.

In the first reading the Phoenician widow, in sorrow and anger, accuses Elijah of bringing her guilt before God.  Assuming Elijah’s God is a God of retribution, she is convinced (that of us are) that it was God who brought death to her son.

The widow without a husband is without secure income or protection; she is already marginalized and vulnerable. Bu,t now with the loss of her beloved son (perhaps all she had left), she despairs of her life.

Elijah in his human heart is deeply moved by the by the widow’s plight and so he embraces the child (the human touch) and turns to God, who alone holds all creative and restorative power -

“O Lord let the life breathe return to the body of this child”

God hears, and answers Elijah’s by restoring breath to the child.

Elijah in turn gives, the now living son, back to his mother who declares – in her new found joy –

That Elijah is a man who God listens to.

Elijah’s human heart, his compassion, moves him to act, and his confidence in God allows him to ask for the unimaginable, but it is God alone who restores life.  In this case 3 lives;
Natural life to the son and a reunited life between mother & son (a restored family),  and a new life of faith, for the mother who now knows and has experienced God's saving love.

 In the Gospel reading we are reminded of the tenderness and kindness that runs deep in Jesus. 

We again are shown a compassion that; heals, restores and ultimately saves.

In the town of Nain, south of Nazareth, Jesus witnesses a funeral procession. 

There is great distress in the street and Jesus sees the mother weeping for her dead son.

Jesus (perhaps remembering his own mother & her future) is moved and comes to her and says

 “Do not cry”. 

These words of comfort are also a promise of hope, of something new and unexpected. 

With all eyes watching Jesus steps to the coffin and touches its top

 talya qum . “young man, I tell you rise” 

 The boy, restored to life sits up and speaks (I wonder what words!)

Now, the excited crowd realizes that in returning the son to his mother Jesus has done what only God can do - give life. But, this was nothing new for Jesus. He always restores life.he continues to restore life. It is who he is.

Jesus’ deep compassion did not need to be awakened like Elijah.  Jesus is compassion for every person, but in this case his compassion became manifest in divine power, that broke the bonds of death.

And this extraordinary work was a sign who Jesus is and what his mission is about and it pointed (not to Jesus himself who did not deemed equality with God something to be grabbed) but to God the Father.

He said many times that his works were proof (not of his greatness) but that the kingdom of God, of God’s sovereignty and action in the world, has already begun to happened.  

 “ Go and tell what you have seen and heard” Jesus said “the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised ” 

 Or even more directly

  “Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing, for what he does, his son will do also. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.”

 This is our hope and our faith.  This awakens and fuels our own compassion, this strengthens our confidence in the power of God, and this is how, even in our human trembling, we can look straight into the face of death. 

In hope we do not even blink, because Jesus (by his compassion) shows us God’s concern and care for each of us and by (his great deeds) Jesus reveals God’s eternal power over every law of nature and by (His resurrection) that we are not captives to the boundaries of this world.   

We are not doomed to death and so we do not walk in the shadow of death we walk in the light of life.

We are not children who need to be afraid of the unknown, but we are children of God, inheritors of God’s eternal birthright of everlasting life.  We are compassionate children reaching out in love to our brothers and sisters who suffer and we are children who can sing in joyful confidence with the psalmist -

  “My heart rejoices and my soul is glad, even my body shell rest in safety, for you will not leave my soul among the dead”