Gospel Delights!

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

1 Tim 3:1-13; Lk 7:11-17

‘Smaller coffins are the heaviest’ – if there was someone who understood this better, it was Jesus in whom we find the ‘image of the invisible God’ (Col 1:15). 

The response of Jesus to the plight of the widow of Nain is visceral. He is moved with compassion and volunteers to raise the boy without her requesting such help. 

Jesus intuits the widow’s economic catastrophe without the only son’s support in a patriarchal society. 

Remotely, the scene also draws parallels to Jesus’ own family. Jesus could have imagined the widow’s plight from his situation as well. In his family, without Joseph, Mary was a widow, and her life would have been difficult because Jesus became an itinerant preacher. 

However, Jesus’ compassion towards suffering humanity is once again manifested in the gospel passage. 

To help out the poor widow, Jesus violates the Jewish purity laws by touching the coffin. He says to the widow, ‘Do not weep,’ because he is there to turn her tears of sorrow into tears of joy. The consolation that Jesus offers is thus transformative.

In Jesus’ divine presence, the people experience a holy fear and begin to glorify God. 

Jesus intervened in the life of the widow of Nain and changed it for the better. God acts in history to change it for the better – whether we believe it or not!

‘God’s mercy is from age to age’ – (Lk 1:50). 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar