[Reflection for 10th Sunday in ordinary time
Year c
1Kg 17:17-24,
Gal 1:11-19, Lk 7:11-17]
The widow of Zarephath, who harboured
Elijah, lost her only son. She began to throw blames. Maybe it was the
prophet that brought this calamity upon her or it was a punishment for her
sins. Elijah prayed to God and the Child came back to life. Her mourning was
turned to joy. She exclaimed, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that
the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.
A similar story in the Gospel tells
of Jesus entering the city of Nain. And a
great crowd went with Him. At the city gate he met an ‘opposing’ large crowd from the city going out to
bury a young man, the only son of his mother, “and she was a widow.” We see in
this woman the deepest form of human agony, devoid of hope. Her future has been
annihilated. This is the threat of death; it speaks of a concluded future. Then the two crowds met at the gate—the rejoicing
crowd, centred on Jesus, moving in, and the mourning crowd, centred on the agonizing
widow and her dead son, going out!
The compassion of Jesus on the
widow reflects his love for humanity. He is in touch with our deepest misery. “Young
man, I say to you, arise.” He has overcome death. Jesus has conquered our
deepest agony and restored hope. He turns mourning into dancing (cf. Ps 30:11).
Life itself is within him; ‘‘I say to you...’’ He is the life and the
Resurrection (Jn 11:25-26). With the intervention of Jesus, the mourning crowd
mingles with the rejoicing crowd of Jesus, and goes in with Him (like the drop
of water that mingles with the wine at the Holy Eucharist and becomes part of
the wine). “This I remember...how I used to pass under the roof of the Most High...among
cries of joy and praise, the sound of a feast” (Ps 42:4).
Therefore, there is no need to
throw blames. Sometimes we are more interested in who is the cause of our problems than who has the solution. Such attitude
can lead one to sorcery. “Why cast down my soul, hope in God! I will praise him
still, my saviour, my God” (Ps 42:11). It is no more death that is the dividing
line of our lives since Jesus is now Lord of the living and the dead. He has
conquered sin and its resultant death. “So alive or dead, we belong to the
Lord...(Rm 14:8-9). Like St Paul in the 2nd reading, our
life-history is now divided between living for Christ or not.
The calamity of life is no
more death, but living without Christ. The deepest human agony becomes our
inability to meet Jesus at the gate. Only
Him can save us from the agony of a concluded
future posed by death. With Jesus our life will be renewed. “He who is in
Christ Jesus is a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17). Let us go forward to meet Jesus
at the gate (“Behold, I am standing at the door, knocking” Rev 3:20). He will
have compassion on us, and we shall join the rejoicing crowd and enter into the
city of God.
Fr Jude Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
St
John Mary Vianney Catholic Church,
Trademore
Estate, Lugbe,
Abuja,
Nigeria
June
5, 2016.
