CYCLE II: HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 24TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME (2)

CYCLE II: HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 24TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

HOMILY THEME: OUR LADY OF SORROWS

BY: Fr. Benny Tuazon

HOMILY: (Lk. 7:11-17) Feast Of Our Lady of Sorrows

In today’s Gospel we have Jesus encountering the grieving widow from Nain whose dead son is being carried out to be buried. The mother was in deep sorrow which moved Jesus with pity. Jesus knew very well the source of grief of the mother. She was a woman, a widow, and just lost a son.

Women were treated less than men during that time. Being married to a man makes her standing in society a lot better. Having a son even increased her worth. She lost both men in her life. She lost her better standing in society. She was alone. You can just imagine her joy when Jesus brought back her son to life. The event was witnessed by the people. And they recognized Jesus as a great prophet and sign of having been visited by God!

We celebrate today the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. This day is celebrated after the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. In the same way that the feast of the exaltation of the cross, a triumph of Jesus’s saving action, is a recognition of the obedience and faith of Jesus in Father, the feast of our lady of sorrows is Mary’s own witnessing of faith and obedience to the Father through all her seven sorrows (Siete Dolores) after she was chosen as the Mother of the Son of God: (1) hearing the devastating words of Simeon, (2) their flight to Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath, (3) Jesus was lost in the Temple, (4) witnessing Jesus’ walk to His death in Calvary, (5) the crucifixion, (6) the pieta (7) and the burial of Jesus.

Jesus’ own mother was not spared of sorrows. The first reading from the Book of Hebrew’s witnessed to the fact that Jesus’ suffering was real. From Jesus’ conception to His burial, Mary was there not only as a disciple witnessing the life and ministry of her Master, but reading and forming Him as a Son. The pain and sorrow of the widow from Nain helps us appreciate the pain and sorrow of Mary. How can the Son of God suffer so much? Mary’s faith was definitely tested and challenged to the full. But like her Son, she believed in the Word of God. Through all those sorrows, something precious was being developed. In the same way, we too, who have our own sorrows, should be consoled by the fact that we have a God who will see us through them and emerge at something consoling and fulfilling.