YEAR B: HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 24TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME (2)

YEAR B: HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 24TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

HOMILY THEME: RAISING OF THE WIDOW’S SON….”Young man, awake, I tell you”

BY: Fr. Joan SERRA i Fontanet

HOMILY:

Today, two groups of people cross each other’s path… One group escorting the death; the other one escorting the life. A poor widow, followed by her relatives and friends, is carrying out his only son to the cemetery while, suddenly, she sees a lot of people following Jesus. The two groups of people get together and they come to a halt, while Jesus tells the mother that was going to lay to rest her son: «Don’t cry» (Lk 7:13). The crowd looked at Jesus, who was not indifferent to that mother's pain and suffering, but feeling deeply sorry for her, He brings her son back to life. For, finding Jesus is to find life, as Jesus said about Himself: «I am the resurrection and the life» (Jn 11:25). St. Braulio of Saragossa writes: «Let the hope of resurrection encourage us, then, because we shall see again those whom we lose here below».

In reading this fragment of the Gospel about the resurrection of that young man of Nain, we could emphasize Jesus’s divinity and stand fast on it, by saying that only God could have brought back his life to this young man; but, today, I would rather stress Jesus Humanity as, here, we do not see Jesus as a remote being, or as someone very different to us, or even somebody so important that He could not arouse in us the confidence and trust a good friend would.

We, Christians, must learn to emulate Jesus. We must ask God the grace to be like Christ for the others. How wonderful if others could see us as Jesus’s very image on this earth! Those who saw St. Francis of Assissi, for instance, were also seeing Jesus’s image. Saints are those that carry Jesus in their words and deeds, and imitate his way of doing things and his goodness. Our society need saints and you can be one in your environment.

+ Fr. Joan SERRA i Fontanet (Barcelona, Spain)