As modern-day readers of the Gospel, it is easy for us to miss the profoundness of what really happened in today’s incident from the Gospel. When a husband dies, we are accustomed to counting on life insurance, savings, Medicaid, Medicare, veteran benefits, retirement plans, burial benefits, the union, or St. Vincent de Porres Society. A widow can look forward to a difficult and maybe economically reduced life, but overall, a sustainable life after her husband’s death. None of those social supports existed two thousand years ago.
Anyone from Israel who heard the phrase “a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow” would know that the woman was being left in an impossible life situation. Her husband and son are both dead. Normally a widow would move in with her son after her husband’s death. But in this case, there were no more sons. The woman would probably be destitute, maybe even reduced to living in the street. In that culture this is a completely hopeless situation with no visible way forward. The mother and the whole crowd, as would be expected in such a dramatic situation, with her were weeping.
The first point for us to notice is that Jesus intervenes. He has compassion and does not leave that family and crowd (community) there weeping. In the midst of despair and hopelessness, he is moved to action. He walks up and forcibly stops the funeral procession by putting his hand on the coffin. The pallbearers must stop. Then as a second point, we see how he intervenes with just two words – first to the mother and crowd (community) “Do not weep” and then to the young man “Arise”. From a human point of view, given that the situation was so grave, both words seem ludicrous. Even the act of forcibly stopping a funeral procession would seem ludicrous and disrespectful. I am sure there were folks there who thought that Jesus was crazy. Yet Jesus does restore life not only to the dead young man, but he also reestablishes a life of hope to the widow-mother.
We have all made our lives into a perpetual funeral procession – our individual lives and our communal lives, and our political lives. In the world of pain, violence, and despair that we have created for ourselves, these are the two words for us today from Jesus: “Do not weep” and “Arise”. Jesus is always there at our side, sticking his nose in our lives, intervening, and calling us. Communion with Jesus leads us out of the world of despair.
He stepped forward and touched the coffin;
and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!”
The dead man sat up and began to speak,
and Jesus gave him to his mother.
Image: https://santocrucifijo.org/evangelio-dominical-x-domingo-del-tiempo-ordinario/