Note: On Tuesdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. (Luke 7:12-15, NRSVCE)
The parallelism is striking: A grieving, widowed mother who has now lost her only son. Jesus tells him to rise—and he does, and is returned
to his mother. It will not be long before another grieving, widowed mother will lose her son, this time for three days. His return will change the world.
Our world can feel filled with grief: loved ones leave us. Our own minds and bodies fail us. We see no way that things will ever get better, that we will ever celebrate the new normal that does not include a beloved spouse, child, friend, that includes less independence and more reliance on others for the most intimate of bodily functions.
And we may be right. Few in this world will experience the miracle described in today’s Gospel, of the return of something or someone we were quite sure was lost forever. The new normal may never be comfortable or joyous.
But as Christians, we cling to this: Faith in the Lord can never, ever be stripped from us; it’s ours to keep or discard as we like. When “everything else” we know as familiar and normal is gone, do not weep for it. Hold on for dear life to what is eternal.
