Homily on Luke 7:11-16 offered by Dcn. Michael Schlaack
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ!
What is the source of our life—what is it that keeps us going? If it is money, power, or beauty, then we will find very quickly that all those things are fleeting. No matter how hard we struggle, none of those things will last forever. And of course, we cannot take any of those things with us when we leave this earthly existence. Nothing we have accumulated in the short spans of our life will extend our time on earth one minute. Therefore, since the things of this world are temporary, we need to change our focus and place it on the one thing that is eternal: Our life in Christ. For as we learn from the Gospel accounts, death is no match for the power of the presence of Christ.
Our lesson today from St. Luke’s Gospel demonstrates what happens when death encounters the true source of life. Christ saw the grief experienced by the widow at the death of her only son and in His compassion for her suffering, He restored to life to her only son. In the first century, without the support and protection of a male member of the immediate family, the woman was most likely reduced to a life of poverty or living off the good graces of others. There was no social safety net as we have today. But Jesus in demonstrating the full mercy of God, reached out in the widow’s time of need. The simple touch of His hand to the coffin of her son was enough to restore to life the dead man, demonstrating that Christ is the ultimate source of our life. There was no magical incantations or elaborate ritual; His touch was enough to overcome the mortal finality of death.
Then, just as God spoke the world into being at the creation (Genesis chapter 1), Christ said to the man, “arise.” We can see the same pattern another time when Christ raised Lazarus from the dead. Even though he had been dead and buried for four days, humanity can not resist the command of Christ to “come forth” (John 11:17-44). The grave is not the place that God wants us to be and for those with the faith of the Resurrection, death will not be our permanent state. As Christ told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And he who lives and believes in Me, shall never die” (John 11:25, 26). The state of being physically dead or alive in this world does not matter nearly as much as the life that is prepared for those who believe in Christ.
Our days here are short and with no guarantee, but our eternity will be much longer, so it is therefore more important that we prepare for our death than it is to worry about our life. Jesus taught us that we do not need to waste our time worrying about tomorrow but to focus on the things that will affect our eternal relationship with God (Matt. 6:31-34). By centering our focus on the source of life, we will have no need to pursue the fleeting, unprofitable things of this world. The nearsightedness of sin causes us to only see what is immediately in front of us and prevents us from focusing on the things that are beyond our own self-interest. But our vision will be corrected by the lens of faith, and we can live the years we have here on earth in the comfort of knowing that regardless of what life may throw at us, Christ has a place prepared for us in God’s heavenly home (John 14:2).
The Gospel lesson is one of the three recorded resurrections performed by Jesus during His earthly ministry (besides the raising of Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter). In the recording of the raising of the widow’s son, Jesus touched the coffin, demonstrating that the physical presence of Jesus as God incarnate is enough to overcome death. The God is life-giving, and the presence of Christ is life. This account of the raising of the widow’s son closely resembles the Old Testament story of the raising of the son of the widow of Zarephath by the prophet Elijah (3 Kingdoms 17:22, 23). We also see that the raising of the widow’s son helped to demonstrate the presence of God amongst His people as described in the prophecy of Isaiah, where “the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers cleanse, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Luke 7:22). Indeed, to the people seeing the miraculous reanimation of the widow’s son, a great prophet has been risen amongst them, and “God has visited His people” (16). God, in His infinite love and mercy, saw it was necessary to stoop down to our earthly level, become incarnate in human flesh, live amongst His chosen people. And where God is present, there is life.
We may ask, Why did Jesus choose this widow? Why does God’s favor shine on some and not others? Surely there were other widowed mothers in the city of Nain who could have been just as deserving as the poor woman in our Gospel account. We may never know the true answer, but one thing we can be certain of is that all of us, through our faith following of the commandments of Christ and through the life-sustaining power of the His Holy body in the eucharist, we can experience eternal life. While the widow’s son had his life restored, we should also remember that he did eventually die. Like St. Photini, we need to seek that living water that Christ has to offer, so that we will never thirst (John 7:38) and partake of the “bread of life” that is only found in Jesus Christ (John 6:51).
As the Gospel lesson demonstrates, the presence of Christ is life. A simple touch was all it took to stop the flow of blood and restore the health the Syrophoncian woman from a life of exclusion and misery (Matt. 9:20, 21), and simple touch of a coffin was all that was needed to restore life to a dead man. As faithful Christians, we must also remain in the presence of the life-giving power of Jesus Christ. We have that opportunity every time we come before the chalice to partake of the Holy Mystery of Communion, where we partake in the Holy and Precious body and blood of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, for the remission of our sins and unto life everlasting. This is the source of our hope and the foundation of our belief in eternal life.
The answer to the question that has been on the mind of humanity since the beginning of time is found in Christ’s prayer on the night that He gave Himself up for the life of the world: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). When we know Jesus Christ as our Lord, God, and Savior, then we know the source of life, both in this world in the world to come.
In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.