Gospel: St. Luke vii. 11-16.
AT that time: “ Jesus went into a city that is called Naim, and there went with Him His disciples and a great multitude. And when He came nigh to the gate of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother: and she was a widow: and a great multitude of the city was with her. Whom when the Lord had seen, being moved with mercy toward her, He said to her: Weep not. And He came near and touched" the bier. (And they that carried it stood still.) And He said: Young man, I say to thee, arise. And he that was dead sat up and began to speak. And He gave him to his mother. And there came a fear on them all, and they glorified God, saying: A great prophet is risen up among us, and God hath visited His people/’
Q. Was this meeting of Jesus with the funeral a mere accident?
A. According to the history of this fact it would seem to have been simply an accident, but the sacred interpreters say that Jesus went purposely to Nairn and arranged all in such a manner that He was at the gate of the city at the proper time, in order to work the astonishing miracle, which inspired with faith those who beheld it, and which teaches us a lesson of the greatest importance.
Q. Of whom was that dead man a figure?
A. He was the image of a sinner dead in the eyes of God, more disfigured by his sins than a corpse, deprived of every spiritual good and of the strength to do works for life eternal.
Q. Of whom was the sorrowful mother who followed the bier a figure ?
A. She was a figure of the Church, which never loses sight of those of her children whom sin has deprived of life. She continually laments their condition, desires their conversion, and prays for it fervently and constantly from the mercy of God through the merits of Jesus Christ.
Q. What are we to recognize in the bier and in the four men who carried it?
A. In the bier we are to recognize our fallen nature in which we are obliged to lie, and in the four pall -bearers the ruling vices that carry us to destruction. One who is in the state of sin, not out of human frailty, but rather out of pure malice, lies, like a corpse on the bier, on the bed of sin, and the ruling passions carry him rapidly to the grave of eternal death.
Q. What do we behold in Jesus Christ moved to compassion for this mother?
A. We see the same Jesus Christ now reigning in heaven, Who by the constant and fervent prayers of our common mother the Church is moved to compassion for poor sinners and gives them the grace to rise again from their sins, as is daily the case in the conversion of so many Christians.
Q. What is meant by Christ touching the bier, and by the bearers standing still?
A. This signifies that God, in the conversion of sinners, who are carried to perdition by their ruling passions and bad habits, touches with His grace our weak human nature in such a manner that the soul is no longer carried away by the torrent of corruption, and that, moreover, He causes the vices and ruling passions which carried it to the grave of eternal death to stand still, and not as before to reduce it to further errors by their furious attacks.
Q. Why did Christ command with such power the dead young man to arise?
A. By this our Divine Master wished to teach us that for the conversion of a sinner, who is a slave of his passions and bad habits, a powerful and special grace is necessary, which almost like a miracle stops the course of the predominant passions, and hinders them from going further. Oh, how should habitual sinners tremble, when they reflect that God gives this grace out of pure mercy, notwithstanding our unworthiness, and that He does not give it to all, but only to whom He pleases, and when and how He pleases, for no one can merit this grace.
Q. The young man sat up; what are we to learn from this?
A. When God by His grace commands a sinner to rise from his spiritual death he is aroused from his deadly lethargy, he opens his eyes to the light of faith, he speaks confessing his sins, and those very passions that formerly controlled him he now controls and subjects to the power of his will. Recall to mind St. Paul, St. Augustine, and St. Margaret, and you will see how at the command of grace they shook off the sleep of death, and how from that very moment they made use of those talents, of that ardent character, and that tendency of their hearts, which had once been the sad cause of their transgressions, as a triumph of virtue.
Q. Jesus gave the young man into the care of his mother; what does this teach us?
A. When God by His grace converts a sinner, He restores him to the Church, his mother, who gains in him a son who was dead to her, and she rejoices at his return to spiritual life. Besides, God confides this son, risen to a new life, to her maternal care that she may help him to gain strength, that she may enlighten, direct, console, encourage, and guide him on the way of penance, perseverance, and perfection.
Q. What are we to think of the multitude that was so astonished?
A. This should not surprise us; it is rather surprising that so many Christians do not take notice of a greater miracle that God continually works in a spiritual manner in the Church. Every day His powerful grace recalls from death to life many souls, and perhaps even our own: yet scarcely any one thinks of giving Him that glory and thanksgiving which are His due.
Q. What are we to learn from this Gospel?
A. Let us learn to weep with the Church over the unhappy death of so many of our brethren who are the slaves of sin, and to pray with her that the Divine Mercy may recall them to life. Let us learn to beg Jesus to come to meet us in His great charity, as He did the dead young man of Naim, when we have had the misfortune to fall into mortal sin. Lastly, let us learn to thank God for all He has done for us, either by resuscitating us when we were in the state of sin, or by preserving us from what might again cause our spiritual death.
Taken from Analysis of the Gospel of the Sundays of the year. From the Italian of Angelo Cagnola. By Rev. L. A. Lambert, LL.D.
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