Now we have left Easter and Pentecost and we return back to Ordinary Time. You will know that straight away because the priest wears Green Vestments. The color of Easter time is White. The color of Pentecost is Red. Elijah is on the run. He challenged the reign of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. She was a priestess of the pagan God Baal. Not too happy Jezebel sends a couple of assassins to go and kill Elijah. Elijah flees to the wilderness directed by God where to go and hide. He comes upon the widow of Zarephath and her son. They are destitute. Thankfully they gave Elijah some food to survive. Meanwhile, the widow’s son was taken by a terrible illness and died. The widow pleads with Elijah to do something. Elijah is asked because he is a man of God. Can he save her son? Elijah comes across more like an ancient faith healer but clearly he knows what he is doing, he is directed by God and he saves the widow’s son. In ancient societies, in remote societies today, if the old person does not have their child to take care of them, then they must surely die. This is the first recorded instance in all of scripture of someone raising the dead to life. We get a similar story in the gospel today. The widow’s son has died. Just like the widow of Nain we stand before our tragedy and we don’t know where to turn to for help. It is all heartbreaking and terrible. We cry out to God. Thank God on that day Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. He intervenes in a very personal way. “Young man, I tell you to arise.” You have to wonder about these miraculous healings. They are amazing. I suspect if I saw the Widow’s son of Nain raised from the dead I would be overwhelmed with emotion. I would cry for a week. I would feel so happy for the woman. I would give heartfelt thanks to God. Biblical scholars interpret the miracles of Jesus as performed for the onlookers. Jesus will often tell the people that as proof that the Messiah is in their midst He will perform this special miracle. Miracles in the bible seem to be for the audience just as much as for the family. Show us a sign. Here is a sign that you might believe. We remember when Jesus spoke in the synagogue at Capernaum, among his own people, they asked Him to perform some miracles. We remember Jesus said that a prophet is never so effective among his own people. The problem was that they wanted to be entertained. They did not ask out of any kind of faith in Him. We want Jesus to do our bidding. He becomes our circus performer or magician. We must not belittle the Lord Jesus. We come to Him in faith. We place our prayers before Him. We hope for a miracle because others received them before us. If we get our miracle we are delighted. If we don’t get our miracle I guess we have to deal with that as well.
With love, Fr. Pat