When the Lord saw her,
he was moved with pity for her and said to her
He saw a widow who lost her son and may have thought ahead to what his own mother would experience at his crucifixion. This pity that he felt for the widow at Nain moved him to act.
"Do not weep."
He stepped forward and touched the coffin;
at this the bearers halted,
and he said, "Young man, I tell you, arise!"
How would Mary have thought back on this when her own son was taken from her? For us, with less faith, we might have felt saddened that he was able to do this for this dead boy but then nothing for himself at the end. But Mary's faith was greater than our own. Would this perhaps have been a gift from her own son as a kind of prophetic hope for his own resurrection, a kind of preview of coming attractions to which she could cling in her sorrow?
In a way, this miracle was similar to what Elijah had done, down to the way he "gave him to his mother" (see First Kings 17:23). But it was also different. For Elijah cried out to the LORD (see First Kings 17:20) whereas Jesus simply spoke and the authority of his word was sufficient.
"A great prophet has arisen in our midst,"
and "God has visited his people."
The words of Jesus did indeed place the people in closer proximity to their God than they had ever been. Whose words but his alone could command the dead to rise? It is by this same power that we who were dead in sin were made alive with Christ in baptism.
Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live (see John 5:25).
We too are given by Jesus into the arms of our mother, meaning both Mary and the Church. It is in their arms that we, as one body, drink of one Spirit, and receive the many gifts that the Spirit himself delights to give. Both Mary and the Church together help us to learn to grow and to fully express the potential we have as members of the body and as partakers of this new life. They works together with the Spirit, are, as it were, animated by the Spirit, help us grow toward the unity in diversity that Paul celebrates.
Now you are Christ's Body, and individually parts of it.
If the world has us feeling more dead than alive, if we are rendered all but lifeless by fear, anxiety, and pain, the word of Jesus has the power to restore us to a life greater than that with which we began. If we are at a loss for how to live this new life let us seek to be good children on the Church, good sons and daughters of Mary, so that we can learn to open ourselves to all the Spirit wants to do in us.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
serve the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful song.
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