17 September 2019 - I tell you, arise!

Today's Readings

(Audio)

When the Lord saw her,
he was moved with pity for her and said to her,
“Do not weep.”

Jesus probably foresaw his own mother's sadness. In this woman Jesus had compassion on all women who would ever lose a son, and on all widows left alone. The motivation for Jesus was not to show off, nor to prove his messianic credentials. It all came from the pity he had her for her, a more specific, intense, and focused version of the compassion that moved him when he saw the crowds who were like sheep without a shepherd. We see here that Jesus' family was no mere accident of circumstance. He was both fully divine and fully human. His human love was perfectly expressed in his own family with his own mother and was therefore able to embrace the whole world. This is why Paul is so insistent that bishops and deacons are responsible heads of their own households.

He must manage his own household well,
keeping his children under control with perfect dignity;
for if a man does not know how to manage his own household,
how can he take care of the Church of God?

Paul doesn't seem to ask that much of these leaders beyond that. He asks for temperate, self-controlled, decent folk, but above all he desires fathers for the household of faith. He desires those people who can embody the passion that Jesus shows. This is because whether bishop, priest, or deacon, all have the task of bringing the dead to life in baptism.

“Do not weep.”
He stepped forward and touched the coffin;
at this the bearers halted,
and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!”

Mary mourns all the dead of the world, those whose souls cannot truly live, who are smothered by sin and held in the chains of addiction. She pleads with Jesus to restore us to life. Those of us who have taken this gift for granted can ask God to fully unleash in us the new life he has given. Every time we sign ourselves with holy water, every time we hear the words of absolution, every time we receive the Eucharist are all great opportunities to realize and accept the new life Jesus never ceases to offer us.