COMMENT ON THE LITURGY OF THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Collect
O Lord, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour, preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Readings
Ef 3:13-21; Lc 7:11-17
Comment
Two crowds meet: one is that of the disciples of Jesus and his vast following, the other that attending the funeral of the only son of a widow. In the patriarchal society of that historical-geographical context, widows were a particularly vulnerable category; we can imagine, therefore, the tragedy for this woman, of having lost her only son.
Jesus "took pity on her"; with a more accurate translation of the Greek verb splanchnizomai, we can say "he was deeply moved by it". The same verb is used by Luke in the parable of the good Samaritan and in that of the prodigal son. Jesus, who was moved to the point of bursting into tears in front of the tomb of his friend Lazarus, understands our misery as creatures subject to death because of sin (cf. Rom 5:12-14) and on this occasion makes a gesture that for Jewish law made people unclean.
Not only does he not contract any impurity but he is also able to give life back to what has started towards corruption. A simple gesture and an effective word: "Young man, I say to you, get up!" - that "get up" which in the original Greek verb egheiro will describe the paschal mystery in the same Gospel of Luke.
Jesus is not afraid to touch our misery firsthand. Too many times religion inculcates a sense of impurity in those who would like to approach it, causing their rejection. For fear of losing consensus, on the other hand, some churches remove the word "sin" from their lexicon, denying that in man there is a tendency to evil, to selfishness, to prevarication.
The gospel instructs us that we have all sinned, but faith in Christ allows us to die to sin to be resurrected in grace. As the witnesses of the young man brought back to life we can truly say "God has visited his people".
"Through faith... rooted and established in love" we will know, says Paul (Eph 3:17-19), the measure of Christ's love, and we will be "filled to the measure of all the fullness of God". God who can do much more than we can imagine (Eph 3:20) has sent his Son to restore the divine image in man. He not only allows us to overcome death but to participate in his Trinitarian life.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
