10th
SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Galatians 1:11-19
Luke 7:11-17
“When the Lord saw her he felt compassion over her
…and Jesus gave him to his mother.”
Today’s gospel is one of the moving scenes in the life of our Lord. Some writers would even describe it as the loveliest story in the gospels. But whatever description we may give to this narrative, surely, it is unanimous that this account depicts a down to earth God. Meaning, it tries to portray a God who is so near to man that he not only understands but also feels human sentiments. Today, we are then invited to meditate on divine compassion.
1. Today’s periscope is proper to Luke. As traditions claims, Luke was a physician by profession. Being that educated, he must have been so familiar with Greek thought prevalent at his time. This is an important consideration since it might have also been against this background that the evangelist now tries to picture Christ as diametrically opposed to the Stoic God.
Feelings are repugnant to the Stoic concept of God. Emotions which man normally feels are an indication of weakness. When one is happy or sad, somebody or something must have caused it. That which must caused it must be greater and more powerful as to affect or influence joy or sorrow upon the other. This cannot happen to God. Nothing ever influence him, nothing is greater than him. Lest, he ceases to be God. So, by necessity, God’s very nature demands no feelings or emotions. In fact, the supreme characteristic of the Stoic God is Apathy which is rightly understood not as indifference but as inability to feel. Thus, Luke’s portrayal of Jesus being moved by compassion must have been a big scandal to the leading thinkers of his time. But this is precisely his point: to bring into man’s awareness that the God of Christianity is a God of compassion and love.
2. It is worth noting that the Greek word
Luke uses for compassion is found
exclusively in the Synoptic and only in three parables of Jesus. Commentators
say that our English translation may not be so accurate as to capture its total
meaning. The Greek original surpasses ordinary compassion or pity. It refers to
that deep-seated emotion which really moves man to the very core of his being.
Thus, it was this kind of compassion that wrought off the large debt of the
unforgiving servant (Mt
If we compare these three, there seems to be one dominant characteristic of this feeling of compassion, i.e., it enables the compassionate to surmount a seemingly impossible situation. Look, the king simply writes off an incredible sum of money equivalent to a salary of more or less 160,000 years. The father joyously forgives and forgets the terrible transgression of his son. The Samaritan, without any second thought, extends a helping hand to a Jew, and by so doing he practically breaks the centuries old barrier that has divided the Jew and the Samaritan. All these become possible because of compassion. Now, it is with this same sentiment that Jesus makes history a Naim as he encounters the widow so deeply ridden with sorrow over the death of her only son.
3. The miracle at Naim begins with this remarkable feeling of compassion. As if Jesus now enters into the journey of human sentiments. For indeed in this journey, he encounters the different levels of feelings of those people present: first of the unspeakable sorrow of the widow; second, of the sympathy of the crowd.
a. The mother has all the reasons to cry, as Jesus has all he reasons to console. This woman has experienced for the second time the pain of death. Perhaps, it was not too long ago for her to remember how her heart was pierced by this kind f sorrow at the death of her husband. It was quite better at that time since even at the loss of her husband, a son was still there to comfort her. Surely her son became not only the living remembrance and reminder of her husband’s love, but her very source of courage and hopes to stand once more and continue in this life’s difficult journey. But now, even this son is taken away from her. Her only treasure is gone, gone forever. Who a mother in the world not learn the deepest meaning of pain? If there were just any human expression of sorrow graver than shedding tears, no doubt, that would be her sweetest choice.
b. The mother’s sorrow was not a secret to
the people. And the people, for their part, could not remain blind and deaf to
this painful difficult situation. They not only sympathized with her. Of
course, they knew they could not give her anything more than this. But such
human manifestation of care and love was already enough for a sorrowful widow
and mother. Thus, as the gospel puts it, “a
considerable number of townspeople were with her.”
4. This was the actual situation when Jesus and his disciples entered Naim. What confronted him was a sorrowful mother, an empathizing townsfolk and a dead man. So, when the Lord saw her he felt compassion over her. This compassion made her feel just exactly how she felt. This mother in tears must have reminded him of her own mother whom he foreknew would one day shed the same tears of sorrow at his own death o the cross. In the deepest corner of Jesus’ heart, he must have also wept. This compassion must have also united Jesus with the empathy of the townsfolk. But more than the townsfolk could ever give, he knew that this encounter must not end I mere sympathy and weeping. Something greater and more consoling must happen.
“Young man, I tell you to get up.” No
one could have ever expected that Jesus’ reaction would go as far as this.
Certainly, it surprised them all. But that was precisely the fruit of Jesus’
compassion. To the people, such great act could only be done by a prophet.
Thus, everyone was filled with awe and
praised God saying, ‘A great prophet has appeared among us; God has visited his
people.’ Jesus must have been so satisfied with the people’s reaction. It was
always his constant intention that people might discover who he really was by
the words he said and by the acts he did. But again, in this particular
occasion, it was more than that. The overriding reason for this is the
compassion he had for the woman. He knew he had no greater to give as to
console her and bring back her joy than to let her see her only son lives
again. So, as the young man was brought to life again, Jesus gave him to his mother. To this poor widow and mother, this
great miracle was a gift for a life time, a gift unmerited. Thanks to a
compassionate God!