Tuesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
We see at the beginning of today’s gospel a funeral procession. For us as bystanders, the focus in on the sadness of death, but for the people in the story, the great tragedy is the widow. Remember that in society at that time, women had no place in the outside world; they could not work outside the home, have a farm, or own a business. So a woman needed to be attached to a man to avoid becoming destitute. A widowed woman was taken care of by her sons, or her daughters’ husbands if they were wealthy and kind enough to welcome her into the household. This is the situation that has Jesus “moved with pity for her…” No one else is obligated to take care of the mourning widow. She’s burying her son, and afterwards, she does not know how she will eat or where she will sleep.
In today’s world, we thankfully treat women much better, but there are still those who have no one to take care of them. For various reasons, there are people here in Dayton who cannot support and care for themselves; people whom no one feels socially obligated to welcome into their homes. What is our reaction to seeing or thinking about these people? Do we blame them, or this sinful world that put them into this situation? Do we hope for an institution to take care of them, or are we moved with pity to do something ourselves? Jesus gives us a model to follow. He does something. As the Son of God, he worked within the sinful social structure that subjugated women, and provided for her by raising her son up to life from death. He met her immediate need first. In other areas of his ministry, he also challenged social structures and powerful people, but he first worked to alleviate the suffering of the woman who needed help today.
Naturally, the crowd is amazed that a man was brought back from the dead. But let’s also consider the length that Jesus went to make sure this woman was provided for. We may not be able to bring people back from the dead, but we do have the means to help those who cannot support themselves. Whether it be children, the elderly, those with mental illnesses or disabilities that keep them from working, these are people that Jesus is still moved with pity today. May our hearts also be strong enough to be moved to action by the suffering of those in need today.
-Chris Nieport