The son of the Window of Nain
is raised from the dead.
Why not her husband?
Why couldn't this poor widow
have her whole family back again?
Why does Our Lord
trivialise the death of
Jairus' daughter by saying that
she's only asleep?
Why does Our Lord wait
until Lazarus has been dead
for four days
until raising him from the dead?
It seems that Our Lord has
a very cavalier attitude
to the death of people
around Him,
even those whom
He counts as His friends.
Come to think of it?
Why doesn't He raise everyone
from the Dead?
[PAUSE]
Every day,
we hear reports of
truly tragic deaths.
A bride dies in an accident
the day after her wedding.
A young father
Is killed the day before
his daughter is born.
A baby is killed
by a pet dog.
We shudder at this
and it hurts
and we demand some
rectification of the situation,
some justice,
some resurrection.
But Jesus doesn't raise them
from the dead.
[PAUSE]
First, we need to understand
why it matters.
We weren't at the wedding.
We didn't know the young father.
The baby wasn't ours.
So why does it matter?
[PAUSE]
It matters because
we have compassion.
We can walk with those who mourn.
We have an idea of what should
take place.
We care because we're human beings
and human beings
can't bear to see the innocent
suffer
and die.
The fact that we recoil
from tragic deaths
is a sign of
the love of neighbour
that God Himself
implanted in us
at our beginning.
It is precisely because
human beings are meant to be loved
that their death hurts us emotionally,
to the extent that some of us
never recover.
If Our Lord were to
simply raise everyone from the dead
then we would never
appreciate
the sheer magnitude of
loss of a single life.
If Our Lord were to raise
everyone from the dead,
then would it not trivialise
our humanity?
[PAUSE]
Yet, the Widow's son
and the widow,
Jairus' daughter and Jairus,
Lazarus and Mary and Martha
still die.
But that is not the point.
For Our Lord promises
that we shall be raised
from the Dead
in a resurrection that
is unlike what He is doing.
For, when He raises
the Widow's son,
Our Lord has not yet died, Himself.
The Cross is yet to come
and the bursting of
the gates of Hades
has not yet happened.
Only then we see Our Lord
as the Resurrection and the Life.
And, when we pass through death
we receive His life
for ourselves.
Our Lord shows that
Death is not a state of being
but an event -
an event in which
we cease to be part of
this world of shadows and pain
but part of the world
of justice,
righteousness,
peace,
truth,
light,
dignity
and love.
That is where
the bride,
the father
and the baby are,
beyond the reach of
Evil, Sin and Death.
While it hurts to miss them,
while we struggle with
the way they die,
while we still grieve at their loss,
our pain, sorrow, tears and fury
convince us that we love
and that they are loved.
Our Lord says,
"In your patience
possess ye
your souls."
In suffering death
we know what it is to live.
If we choose
to suffer rather
than allow
the delights of the world
to numb us to
the pains of love
then we take
possession of ourselves
as the person
God created us to be.
We don't need a resurrection now
for that would rob us
of opportunities to be truly human.
It is only when we are truly human
that we stand a chance
of sharing in Christ's divinity.
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