- Sermon thoughts – 10th Sunday in Ordinary time – Year C
Widow means to be helpless. Live without Partner. An important part of their life is no longer there. This makes their life difficult. It is like a bird that must fly with one wing. Europe is better positioned in this case. But in the East it was different. You might have heard about India and ‘Sati’, a custom, a ritual of dying on the pyre of her husband.
Biblical world is much better and social in this regard: There are numerous portions in the Bible; those assure care and protection for widows and orphans and warn to avoid taking advantage of their weakness. And some of them are very hard: “You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry; my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans. “(Exodus 22:21-24). Similarly, the prophet Jeremiah declares: “For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors for ever and ever.”(Jeremiah 7:5-7)
Elijah the prophet of God is on the way. His Name means “God is Yahweh”! Yahweh means “I am who am”! “To be” is nothing less than life. Yahweh is yes, God of life. Yes, in this case of helplessness, God comes to rescue: as a prophet; in the form of the Son of God. The Prophet and Jesus are on the way with God’s life
God wants no one suffers unnecessarily. God wants life! This is clear in both cases. Life is God’s plan on earth. Remember! The Bible begins with the creation narration! It’s all in his plan.
We see a wonderful meeting in the Gospel! Two crowds of people come together face to face! Jesus with his friends – They symbolize life and joy, the other is a funeral procession with the dead young man and his helpless mother.
The crowd of life and joy meets the train of death. At this meeting life will flourish further. At first, the dead son is alive. The poor mother gets her life of hope back. Then the people are invited, to life, to the surprise.
The resurrection of the Dead is a prophetic act of Jesus! We cannot repeat it as such. But ‘dead’ are many in our world!
Death is where relationships break, and where hope dies, where there love lacks. Yes, there are many ‘dead’ around us.
I am sure it is now our task to make this action further. As Christians, we bear Christ, his life and his joy in our lives and in our activities. We often meet people in our life, many who have lost their hope; those who are in need of help. Can I give the divine joy, for others through my presence? Is my life a living testimony of God, his love and mercy?
Jesus says, “Get up!” We can extend our hands to provide the help necessary to enable one to get up! Through our physical and social and even financial helps we can be different. Our God is a God of life! We are his children! Let us be the messengers of life! God bless us in life! Amen.
-
Fr Thomas Kalathil
No comments:
Post a Comment