Jesus’ heart is moved with compassion when he encounters a widow whose only son has just died. It is usually the case that people plead with Jesus, especially for healing. In this case, it is not words but the mother’s tears that form her plea and Jesus responds. He is touched by her grief, moved by her sorrow. The Gospel shows Jesus raising her son back to life. As her child comes alive again so too does the mother come alive again.
Once we give birth to a child we are forever a mother. How can it be for this mother, or any other, that their child is no longer alive? In losing a child we are consumed with their memory and devastated by our loss. Our future is a fog. We find it difficult to breathe, let alone to stand up. It may be months, even years, before we’re able to hold any other feeling than this deep sorrow or consider any another thought than our absent child. Can we survive this emptiness? More so, can we find meaning again in this seemingly meaningless world? Mothers who find that renewed meaning, speak of undergoing a transformation. They move beyond battling with their feelings to learning from their suffering emotions. They grow beyond attempting to cope with their loss and show a willingness to be changed by it. They redirect internal pain toward outward solidarity. It is what happened when some mothers saw other mothers grieving for their dead sons killed in the war in Vietnam. Another Mother for Peace was founded in 1967 when Barbara Avedon refused to be another grieving mother of another dead son. Their symbol of a flower with the motto “War is not healthy for children and other living things” spread world-wide. It is what happened when Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was founded in 1980 by Candace Lightner after her 13-year-old daughter, Cari, was killed by a drunk driver. It’s what happened when Moms Demand Action was founded in 2012 by a group of mothers in response to the slaughter of school children at Sandy Hook. Their ongoing transformation was evident this past week, June 2, on National Gun Violence Awareness Day. People of this nation were asked to wear orange in memory of Cleopatra Pendleton’s child, Hadiya, and every other child killed by guns. Hunters wear orange in the woods to protect themselves and keep them from killing life they respect. May we become a nation of orange in which the life of every mother’s child is life we respect. May we become a people who respond to the plea in every mother’s tears and help bring forth life after death.
“If suddenly you do not exist, if suddenly you are not living, I shall go on living. I do not dare, I do not dare to write it, if you die, I shall go on living. Because where a person has no voice, there shall be my voice. Where blacks are beaten, I cannot be dead. When my brothers go to jail I shall go with them. … even though I am mute I must speak: I shall see (victory) come even though I am blind. … I shall walk with frost and fire and death and snow, my feet will want to walk to where you are sleeping, but I shall stay alive.” (Dead Woman – Pablo Neruda)
Prayer: Christ, we share in the power to help people come alive again.
Question: What does it mean for me to participate now in life after death?
June 5, 2016 Gospel Luke 7:11-17 Tenth Sunday In Ordinary Time