Jesus Stops a Funeral Procession

Fr. Scott Haynes

This Gospel paints a very crowded scene. St. Luke tells us our Lord Jesus Christ arrived at the gate of to the city of Naim. He was being followed by His disciples, but also by a very large multitude, who had been listening to Jesus' teaching and witnessing His miracles.

 

As the Lord and the multitude with Him are processing through the Gate of Naim they run into another procession coming from the other direction. This was a funeral procession of a young man who had just died. He was the only son of his widowed mother, and a large crowd was with them, wailing and crying out in sorrow.

 

And so it was that at the beautiful gate of the town of Nain, these two processions collide. In the procession leaving the town, there is death, and in the procession entering the town there is our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, at this gate, death meets Life Himself.

 

And so, death stops in its tracks. Our Lord stretched forth His Hand. St Luke records:

“And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.’”

 

Consider, my dear friends in Christ, that this funeral procession that was leaving the town of Nain represents the funeral procession of all humanity. From the time of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, humanity has been one long funeral procession. Despite our greatest accomplishments, death remains our inevitable end.

 

Consider, for example, the great conqueror, Alexander of Macedonia, to whom history has given the title, “Alexander the Great.” Although he conquered most of the known world during his time, he came face to face with death at the young age of 32, most likely the victim of poisoning.

 

Consider all of the brilliant scientists who discovered much about how God created the world, all the military heroes who conquered nations, all the great artists whose works are priceless, and many more. No matter what they accomplished, their end was death, because the history of humanity has been one, long funeral procession since the Fall of mankind.

 

And then something wonderful happened.  Our Lord Jesus Christ came and halted this funeral procession. Death was stopped in its tracks. Jesus proved that He is not only the Lord over the living, but also the Lord over death itself. This is why St. Luke uses the word “Lord” for the very first time in verse 13 of today’s passage.

“And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, ‘Weep not.’”

For six chapters, he has referred to our Lord simply as “Jesus,” but when he tells this story, he purposefully uses the word “Lord” (Adonai), in order to teach us that Christ is the Lord Who is triumphant over death and the power of death over us. As the Psalmist says,

“The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.”

 

Thus, at the beautiful gate of Nain, death came face to face with Life Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the funeral procession of human history came to a stop. Soon afterwards, our Savior would trample upon death through His life-giving sacrifice on the Cross and destroy the power of death over man through His descent into Hades, where He liberated the captives who believed in Him.

 

Christ had compassion on the widow in today’s Gospel because he saw an afflicted mother weeping over the loss of her only son. Christ has compassion on our Holy Mother the Church as she weeps for the loss of all her sons and daughters who die the death of mortal sin. What pain and sorrow is brought to the Church by her children who are dead in sin!

 

The children of the Church who are dead in mortal sin once knew the life of grace in Christ. But their death has been no accident. Through mortal sin they have committed spiritual suicide. What a true tragedy! For a Catholic who commits a sin of grave matter, with full knowledge of the mind, and complete choice of will cuts himself or herself off from the Body of Christ and dies a spiritual death. But our Holy Mother the Church has a remedy for her children dead in grave sin. For Christ raised the dead man and brought joy to this mother when he said,

“Young man, I say to thee, arise.”

Just so, Christ, inasmuch says those words to the sinner who has been cut off from sanctifying grace in the sacrament of confession.

 

Why did Christ say to the widow: Weep not? He said this because He wished to moderate her excessive sorrow, and to teach us that we should not mourn for the loss of our relatives, like the heathens who have no hope of resurrection to eternal life.

 

Resignation to the will of God, with prayer and good works, will be of more use to the dead than many tears. Notice that when the Lord tells the young man arise, the young man obeys. If we would know the life of Christ we must obey him without question. In like manner, Holy Mother Church maintains a great hope that her children, cut off from the Body of Christ by mortal sin, can be reconciled to Christ and his Church by a good confession. Let us raise up our prayers to God today with the hope that our Christian brethren who are today dead in mortal sin will even this very day be raised to life by Christ through the sacrament of confession. Amen.