Overview:

The Memorial of Sts. Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs

A Reflection for the Memorial of Sts. Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishops, Martyrs

“As he drew near to the gate of the city,
a man who had died was being carried out,
the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.

“He stepped forward and touched the coffin;
at this the bearers halted,
and he said, ‘Young man, I tell you, arise!’
The dead man sat up and began to speak,
and Jesus gave him to his mother.”

Find today’s readings here.

At the start of every school year I survey my students in order to learn about them. One of the questions is: “Why are you at Brophy?” The most common answer is: “I want to be a part of a community.” The boys here definitely feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves. The adults on campus feel the same. On those occasions when tragedy strikes, and it sometimes does, the entire school community is affected.

There are approximately two dozen healing miracles found in the Synoptic Gospels. I submit that none happens in a vacuum.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus resurrects the son of a widow in Nain. We can imagine the scene as the funeral processes out through the city gate. People are wailing. The boy’s mother is distraught. There they encounter Jesus and his disciples. With a simple touch of the coffin the boy is miraculously healed! “The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.”

It is easy to focus on the young man whom Jesus raises from the dead. What a miracle! But it is the woman in the story who deserves our attention. This anonymous woman is a widow, and the deceased young man is her only son. There were no social safety nets in first-century Palestine. Not the kind we take for granted today. No social security, no workers’ compensation, no SNAP. A woman without a husband or a male child to care for her was in desperate straits. In the absence of another family member to take her in, she would be reduced to begging or prostitution in order to survive. But Jesus saves the young man, and consequently, the widow also.

The purpose of these healing miracles, in my view, is not just to demonstrate Jesus’ ability to perform supernatural acts. No. In every case Jesus heals someone’s suffering and returns them to their community, making that community whole again. Among Jesus’ first miracles in the Synoptic Gospels was the healing of a leper. In this event, Jesus instructs the man to present himself to the priest, thereby facilitating his reintegration into the community.

The leper, Peter’s mother-in-law, the centurion’s servant. In every case Jesus heals an afflicted person and returns them to their community, their household, their family. Jesus not only heals people; he mends communities. That is the power of Jesus in the Palestine of the first century. That is the power of health care workers today. Healing, not just individuals but entire communities.

My wife is a registered nurse. Often after a long, trying shift, she would come home exhausted and discouraged. I would remind her that she was likely the best thing that may have happened to a difficult patient that night. Her work made her the hands and feet of Christ. Health care workers around the globe struggle to save children, often in difficult and dangerous conditions. They work to repair the broken bodies of kids suffering from shrapnel, starvation and disease. They work to heal entire families.

For whom would Jesus have pity today? Certainly the mothers of Gaza, whose children are starving and dying from American-made munitions. Or the mothers of Ukraine, whose children are dying at the hands of Russian-made bombs. Perhaps the mothers of Israel, whose children are dying from Iranian-made weapons. Or the mothers of children in Afghanistan, starving at the hands of a despotic theocratic government. Not to mention those dying from gang violence in Haiti and Central America. Children around the world are dying. Their mothers are grieving. Their communities are broken and in need of repair.

According to the United Nations (UNICEF) over 473 million children live in areas affected by conflict. 19% are living in conflict zones. 28 Gazan children die every day from trauma and starvation. 28. Every day. That’s the number of my largest class size at Brophy.

When will we demand our tax dollars go to support advances in the technology of life rather than the technology of destruction? Perhaps we should insist that nations adhere to the adage “you break it, you bought it” and be held financially liable for their complicity in the destruction caused to innocent lives. The leaders of nations and corporations that provide weapons of mass destruction should be held to account for the carnage inflicted on God’s beloved. One day, I suspect, they will. If not in this world, then the next.

Let us pray for the widows of Nain everywhere—and for their dying children. And for those health care professionals serving as the hands and feet of Jesus, working heroically to ease their suffering and re-build communities. In Gaza, in Ukraine, in Afghanistan, in Haiti, in Sudan. Pray for the dying children. Pray for their mothers. Pray for the healers and peacemakers. Come, Lord Jesus.

Eric Gregory is on the Religious Studies faculty at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix, Arizona. He is a graduate of the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University.