❤️🩹On this Sunday, the liturgy presents us with the drama of the human condition: slaves to sin, we were dead to the life of grace, being carried to the eternal grave. However, divine compassion intervenes. Christ, moved by mercy upon seeing the suffering of the Church, our Mother, who weeps for her children, meets us in our funeral procession and, with His powerful word, commands: "Young man, I say to you, arise." He not only resurrects us from spiritual death but restores us to life in the Church. This new life, however, demands a corresponding conduct: to live by the Spirit, to bear one another's burdens, and to sow for eternity, not for the corruption of the flesh.
🙏Introit (Ps 85:1, 2-3 | ibid., 4)Inclína, Dómine, aurem tuam ad me, et exáudi me... Bow down Thy ear to me, O Lord, and hear me... save Thy servant, O my God, that trusteth in Thee. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to Thee all the day. Ps. Give joy to the soul of Thy servant, for to Thee, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul. ℣. Glory be to the Father...
📜Epistle (Gal 5:25-26; 6:1-10)
Brethren: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be made desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another. Brethren, and if a man be overtaken in any fault, you, who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens; and so you shall fulfill the law of Christ. For if any man think himself to be some thing, whereas he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every one prove his own work, and so he shall have glory in himself only, and not in another. For every one shall bear his own burden. And let him that is instructed in the word, communicate to him that instructeth him, in all good things. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting. And in doing good, let us not fail. For in due time we shall reap, not failing. Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
✨Gospel (Lk 7:11-16)
At that time, Jesus went into a city that is called Naim; and there went with Him His disciples, and a great multitude. And when He came nigh to the gate of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow: and a great multitude of the city was with her. Whom when the Lord had seen, being moved with pity towards her, He said to her: Weep not. And He came near and touched the bier. (And they that carried it, stood still.) And He said: Young man, I say to thee, arise. And he that was dead, sat up, and began to speak. And He gave him to his mother. And there came a fear on them all: and they glorified God, saying: A great prophet is risen up among us: and God hath visited His people.
🤔Reflections
💡That dead young man was being carried out of the city; in the same way, the soul dead in sin is carried outside the communion of the Church. The weeping widow mother is the Church herself, who laments the loss of her children. Christ, moved with compassion for this Mother, says to the soul: 'Young man, I say to you, arise.' He touches the bier, that is, the body subject to passions, halting the course of sin, and with His life-giving word restores the soul to the life of grace, delivering it again to its Mother, the Church. (St. Augustine, Sermon 98). The call to bear one another's burdens applies not only to moral failings but to every form of suffering, for by alleviating a brother's affliction, whether through correction or consolation, we fulfill the law of Christ, who bore all our griefs upon Himself. (St. John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians).
📖The Gospel of Luke presents the resurrection of the widow of Naim's son with unique details. Unlike the resurrection of Jairus's daughter (Mt 9, Mk 5, Lk 8), where Jesus acts at the insistent request of a father, or that of Lazarus (Jn 11), where He is summoned by the deceased's sisters, here Jesus acts on His own initiative, moved solely by compassion upon seeing the widow's pain. Furthermore, the miracle occurs publicly, in the midst of a funeral procession, and Jesus' command ("arise") is given to someone already considered unclean by contact with death, demonstrating His sovereign power over life, death, and the law.
🕊️The Epistle to the Galatians echoes the great Pauline theme of the opposition between the flesh and the Spirit, which is detailed more systematically in the Epistle to the Romans. While in Galatians Paul warns that "he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption," in Romans 8 he explains the theological consequence: "the inclination of the flesh is death, but the inclination of the Spirit is life and peace" (Rom 8:6). The exhortation to "bear ye one another’s burdens" (Gal 6:2) and thus fulfill the "law of Christ" is the practical fulfillment of the commandment of love, which in Romans is called the "fulfilling of the law" (Rom 13:10).
🏛️The documents of the Church, such as the Roman Catechism, explain the doctrine behind the miracle of Naim. The resurrection of the young man is not merely an act of power but a sign of Christ's redemptive mission, who came to destroy death, especially the death of the soul caused by mortal sin. The Catechism teaches that through the sacrament of Penance, the Church continues this same miracle: the priest's word of absolution, acting in persona Christi, is the very voice of Christ saying to the dead soul, "I say to you, arise," restoring it to the life of grace and communion with its Mother, the Church.
🧐See English version of the critical articles here.