Homily

The Gospel shows us Jesus walking the streets and squares of his country, going from town to town, followed by the disciples and large crowds. It is a picture that the Evangelists often paint. Jesus, however, does not go on these journeys to satisfy his curiosity or to discover new places for his own purposes. The Evangelists note, from the outset of Jesus’ public life, that the purpose of his wanderings in the streets of men is born out of his "compassion" for the crowds "harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" (Mt 9:36). For this reason, notes Matthew, he "went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and sickness" (Mt 9:35).
In this passage from Luke’s Gospel we heard this Sunday, we see Jesus approaching the town of Nain. Just as he arrives at the gate of the town he encounters a crowd of people accompanying a poor widow to the cemetery to bury her only son. Jesus does not pass by. He does not continue along "his" own way, as perhaps we do or sometimes we stop only to wait for the procession to go by and then we continue on to our destination. Jesus sees the procession and the widow crying desperately over the loss of her only son. And he stops. He is moved by a profound sense of "compassion". We have lessened the meaning of this word "compassion". It has become an impoverished, degraded word, no longer potent and vigorous enough to compel us to stop and stand by those in pain. And yet, compassion is the heart of the entire Bible story. Throughout Scripture, from the first to the last page, it speaks about the compassion of God who, out of compassion, left heaven to come down to earth to encounter us and to save us from evil and death. The word "compassion" is understood in a powerful way in Scripture: compassion is a love that gets us out of ourselves to see others; it leads us to love others before ourselves; it urges us to give our very lives for others. This is the kind of compassion that moves the Lord and which reaches the apex in the Lord’s sending of His Son.
The story of the healing of the son of the widow from Zarephath, narrated in the first book of Kings, is a sign of what will happen in the fullness of time when "compassion" would become flesh in Jesus of Nazareth. Yes, Jesus is the compassionate one, the one who gives his life for others. Starting from the Book of Exodus, we see God has compassion for His people in bondage in Egypt and decides to "come down" to save them. He calls Moses and sends him to Pharaoh to free the people of Israel. And so in this way, God continues to save His people throughout the history of Israel, from time to time sending prophets. The story of Elijah is one story in this larger arc of God’s compassion for humanity. With Jesus, the compassionate one, God’s compassion reaches its zenith. His compassion is strong and powerful; it is not a weakened emotion. Today, it is easy to accuse and dismiss someone as a "do-gooder".
Compassion is a strong, robust emotion that changes history, moving it closer toward goodness, and overcomes and defeats evil. This is precisely what happened that day at the gate of Nain. Jesus stopped the funeral procession and commanded the young boy stretched out on the bier: "Young man, I say to you, rise!" Hearing Jesus’ voice, the young man sat up from where he was lying and began to speak. Jesus’ word recreates life. His word makes people raise up from desperation and a life similar to death. Why? Because his words drip with mercy, involvement, fellowship and visceral love. It is impossible to resist them. That young man heard Jesus’ words and, although he was dead, he got back up. Also the centurion from Capernaum said to Jesus, "Only speak the word, and my servant will be healed" (Mt 8:8). And it was done. Jesus’ word is strong because it is full of love and compassion. The evangelist does not record what the young man said to Jesus, to his mother, to the crowd, and, after all, it ought not interest us that much. Jesus’ words are what matter. Christians ought to continue repeating these words with the same love with which Jesus spoke them. Today there are so many youths who come to mind who are abandoned to themselves and enslaved by the many myths of this world. Their lives are at the mercy of myths that push them ever more violently into their voracious coils that grind them to death. And what is more worrying still is the loneliness to which they are abandoned. Who is speaking to them with the words of the Gospel? Who is stopping to love them as Jesus loved them? Who is spending his life to stand by them out of compassionate love?
Unfortunately, dominant culture--of which we are all a product--pushes us to mind our own business. And often, even within the family, each member looks out for him or herself. We need to rediscover Jesus’ compassion that urges us to get involved in the lives of others, especially the weak, the youth, and our children. They need people who respond to them right away with compassion and not when it is too late. It happens even these days that many people find themselves gathering around the caskets of young people violently taken from us. We have to ask ourselves if we were too late. It is urgent that we speak with the youth as Jesus did, with loving authority, with the authority of one who spends his life for them. These words touch the heart and bring back to life many who otherwise were as if they were already dead. The Gospel that we heard today pushes us to follow Jesus once again so that we may welcome his love into our hearts and do the things he himself did. One day Jesus himself said to his disciples, "Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works that these" (Jn 14:12).