Tuesday – 24^th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel –Luke 7:11-17

Compassion

Children’s Monument, Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial’

The photo I included today is from Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.  The Children’s Monument displays a number of concrete columns to represent all the children who were killed during WWII, children whose lives were cut short like those broken columns!

I feel your pain!!!  I wonder how often we have voiced those words!  Maybe a loved one received bad news on their medical tests.  Maybe a dear friend just lost their mom.  Maybe it was the violent deaths of 2 little grade school children in Minnesota or that of Charlie Kirk in Utah or that of Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman or the high school students injured in Denver! 

When will it all end?  Why?  Make it stop!  For the sake of our children and their future, make it stop!  We all speak those words in moments of pain and loss.  Setting aside all the politics, rhetoric, and differing viewpoints, all human lives are sacred.  And yet every day we see those precious lives cut short because of hatred and violence. In circumstances like the past few weeks, haven’t we all felt that sorrow and loss?  And yet I wonder if we always understand and appreciate the meaning behind that simple statement – I feel your pain!

This is not just an expression of pity or sympathy; it is meant to be a sharing of compassion.  I feel what you are feeling, especially feelings of distress and pain.  It implies a deep desire to relieve and alleviate that pain, a willingness to fully enter into their grief!  At its core, compassion includes the desire to take action to help that person – not just words, but action!

Jesus meets a grieving widow in today’s Gospel.  Her only son has died.  And frankly her future is not only uncertain but dismal.  As a woman, she can’t own property and can’t work outside the home.  As a widow, she is completely dependent on someone, anyone, to take her into their home.  She has no social standing and no income; she has become a castaway.  In reality, Jesus doesn’t just bring her son to life, He gives her back a life, a future.

ou have to wonder if Jesus is reflecting forward to the time when Mary will experience the death of her Son and the grief she will experience.  Is it any wonder then that He would reach out to this widow and mother in her pain.  Jesus remains a compassionate presence in our lives and He calls us daily to offer that same compassion to those in need!