Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls Day, Ages 6-9): The Heart of the Lord

thebetterpart
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Listen here to the Gospel and Reflection

This Sunday is a feast day. It is November 2nd, the feast of All Souls. Each year on this day, we think in a particular way about those people who died before us. Death is a part of life that touches us close to our hearts. On this day, we listen to the Gospel to find out what Jesus thinks about death. We want to learn something of his heart.

Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out.

We remember that in Jesus' time, people build walls around each town. People enter and leave towns through gates. Jesus walks around Galilee entering the gates of different towns. As he arrives at Nain, he meets people leaving the town. They carry the body of a man who died. They want to take him outside of the town, away from the living, to bury his body. People need to separate themselves from death.

Who was the man who died? St. Luke, who records this event, tells us:

He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town.

St. Luke focuses our attention on the living, not on the dead. He tells us that the man has a mother and he was her only son. The mother is a widow. That means her husband died, too. The woman seems quite alone. No husband. No son. What must she feel about death?

When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’

St. Luke calls Jesus "the Lord." Usually, people call someone the Lord of something. What is Jesus the Lord of?

When Jesus sees the mother, when he sees her weeping—crying—he has compassion for her. This English word means to feel what she feels. The Greek word that St. Luke uses—splanchnizomai—tells us how Jesus feels what she feels. His insides move. He feels it in his belly. Jesus does not know this woman, but deep in his belly he feels the same pain she feels.

When Jesus sees the mother's pain, we see something of his heart.

His insides ache for her.

He cannot help it.

He is so very human.

So why does Jesus tell her not to weep, not to cry? What does he know?

Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still.

Jesus touches the bier, the stretcher on which the dead man lies. The dead do not move. Everyone else stops moving, too. The mother does not weep. Everything is still. Everyone holds their breath. Waiting.

And Jesus said, ‘Young man, I say to you, rise!’

When Jesus speaks to the dead man, we hear something of his heart.

His insides call the young man to life.

He cannot help it.

He is so very God.

The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

This is a miracle and it is a sign. Jesus stops talking about the Kingdom of God and instead, he shows it to us.

What does this miracle show us about the Kingdom of God?

What place does death have in the Kingdom of God? Does it have the last word? No. Death tries to separate us, but Jesus speaks, and gives the man back to his mother. When the Kingdom of God is complete, there will be no more death.

What place does weeping have in the Kingdom of God? Will we have need for tears? No. Death brings pain, but Jesus speaks, and drives the pain away. When the Kingdom of God is complete, there will be no more pain and no more tears.

This miracle gives us a sign of the fullness of the Kingdom of God. Do we need to worry about our loved ones who died before us? Death is a part of life that touches us close to our hearts. And now, seeing the sign of the Kingdom, we know that our loved ones shed no more tears, feel no more pain, and no longer know death. They live with the King.