November 2, 2025; Luke 7:11 -17; All Souls
The miracle that is related to us in today’s Gospel is one of the most dramatic actions of Jesus’s ministry. He raises a dead man to life. But the focus of this story is not on the man who has died. It is on his mother. And the story goes at some length to emphasize the devastation that this death caused her. Here, a mother buries her son. That is not the normal order of things. Children are to bury their parents, not the other way around. And so, this death is an unnatural one, a disordered one. Unlike the other mothers of her city, this woman continues to live but her son is dead.
The story then tells us that her son was an only son and that she was a widow. This means that the death left this woman alone. She had no other children or spouse to love her and support her. As she walks stunned behind the dead body of her son in the funeral procession, she is likely thinking to herself, “My life is over. I have no future.” But when Jesus witnesses that procession, he knows who this woman is and what she is suffering. The text tells us that Jesus saw her and had compassion. He saw the shock of this disordered death which so radically changed her life. He saw the loneliness and the fear that that death brought about. His heart was moved, and he raised up her son.
Today on this Feast of All Souls we remember people in our life who have died. Those deaths could have happened in many ways. The deaths could have been sudden or expected, violent or peaceful. The deaths could have made us angry or resigned, left us surrounded by family and friends or alone. But however the deaths of our loved ones took place, all of us would be tempted to think, “How does this story of the widow of Nain apply to me? Jesus is not going to raise up my spouse, parent, child, or friend for me to embrace again.” And that much is true.
But the purpose of this story is not to promise us a miraculous resuscitation, but to assure us that Jesus sees us and knows our suffering and loss. Just like he knew what happened to the widow of Nain, Jesus sees the particular circumstances in which we have been bereaved and has compassion on us. And when the Lord of Life sees us and feels with us, there is always reason for hope. Hope indeed that a day will come when we will be reunited with our beloved dead in eternity. But also hope that Jesus will give us the strength to bear the burden of grief that death imposes, that Jesus will free us from the anger and loneliness that comes with losing someone we love, that Jesus will provide us with support and friends to assist us and open ways where we can live again.
We may not be able to embrace our deceased loved ones as did the widow of Nain. But the same Lord who raised up the widow’s son sees us and will walk with us until that day when we, together with all who have died, will see God face to face.