image-i-nations trésor
only son
10th Sunday of the Year, C
In this season when there is so much construction and repair work on our roads, we are used to seeing the sign: MEN AT WORK. Well, this Sunday, we could change the text for: GOD AT WORK!
You smile but these words summarize very well the gospel scene we are given to reflect upon (Lk.7:11-17). Jesus comes to the small town of Nain where a group of people accompany a woman on the way to burying her son. She is a widow and the young man was her only son. It is easy to imagine her grief, her pain is beyond words. It is not said whether she has ever met Jesus. She does not seem aware that he is not far away. She does not ask for anything.
Jesus takes the initiative – is this not so often God’s way? He stops the funeral procession and with a simple gesture he brings back the dead to life – simple gesture, powerful intervention: God at work, indeed!
Of course, we find it rather easy to recognize God in Jesus raising the dead – it is such an extraordinary thing for a dead person to be restored to life. But is it not sad that we seem slow to recognize God in so many other interventions typically his?…
Healing after a threatening illness, safe journeys amid dangers, success in an uncertain venture, the unexpected realization of a cherished dream, the sudden return of a long-lost child? And the list – your list – could include many more items, events perhaps forgotten or past unnoticed…
Yes, God is at work today, no less than he was in Jesus’ time. He may work incognito, he may use… a pseudonym, his disguise may cause us to mistaken his identity, but then… perhaps we need to be more attentive and perceptive to discern his presence and recognize his interventions…