Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost — Homily by Fr. Ermatinger

Translation of the Epistle for the Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Brethren: If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us walk. Let us not become desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another. Brethren, even if a person is caught doing something wrong, you who are spiritual instruct such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let everyone test his own work, and so he will have glory in himself only, and not in comparison with another. For each one will bear his own burden. And let him who is instructed in the word share all good things with his teacher. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what a man sows, the he will also reap, for he who sows in the flesh from the flesh also will reap corruption. But he who sows in the spirit, from the spirit will he reap life everlasting. And in doing good let us not grow tired; for in due time we shall reap if we do not relax. Therefore, while we have time, let us do good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Continuation of the Holy Gospel According to St. Luke

At that time, Jesus went to a town called Naim; and His disciples and a large crowd went with Him. And as He drew near the gate of the town, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a large gathering from the town was with her. And the Lord, seeing her, had compassion on her, and said to her, Do not weep. And He went up and touched the stretcher; and the bearers stood still. And He said, Young man, I say to thee, arise. And he who was dead, sat up, and began to speak. And He gave him to his mother. But fear seized upon all, and they began to glorify God, saying, A great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited His people.

The Saving Word of the Gospel.

In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

He looked upon the woman and had compassion.

Transcription of Homily

Our Lord seemingly has this coincidental encounter, but as we know, this is all providential. And it takes place in this town called Naim. We have the name Naomi from this Hebrew word, which means pleasant, if you remember in Chapter One of the Book of Ruth. (You’re Catholic, so you don’t read the Bible, but anyway, believe me, it’s there.) And Ruth has this mother-in-law named Na’omi, and she says, “Don’t call me Na’omi anymore,” which means pleasant or beautiful one, “call me Mara”, which means embittered one because of all of the… not because she was embittered, but because of all of the struggles that she had endured in her life. Well, anyway, that’s the meaning of the word, of this town: beautiful place, in this case, or pleasant place.

And Our Lord then meets this grieving widow, who has a μονογενης (monogenes), this only begotten son and He has compassion on her. We see this a lot, in Matthew especially, where there is this dynamic of seeing and having compassion. It is where Our Lord’s eyes are almost an expression of His heart, which absorbs suffering and makes it His own. And He has this violent, visceral reaction in which He appropriates human suffering and makes it His own. He suffers our suffering in a perfect way and not just in a way that… in a vicarious way, but He redeems it. He redeems it. By making it His own in His own Sacred Humanity.

I have no doubt, we will get back to this later, but I have no doubt that in this grieving widow, who has lost her only son, He sees a foreshadowing of His own mother at the foot of the Cross, the Sorrowful Mother. Well, this woman must have been a well-regarded woman because she was accompanied by a large crowd. And where? At the city gate.

Now, it’s at the city gate because the Jews, like all of antiquity, except for Sparta, all of antiquity never buried their dead inside the city for hygienic reasons. And so, they’re bringing the body of this only son outside of the city, and they meet at the city gate.

Now, The Spartans, for cultural reasons and political reasons, buried their dead in their city because those were their heroes. And they wanted a memorial of their warrior dead to be present for the young men to look up to them. And so, there’s something to be said about that. Later, in Christendom, we would do the same. We would change this practice of burying the dead far outside the city and bury our dead in the city. In fact, in Middle Europe, in Bavaria and Austria, it’s very common to see graves right around the church, we call it a churchyard, so that when you go to Mass you can visit your ancestors. And you would see these little holy water fonts with a little pine branch, and you would pray for your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and then bless them with the holy water, go to Mass, and then after Mass, visit them, pray, bless them. They’re a very healthy practice to have this proximity of mortality and to have this exchange of praying for the souls in purgatory and asking them to pray for us. In antiquity, on the other hand, everybody except for the Spartans kept the dead far away. We, unlike the Spartans, want to keep the dead close to us for a different reason, not as examples of feats of valor, but rather because of the Communion of Saints.

Now, this takes place at the city gate. Now, city gates in antiquity, especially in Judea, were very interesting affairs, the way they were set up. They would have the walled city, and then the city gate was not some massive entrance with a road leading up to it, as one might think. Rather, the city gate was approached by a circuitous road, almost like a candy cane with a sharp turn, and often it was up a hill, not always, but sometimes up a hill, with a sharp turn towards the gate. And the gate was somewhat narrow and the reason for this was strategic so that the gate could not be rushed so easily by an enemy force, they couldn’t gain momentum to charge the gate, but would also helped to maintain control over who comes in, who goes out. And so, the gate was somewhat narrow. And therefore, there was a bit of commotion at these gates as we see here. Our Lord is accompanied by a multitude, there’s a multitude accompanying this woman and carrying the stretcher with the boy on it, and there’s this meeting.

Now Elijah raises somebody from the dead, but not by command. He does it by praying to God. Our Lord does it by command, thus affirming His own divinity. And so, this is what sets fear amongst the people. And this is the beginning of wisdom, right? Fear of the Lord. Well, Our Lord does something that is forbidden. He touches the stretcher, right, which you would think by Law would make Him unclean. On the other hand, He makes the boy clean, right? He raises Him from the dead by command and by touch through His agency of His Sacred Humanity.

Now, I referred to the Sorrowful Mother because we are beginning the month of the Sorrowful Mother. And on September 15th we have the Feast of the Sorrowful Mother. And this is an important feast, and ever more so I think our Lord saw something of a depiction, a foreshadowing, of His own mother in this grieving widow whose only son was dead in her arms.

And this is a good time to renew our devotion if we’ve let it grow cold or to begin it. Our devotion to the Sorrowful Mother. And the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady are:

• The Prophecy of Simeon
• The Flight into Egypt
• The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple
• Mary on the Way of the Cross
• Mary at the Foot of the Cross
• The Deposition
• The Burial

Our Lady revealed the Chaplet, or the Rosary, of the Sorrowful Mother several times throughout history: to the Servites, to St. Bridget of Sweden, and to Marie Claire of Kibeho in an approved Marian apparition, 1981, in Rwanda in which she foretold the coming massacre 14 years later. And this appeal to pray this devotion of the Sorrowful Mother Rosary was always accompanied by promises of graces, accompanying graces. She told St. Bridget of Sweden that:

I will grant peace to their families.
They will be enlightened about the Divine Mysteries.
I will console them in their pains and accompany them in their work.
I will give them as much as they ask for, as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my divine Son or the sanctification of their souls.
I will defend them in battle against the infernal enemy and will protect them in every instance of their lives.
I will visibly help them at the moment of their death. They will see the face of their mother.
I have obtained from my Son the grace that those who promote the Devotion upon their death will go immediately to Heaven since all their sins are forgiven and my son will be their eternal happiness and consolation.

Interestingly too, in modern times, Our Lady told Marie Claire that for those who pray this:

I will help overcome their addictions, their obsessions.
I will help them to see the root of their sins so that they can uproot their sins and the cause of their faults and their character flaws.
And they will come to a deep understanding of the reason of their sin so that they can overcome it.
And they will also be freed from useless guilt and remorse.

So, in a certain sense, this is really a prayer of deliverance that Our Lady has given us. And it began 900 years ago, and Our Lady is continuing to ask us to pray it, not because she needs it because we do.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, the Holy Ghost. Amen.

~Fr. Ermatinger