11 Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. 12 As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother's only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. 13 When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, "Do not weep. 14 Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, "Young man, I say to you, rise!"15 The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has risen among us!" and "God has looked favorably on his people!"17 This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country. (Luke 7:11-17, NRSV)
Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like if Christians carried out the work of Jesus. Healing, feeding, and teaching would be some of the things that we would do. We would also show the way to the father and proclaim that through all of these things God's kingdom is at hand.
In todays gospel we have Jesus responding to basic human need with compassion. Compassion is about being aware and sympathetic for one that is going through some kind of suffering. It is also about wanted to somehow alleviate that suffering. To be sympathetic is to understand the other's suffering and to identify with the ways that it takes over one's life. Jesus understood and brought healing to the brokenness that death brings.
Like it happens often in the gospels the people are "fearful" and bring glory to God. Imagine if people responded like that to our alleviation of suffering, to our compassion. Imagine what an impact we would have on the world if our compassion was such that God was seeing through us by those busy observing.
Christ has given us the task of identifying with those in need. We are to minister to them with compassion and through that compassion we are agents of God's healing work in people's life. Through this work we share the good news and show our communities that God "has looked favorably upon" them.
Peace, Juan+
