An Act of Charity, A Call to Justice

Gospel: Luke 7: 11-17

Jesus raises up the only son of a widow.  We marvel at the miracle but ignore the underlying story and what Jesus is really doing in this scene.  The man was the only son of a widow, her only source of legal protection and means of support.  His death means abject poverty and vulnerability for her in a male dominated society that ignores the plight of widows and the poor.  By restoring his life, Jesus saves hers from a cruel fate.

We might well wonder why Jesus did not change this social order and structure.  But we forget that this world was given to us humans to cultivate and tend.  In performing this miracle Jesus calls our attention to the injustices we have created in our society, and he invites us to do something about it.  We can't raise the dead, but we can create a social order that protects widows and the poor so that such a situation does not exist again.  It should not take a miracle to have this widow protected in society when we have the means to do so within ourselves to provide.  

So let us marvel and rejoice at this miracle and this woman's good fortune, but let us also see what Jesus calls us to do.  What situations in our world are within our power to save others from economic exploitation and injustice? Whom can we raise up and spare others from a world we have made cruel by our self-interest and indifference?