WEBVTT 00:00:01.129 --> 00:00:04.250 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 00:00:04.250 --> 00:00:07.750 of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ. 00:00:08.169 --> 00:00:12.990 Glory forever. Today's Gospel actually are two 00:00:12.990 --> 00:00:17.250 Gospels. The first one is the one that I will 00:00:17.250 --> 00:00:20.730 share my thoughts with you on, the raising of 00:00:20.730 --> 00:00:25.329 the young man in the city of Nyan. And the second 00:00:25.329 --> 00:00:30.300 one is from St. John's Gospel. which is part 00:00:30.300 --> 00:00:34.939 of Jesus' high priestly prayer at the Last Supper. 00:00:35.399 --> 00:00:39.780 And the second gospel occurs because on this 00:00:39.780 --> 00:00:44.579 particular Sunday in October, we commemorate 00:00:44.579 --> 00:00:47.740 the fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. 00:00:48.380 --> 00:00:51.920 Once again, that is the council which, after 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:55.840 a long and arduous battle, determined that icons 00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:00.780 not only can, but should be in the church. That 00:01:00.780 --> 00:01:06.340 a representation of Jesus Christ can be made 00:01:06.340 --> 00:01:09.939 because as Son of God, he took flesh and human 00:01:09.939 --> 00:01:18.299 form. But the first gospel reading is a significant 00:01:18.299 --> 00:01:24.219 one in many different ways. Number one, It is 00:01:24.219 --> 00:01:29.340 only found in St. Luke's Gospel. Matthew, Mark, 00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:33.540 and John do not say anything about this particular 00:01:33.540 --> 00:01:39.459 event. I'll say more about that in a moment. 00:01:40.019 --> 00:01:45.739 But it occurs in the city of Nain. And Nain is 00:01:45.739 --> 00:01:49.299 one of those small little towns that you only 00:01:49.299 --> 00:01:51.959 pass through because you're going somewhere else. 00:01:52.909 --> 00:01:56.250 And we don't know anything about this town. It's 00:01:56.250 --> 00:01:58.730 not mentioned in the Old Testament, and this 00:01:58.730 --> 00:02:01.390 is the only time that it is mentioned in the 00:02:01.390 --> 00:02:06.469 New Testament. But what a remarkable event took 00:02:06.469 --> 00:02:09.969 place in this small, seemingly insignificant 00:02:09.969 --> 00:02:15.689 town. Also, the other thing that I find particularly 00:02:15.689 --> 00:02:21.500 interesting in this gospel is that This is the 00:02:21.500 --> 00:02:29.139 first time that St. Luke calls Jesus Lord. Now, 00:02:29.139 --> 00:02:33.500 we know, of course, that Jesus is Lord, but in 00:02:33.500 --> 00:02:36.639 the third -person narrative, in other words, 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:39.539 when the gospel writers are talking, they'll 00:02:39.539 --> 00:02:44.580 say, Jesus did this, Jesus did that. But in today's 00:02:44.580 --> 00:02:50.039 gospel, St. Luke says for the first time, The 00:02:50.039 --> 00:02:55.219 Lord had compassion on her, on the widow. And 00:02:55.219 --> 00:02:57.580 what's interesting about this is that the title 00:02:57.580 --> 00:03:01.460 Lord, of course, belonged to Jesus from all eternity. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:06.539 But in church, in the gospel writings, this is 00:03:06.539 --> 00:03:11.060 what is called a post -resurrectional title. 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:15.780 In other words, the evangelists only refer to 00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:19.250 Jesus. in the third person when they're writing 00:03:19.250 --> 00:03:23.650 about him as Lord, normally only after the resurrection. 00:03:24.409 --> 00:03:28.909 And so St. Luke does it here, I think for very 00:03:28.909 --> 00:03:33.969 obvious reasons, because this particular event 00:03:33.969 --> 00:03:38.289 that we have under consideration is one that 00:03:38.289 --> 00:03:42.870 illustrates very clearly that Jesus is Lord, 00:03:43.289 --> 00:03:49.949 Lord of the living. and the dead. There are, 00:03:49.969 --> 00:03:52.789 at least the only ones that have been recorded 00:03:52.789 --> 00:03:57.650 to us in the Gospels, only three times that Jesus 00:03:57.650 --> 00:04:02.189 raised someone from the dead. The first one, 00:04:02.349 --> 00:04:06.469 the daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue. 00:04:07.270 --> 00:04:10.050 Familiar with that one, of course, 12 -year -old 00:04:10.050 --> 00:04:14.509 girl. And this occurred when just right after 00:04:14.509 --> 00:04:22.689 she had died. Today's Gospel, the young man had 00:04:22.689 --> 00:04:28.230 died, and he was on his way to burial. And Lazarus, 00:04:28.250 --> 00:04:32.850 when Jesus raised him, had been dead for four 00:04:32.850 --> 00:04:36.750 days, and his body was starting to decompose. 00:04:36.790 --> 00:04:41.759 So therefore, St. John tells us that Mary and 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:45.319 Martha said, Lord, by now he stinketh. He's starting 00:04:45.319 --> 00:04:49.920 to corrupt. So the fathers find an interesting 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:53.620 significance in that because they don't think 00:04:53.620 --> 00:04:57.160 of it in this way, but maybe the young girl that 00:04:57.160 --> 00:05:00.759 Jesus raised from the dead, a cynic nowadays 00:05:00.759 --> 00:05:04.120 might say, oh, she was probably just in a coma. 00:05:06.829 --> 00:05:09.170 She was encouraged by his presence. She came 00:05:09.170 --> 00:05:11.990 back to life. Oh, no, that's not what happened 00:05:11.990 --> 00:05:14.089 because they were weeping and wailing because 00:05:14.089 --> 00:05:19.649 she was dead. And in today's gospel, Jesus raises 00:05:19.649 --> 00:05:23.290 this young man who was on his way to be buried. 00:05:27.310 --> 00:05:31.029 I still don't know the answer to this, but it 00:05:31.029 --> 00:05:36.319 puzzles me. Why? This event is recorded only 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:40.680 in St. Luke's Gospel. Maybe we'll have to ask 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:47.740 him when we reach the kingdom of heaven. Origen, 00:05:47.779 --> 00:05:51.620 one of the church commentators, he gives, I think, 00:05:51.639 --> 00:05:55.120 a fascinating explanation on why Lazarus only 00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:57.680 is mentioned in John, because John is the last 00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:05.240 gospel to be written. The other evangelists didn't 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:07.680 record this because Lazarus was still alive, 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:11.379 but he had died, and John, who wrote the last 00:06:11.379 --> 00:06:14.420 gospel very late in his life, records it. Well, 00:06:14.620 --> 00:06:16.819 whether or not that's the case, who knows, but 00:06:16.819 --> 00:06:20.360 it's a fascinating explanation. But this one, 00:06:20.540 --> 00:06:26.540 the raising of a young man from the dead, all 00:06:26.540 --> 00:06:31.040 those miracles that Jesus performs, curing people's 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:34.319 illnesses, I think really the most remarkable 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:37.519 one is that last and final illness, which is 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:42.079 death. And Jesus raises and brings this man back 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:47.680 to life. Another interesting thing about this 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:55.160 gospel is that when you read the gospels, an 00:06:55.160 --> 00:06:58.920 interesting thing to do is to watch the reaction, 00:06:59.610 --> 00:07:03.009 of the people around Jesus when the event takes 00:07:03.009 --> 00:07:06.689 place. When he performs a miracle, when he does 00:07:06.689 --> 00:07:10.970 something. Watch the reaction of the crowd. Most 00:07:10.970 --> 00:07:14.470 of the time, when Jesus performs a miracle, you 00:07:14.470 --> 00:07:17.589 have the scribes and Pharisees that are grumbling 00:07:17.589 --> 00:07:20.029 in the back, how are we going to get rid of this 00:07:20.029 --> 00:07:23.870 guy? So they're worried because Jesus was not 00:07:23.870 --> 00:07:26.569 the kind of Messiah they had envisioned in their 00:07:26.569 --> 00:07:34.079 own mind. Another reaction is when he cast the 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:38.759 evil spirits into the swine. And the people there, 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:40.740 this took place, of course, because they had 00:07:40.740 --> 00:07:43.360 a herd of pigs. This was in non -Jewish territory 00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:47.019 on the other side of the Lake of Galilee. And 00:07:47.019 --> 00:07:51.180 the townsfolk said, please, go away from us. 00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:54.579 Get out of here. That was their reaction to Jesus. 00:07:55.790 --> 00:07:58.550 the boat and traveled to the other side the jewish 00:07:58.550 --> 00:08:03.910 side of the lake of galilee and then when jesus 00:08:03.910 --> 00:08:09.209 met the woman at the samaritan well and she went 00:08:09.209 --> 00:08:13.769 back remember samaritans are half half jews and 00:08:13.769 --> 00:08:18.449 they were looked down upon by full jewish people 00:08:18.449 --> 00:08:21.550 with the rights and practices as having sort 00:08:21.550 --> 00:08:26.120 of diluted the true faith So this woman, this 00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:29.019 Samaritan woman, goes back into the town and 00:08:29.019 --> 00:08:32.639 tells the people about this. And the people come, 00:08:32.860 --> 00:08:36.100 and she says, he's told me everything I ever 00:08:36.100 --> 00:08:40.120 did. The people come, and they ask him to stay 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:44.000 with them for a few days. So once again, these 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:46.539 reactions of the crowd are rather significant. 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:50.980 What was the reaction of the crowd in this miracle? 00:08:52.539 --> 00:08:58.659 The people say, A great prophet has risen among 00:08:58.659 --> 00:09:05.039 us, and God has visited his people. Now there's 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:09.840 our clue to understand what the people had in 00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:14.519 mind when they saw this event take place. Because 00:09:14.519 --> 00:09:20.799 there's a very close parallel to the raising 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:24.950 of this young man, son of a widow. and an event 00:09:24.950 --> 00:09:28.409 which took place in the Old Testament. And you'll 00:09:28.409 --> 00:09:31.889 recall that because it is one of the Old Testament 00:09:31.889 --> 00:09:36.250 readings that takes place on Holy Saturday, when 00:09:36.250 --> 00:09:42.409 Elijah restored to life the young man, the son 00:09:42.409 --> 00:09:47.710 of the widow of Sarepta. And notice the parallelism 00:09:47.710 --> 00:09:53.720 here. She was a widow, and... She complained 00:09:53.720 --> 00:10:00.480 to Elijah because her son died. And then, not 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:06.220 to read the whole event, but then Elijah stretched 00:10:06.220 --> 00:10:10.539 himself upon the child and cried, O Lord my God, 00:10:10.779 --> 00:10:16.259 let this child's soul come into him again. The 00:10:16.259 --> 00:10:21.080 Lord hearkened to Elijah and took... And the 00:10:21.080 --> 00:10:24.419 soul of the child came into him again, and he 00:10:24.419 --> 00:10:28.720 revived. And Elijah took the child, brought him 00:10:28.720 --> 00:10:31.840 down from the upper chamber, and delivered him 00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:37.179 to his mother. Just like Jesus raises this young 00:10:37.179 --> 00:10:42.700 man and delivers him to his mother, who was also 00:10:42.700 --> 00:10:55.279 a widow. Widows, we don't think of how difficult 00:10:55.279 --> 00:11:01.100 it was to be a widow in biblical times. And even 00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:06.679 actually until quite recently, the widow, if 00:11:06.679 --> 00:11:10.080 she wasn't supported by her husband, it was someone 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:14.240 that her family had to take care of. This is 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:17.519 a time, of course, before Social Security, before 00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:20.740 pension plans and all that kind of stuff. So 00:11:20.740 --> 00:11:26.919 the widow, the old person, was supported by her 00:11:26.919 --> 00:11:31.019 children that she raised and supported when they 00:11:31.019 --> 00:11:37.940 were youngsters. So Jesus had compassion on a 00:11:37.940 --> 00:11:43.460 widow, a widow who lost her husband. and now 00:11:43.460 --> 00:11:48.820 lost her only child. And this brings to my mind 00:11:48.820 --> 00:11:54.080 how the experience of those of us that have lost 00:11:54.080 --> 00:12:00.480 a loved one, when we lose a parent, that's, well, 00:12:00.580 --> 00:12:05.419 sort of nature. Our parents were in their 60s, 00:12:05.419 --> 00:12:09.240 70s, 80s. It was about time. They led a full 00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:15.679 life. They die. Harder than losing a parent is 00:12:15.679 --> 00:12:20.960 losing a spouse. How difficult that is. The person 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:23.960 you spent so many years with all your adult life 00:12:23.960 --> 00:12:28.080 now is no longer with you. The difficulties, 00:12:28.139 --> 00:12:33.480 the trials of widowhood. And then what is even 00:12:33.480 --> 00:12:36.360 more anguishing, the most anguishing thing of 00:12:36.360 --> 00:12:40.879 all, is to lose a child. And this was her only 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:46.309 child. I'll tell you of even a more extreme example 00:12:46.309 --> 00:12:53.129 of this. Someone we know back east, actually 00:12:53.129 --> 00:12:57.970 she's a cousin of my matushka, not only lost 00:12:57.970 --> 00:13:02.309 her husband when he was relatively young, in 00:13:02.309 --> 00:13:05.610 his 30s, had a heart attack, but she had three 00:13:05.610 --> 00:13:09.830 children, and all three children passed away. 00:13:11.309 --> 00:13:14.690 died of natural causes. And she's still in her 00:13:14.690 --> 00:13:18.250 80s now. You know what she does? Every week, 00:13:18.309 --> 00:13:21.850 three times a week, she goes to three different 00:13:21.850 --> 00:13:25.750 Orthodox churches and helps make pierogi and 00:13:25.750 --> 00:13:31.110 prune and nut rolls, things like that. But widows 00:13:31.110 --> 00:13:36.559 were... I don't want to say a burden of responsibility, 00:13:36.759 --> 00:13:39.480 but they were difficult. That's why in the early 00:13:39.480 --> 00:13:42.279 church, notice how in the Gospels they speak 00:13:42.279 --> 00:13:48.200 about widows. Widowhood, older women had a special 00:13:48.200 --> 00:13:51.279 office and ministry in the church of service 00:13:51.279 --> 00:13:58.320 and of prayer. What does this tell us? First 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:02.779 of all, Jesus is our Lord. the God of the living 00:14:02.779 --> 00:14:05.860 and the dead, as he restored the daughter of 00:14:05.860 --> 00:14:13.100 Jairus back to life, as he restored the only 00:14:13.100 --> 00:14:18.059 son of the widow of Nain back to life, as he 00:14:18.059 --> 00:14:23.259 restored Lazarus to life. So the time comes when 00:14:23.259 --> 00:14:28.279 he will restore us to life, not just to life 00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:32.309 in this world. but to life in the world to come, 00:14:32.450 --> 00:14:37.110 which is a most wonderful existence. No longer 00:14:37.110 --> 00:14:40.909 any sickness, sighing, or sorrow. No longer any 00:14:40.909 --> 00:14:45.929 death. So we remember this fact for our salvation 00:14:45.929 --> 00:14:51.269 and also a time to raise up in prayer those who 00:14:51.269 --> 00:14:56.330 suffer the loss of a loved one. And we ask the 00:14:56.330 --> 00:14:59.549 Lord to strengthen them. and to strengthen us 00:14:59.549 --> 00:15:04.129 in our faith in the resurrection. So to our Lord 00:15:04.129 --> 00:15:08.330 Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of the living and 00:15:08.330 --> 00:15:11.409 the dead, be glory and honor forever and ever. 00:15:11.629 --> 00:15:12.110 Amen.