10th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our Gospel for today which is taken from Luke 7: 11-17 gives us a picture of a funeral during the time of Jesus. This Gospel also tells us that Jesus brought the dead man back to life. In short, the Gospel is one of the many miracle stories of Jesus. 

But let us take a look at verse 12 of this Gospel. It states, "As Jesus drew near to the gate of the city, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a large crowd from the city was with her." In the said verse, we can identify three personalities aside from Jesus, and the following are the dead man, the dead man's mother and the large crowd. Even though we can identify three personalities in the said verse, in the next verse we can find that one was made significant on the eyes of Jesus, giving His special emotion to her; she was the dead man's mother. It is emphasized in verse 13 that the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, "Do not weep." It is through this compassion of Jesus on her that a miracle happened, that the man resurrected from the dead. To say this in other words, Jesus raised up the dead man neither because of the dead man's merit nor of the large crowd's credit but because of a mother who wept. Thereof this Gospel reveals that because of the mother's tears a miracle happened first to her dead son who was brought back to life and second to the large crowd who glorified God the source of life. Moreover, what this Gospel conveys to us today could even be substantiated in the life of Sta. Monica in relation to her son, St. Augustine. A bishop once told Sta. Monica, "Go on your way, and God bless you, for it is not possible that the son of these tears should be lost." It was because of this weeping mother that a miracle happened to the life of St. Augustine. St. Augustine himself testified when Sta. Monica died saying, "If any one thinks it wrong that I thus wept for my mother some small part of an hour -a mother who for many years had wept for me that I might live to thee, O Lord -let him not deride me. But if his charity is great, let him weep also for my sins before thee."

To end, I believe that a mother's prayer for her children is always heard by God. I believe this because I was never ordained priest without my mother's prayers. Seminary life was difficult then. I always had the thought of giving up my studies in the seminary. I could not imagine how I survived for 13 years in the seminary which was a clear miracle. (And now I have been a priest for 15 years and this is a clearer miracle from God.) All of these I call miracles in my life happened because of my mother's prayers. I witnessed how she prays for me when she wakes up in the morning and also before she sleeps at night. I believe that I am sustained by God's grace to be a priest not because of my own merit but because of my mother who wept that I live and die as a priest. Amen.