Tuesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Tuesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time Luke 7:11-17

Experience of meeting Mothers

I have met many parents who love their children deeply. They are often proud and can speak for hours about them. Yet, many of these parents also experience profound sadness when their children no longer attend Church or practice their faith. For them, it feels like a spiritual death.

Today’s Gospel presents a powerful story. We encounter a widow whose only son has died. Her grief is immense, and Jesus, moved by her sorrow, reaches out and restores her son to life. This act of compassion shows us that no situation is beyond God’s power to redeem.

Back to the time of Jesus, having a son is everything a widow has because widows do not have much voice in society. She depends on her son, so bringing life back to the son is also bringing life back to the widow.

Augustine’s widowed Mother:

Reflecting on this, I remember St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, who wept and prayed for her son’s conversion for many years. Augustine was spiritually lost, but Monica’s persistent prayers were answered. Augustine himself later reflected on his mother’s faith, recognizing her role in his spiritual revival.

He wrote: “While my mother constantly wept over me in your sight as over a dead man, it was over one who though dead could still be raised to life again; she offered me to you upon the bier of her meditation, begging you to say to this widow’s son, ‘Young man, arise, I tell you,’ that he might live again and begin to speak so that you could restore him to his mother.”

Today, let us be inspired by the faith of the widow, St. Monica, and many great parents in the Church. Let us support and uplift those parents who are praying for their children.

I would like to invite you if you know someone who is spiritually dead, please reach out to them, encourage them, pray for them, and bring them to Jesus so that he may say, Young man, arise, I tell you,’ May parents find hope in Christ who will bring their children back to spiritual life again.