Gospel Reading : Luke 7:11-17
Soon afterward he went to a city called Na′in, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he 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. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” And he came and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother.
Fear seized them all; and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And this report concerning him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.
What do the Fathers say?
St AUGUSTINE on the Gospel Reading.
In his Sermon on this passage, Augustine interprets the miracle allegorically, comparing the three resurrections performed by Christ in the Gospels to represent three distinct stages of spiritual death in the human soul:
The Girl in the House (Jairus’s Daughter): Symbolizes the soul that has sinned only in secret thought or consent within the heart.
The Young Man Carried Outside the City (The Widow’s Son at Nain): Symbolizes the sinner whose hidden thoughts have broken out into open, external action. By being carried outside the city gate, the young man represents a soul whose sin has become visible to the world.
Lazarus in the Tomb: Symbolizes the sinner buried under the weight of entrenched, habitual sin
From the Sermon of St Augustine:
These three kinds of dead persons, are three kinds of sinners whom even at this day Christ does raise.
For that dead daughter of the ruler of the synagogue was within in the house, she had not yet been carried out from the secresy of its walls into public view. There within was she raised, and restored alive to her parents.
But the second was not now indeed in the house, but still not yet in the tomb, he had been carried out of the walls, but not committed to the ground. He who raised the dead maiden who was not yet carried out, raised this dead man who was now carried out, but not yet buried.
There remained a third case, that He should raise one who was also buried; and this He did in Lazarus.
Let us then, dearly Beloved, in such wise hear these things, that they who are alive may live; they who are dead may live again.
Whether it be that as yet the sin has been conceived in the heart, and not come forth into open act; let the thought be repented of, and corrected, let the dead within the house of conscience arise.
Or whether he has actually committed what he thought of; let not even thus his case be despaired of. The dead within has not arisen, let him arise when he is carried out. Let him repent him of his deed, let him at once return to life; let him not go to the depth of the grave, let him not receive the load of habit upon him.
But perhaps I am now speaking to one who is already pressed down by this hard stone of his own habit, who is already laden with the weight of custom, who has been in the grave four days already, and who stinks.
Yet let not even him despair; he is dead in the depth below, but Christ is exalted on high. He knows how by His cry to burst asunder the burdens of earth, He knows how to restore life within by Himself, and to deliver him to the disciples to be loosed. Let even such as these repent. For when Lazarus had been raised again after the four days, no foul smell remained in him when he was alive. So then let them who are alive, still live; and let them who are dead, whosoever they be, in which kind soever of these three deaths they find themselves, see to it that they rise again at once with all speed.
St AUGUSTINE on St Monica. [From his Confession]
Thy handmaid bound her soul by the bond of faith. Let none sever her from Thy protection: let neither the lion nor the dragon interpose himself by force or fraud. For she will not answer that she owes nothing, lest she be convicted and seized by the crafty accuser: but she will answer that her sins are forgiven her by Him, to Whom none can repay that price which He, Who owed nothing, paid for us.
May she rest then in peace with the husband before and after whom she had never any; whom she obeyed, with patience bringing forth fruit unto Thee, that she might win him also unto Thee. And inspire, O Lord my God, inspire Thy servants my brethren, Thy sons my masters, whom with voice, and heart, and pen I serve, that so many as shall read these Confessions, may at Thy Altar remember Monnica Thy handmaid, with Patricius, her sometimes husband, by whose bodies Thou broughtest me into this life, how I know not.
May they with devout affection remember my parents in this transitory light, my brethren under Thee our Father in our Catholic Mother, and my fellow-citizens in that eternal Jerusalem which Thy pilgrim people sigheth after from their Exodus, even unto their return thither. That so my mother’s last request of me, may through my confessions, more than through my prayers, be, through the prayers of many, more abundantly fulfilled to her.
Sources:
Bible readings from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Second Catholic Edition, copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Quotes from :
St Augustine’s Sermons on Newadvent.org
Confessions of St Augustine
Artwork ex Wikimedia Commons