Widows of the Bible are the most wretched of beings, probably even more worthy of pity than slaves. Life of the vast majority of population revolved around necessity to secure the simplest food, shelter and basic clothing. As a slave, you had your master’s protection, a pallet on the floor to sleep on and, as a piece of his property, some guarantee of being fed and clothed.
As a widow, you could count only on protection of your children – if you had them. Even close relatives were sometimes unable to feed an extra mouth. Many widows were reduced to the status of baggers soon after their husband’s demise.
Lucky was the widow who had sons or even a son, however. By a very ancient law that dated back to the Sumerian and Babylonian times, sons were under obligation to provide for their widowed mothers and include them in their new household after they married. If they tried to weasel out of that holy obligation, they became social outcasts. People of the Biblical times may have been poor and had no trappings of our so called “advanced civilization” but they’d burn with shame if they were to place their lonely mothers in “old folks home” as we do now.
In this Sunday readings Jesus brings back to life an only son of a widow.
Jesus’s Mother was a widow, too. He was her only son, her only provider and hope. Soon He would be entrusting her to His disciple John – from the Cross, moments before His death. I have often wondered why he had not made arrangements for her earlier, as He had foreknowledge of the pending events. Then I realized – the “new son” for Virgin Mary had to be someone standing beside her under the Cross. All disciples had the chance to be there. John was the only one who took it.
How often over the last three years of his life on earth was Jesus thinking about His Mother and her future without Him? Has he seen her in the weeping widow about to bury her only son?
“When the Lord saw her,
he was moved with pity for her and said to her,
“Do not weep.”
He stepped forward.. and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!”
And the young man came back to life. His mother was spared both the terrible grief and the emptiness of lonely years filled with poverty and humiliation. She probably arranged her son’s marriage as the custom dictated, sang and danced at the wedding, and later on, enjoyed love of her grandchildren. She lived.
Was death conquered when Jesus rose the young man from the dead? Not yet. It was, however, a sign of God’s Kingdom coming.
What is so beautiful about that Kingdom is that is both Divine and human – there is place in it for Mystery of creation and salvation, for pity and joy, for a very real and concrete loaf of bread and the choirs of angels.
Just as he had noticed the weeping of the widow 2000 years ago, The Greatest King of All is also aware of each human tear flowing NOW. We are never alone. He is with us.
He who feels pity for a nameless woman, a widow.