The widow of Nain, a poor daughter of Israel

Today we meet a woman who with her weeping offers Jesus the opportunity to reveal himself as the messiah. The widow of Nain who with her weeping has remained indelible in the memory of the readers of the Gospel of all times.
Coming from Capernaum, Jesus meets with great pain, a true tragedy that Jewish culture placed at the pinnacle of disasters, the death of a widow's only-begotten, a pain that cannot be commensurate with any other. Added to the pain is the difficult situation of extreme poverty in which a widow finds herself deprived of any financial support, therefore projected into an unfortunate existence.

The desolation of the woman is described with four lapidary words: the only son of a widowed mother. Everything has gone missing in her life, she no longer has any reason to fight and live. She is the poorest of the poor and Jesus is intimately involved in this very sad story: "Seeing her, the Lord had compassion on her and said to her: 'Don't cry! '". Jesus is not so much involved in death as in that weeping that cries out in all despair. The Greek verb used to express emotion has its roots in the maternal womb, uterus and bowels, considered by biblical anthropology as the seat of feelings.

That woman's pain aroused in Jesus a visceral compassion that led him to approach him with just one word: "don't cry" is an invitation not to lose hope, to open his heart to a surprise . Then he moves even closer to the litter and touches death directly. "The bearers" at the center of that sad procession "stopped" to immediately resume a journey of life and joy.

«Young man, I say to you, get up»: now the Lord of life addresses the young man with two simple words more powerful than death. «The dead man sat up... And he gave him back to his mother».
Jesus gives back to that woman what death had taken from her: her life. Sorrow has turned into joy and tears into happiness. All were gripped by fear: the fear of God is not fear, but it is that mixture of dismay and happiness of the creature: dismay at one's own finitude before the greatness and omnipotence of God and happiness in finding oneself loved, desired and constantly followed by he.

The observation of the marvelous work accomplished by the Lord fills the hearts of all those present with joy, who burst into a hymn of praise and glory summarized in the final acclamation: «A great prophet has arisen in the midst of us and God has visited his people". In reality, Jesus is much more than a prophet: he is not only a man of God who transmits his word without being a giver of life. Jesus works the miracle of healing by virtue of his own Word, which has the divine power to give life to the dead. He is the giver of life, like the God of the Covenant; so much so that he is given the divine title of Lord. In fact, the people recognized him as more than a prophet, they understood that he was the promised messiah, therefore they exclaimed: "God has visited his people", they recognized God's thoughtful intervention in his story. An intervention that is repeated in our history, as long as we recognize and welcome it.


Anna Maria Del Prete
NP February 2023