{"id":1833,"date":"2016-06-05T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2016-06-05T16:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1833"},"modified":"2016-06-05T12:00:38","modified_gmt":"2016-06-05T16:00:38","slug":"10th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/10th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"10th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C<\/a>
\n1 Kings 17:17-24
\nPsalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13
\nGalatians 1:11-19
\nLuke 7:11-17
\nJune 5, 2016<\/p>\n

In our first reading Elijah restores the widow\u2019s son to earthly life.\u00a0 Jesus does the same for another widow in today\u2019s gospel.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Certainly, the first answer that might come to find is to help the women.\u00a0 They are both widows and without male children surviving in those days and so they would have had no status or means to take care of themselves.<\/p>\n

If this was the only reason for restoring the men\u2019s earthly lives, then one might ask why God didn\u2019t do this for every widow who lost an only son.<\/p>\n

Is there some other benefit that comes from the miracle?<\/p>\n

In Elijah\u2019s case, the story ends with the woman identifying Elijah as a \u201cman of God<\/em>\u201d because of the miracle.\u00a0 Likewise, when Jesus does the miracle, the people say, \u201cA great prophet has arisen in our midst,\u201d and \u201cGod has visited his people.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 The miracles show the power of God at work in Elijah and, even more so, Jesus.<\/p>\n

More specifically, it shows that God has power even over death.\u00a0 In these stories, the sons are simply resuscitated to earthly life but we know this to be a precursor of things to come, when Jesus will take those who have died in this world and raise them up in the resurrection to eternal life.<\/p>\n

When our families and friends are sick, we can and should pray for them to get better.<\/p>\n

When death comes, while we may miss them greatly, we do expect God to return them to life in this world but we do pray that they receive eternal life in Heaven.<\/p>\n

Here I think we should reflect on how we respond when a loved one dies.\u00a0 Each culture and religion can have its own customs.\u00a0 For us, the immediate reaction is often sadness yet with some joy of the person going to Heaven.\u00a0 We generally have calling hours, a funeral service, and a burial.<\/p>\n

We might think of these are three completely separate \u201cevents\u201d but that is not how our church looks at it.<\/p>\n

We might think of calling hours as just a time to offer our \u201ccondolences.\u201d\u00a0 This does, and should happen, at calling hours but if that was all calling hours are, couldn\u2019t people just stop by the house or call anytime?\u00a0 Looking at calling hours with a little more depth, they are a time to come together to share memories and to console one another.\u00a0 It can be a time to pray.\u00a0 Our Catholic funeral rites actually include a prayer ritual for the calling hours.\u00a0 It includes a bible reading and prayers.\u00a0 It might only last a few minutes but it is time to ask for God\u2019s consolation upon the family and friends.\u00a0 If you look at the ritual, it can also be a good time for someone to offer \u201cwords of remembrance\u201d (sometimes considered a eulogy).<\/p>\n

Then there is the Funeral Mass.\u00a0 Often, this is seen as all about the person.\u00a0 As such people think it is when people (sometimes several) would offer words of remembrance.\u00a0 Certainly, the funeral must include the person for who they are but it is not a time just to reminisce or put the person on a pedestal.\u00a0 The funeral is to offer our prayers that our loved one be welcomed into Heaven and to give thanks for the gift of eternal life.\u00a0 It is a time of faith.<\/p>\n

Then we go to the cemetery to inter our loved one.\u00a0 As with the calling hours and the funeral service, there is a set ritual for burial prayers.\u00a0 In fact, if you think about it, when burial comes immediately after the Mass, there is no final blessing in the church because the funeral isn\u2019t over.\u00a0 The funeral ends with the burial and so the final blessing happens at the graveside.<\/p>\n

So, while the funeral Mass is the pinnacle of the services, we need to appreciate and understand that not everything has to happen at the funeral Mass.\u00a0 We have opportunities to share memories at the calling hours (or a reception afterwards).\u00a0 In church, we remember the person for the faith we profess.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C 1 Kings 17:17-24 Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13 Galatians 1:11-19 Luke 7:11-17 June 5, 2016 In our first reading Elijah restores the widow\u2019s son to earthly life.\u00a0 Jesus does the same for another widow in today\u2019s gospel. Why? Certainly, the first answer that might come to …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘10th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82,1],"tags":[178],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-tz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1834,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1833\/revisions\/1834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}