Arise

Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain,

   and His disciples and a large crowd accompanied Him.

As He drew near to the gate of the city,

   a man who had died was being carried out,

   the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.

A large crowd from the city was with her.

When the Lord saw her,

   He was moved with pity for her and said to her,

   “Do not weep.”

He stepped forward and touched the coffin;

   at this the bearers halted,

   and He said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!”

The dead man sat up and began to speak,

   and Jesus gave him to his mother.

Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, exclaiming,

   “A great prophet has arisen in our midst,”

   and “God has visited His people.”

This report about Him spread through the whole of Judea

   and in all the surrounding region.

~Luke 7:11-17

“St. Augustine has a beautiful comment on the three miracles of raising the dead related in the Gospels. He has been saying that all our Lord’s works of mercy to the body have a spiritual reference to the soul; he then proceeds to consider them ‘as illustrations of Christ's Divine power and love in raising the soul, dead in trespasses and sins, from every kind of spiritual death, whether the soul be dead, but not yet carried out, like the daughter of Jairus; or dead and carried out, but not buried, like the widow’s son; or dead, carried, and buried, like Lazarus. He who raised himself from the dead can raise all from the death of sin. Therefore let no one despair’”

~R. M. Edgar