An old song says, “Christ has no body now but yours.” In today’s first reading from 1 Corinthians 12, St. Paul talks about the Body of Christ; not in the Eucharist, but in the people of God. We all have a part to play in the body. Are you doing yours?
We see a heartwarming story in today’s Gospel reading from Luke 7. Jesus is in the city of Nain when He comes across a funeral procession. The dead man was the only son of a widow. Jesus was moved with pity, and told the young man to come out of the coffin. He does, and everyone is amazed, indeed, fearful.
The Scriptures are filled with admonitions to care for the widow and the orphan. Widows and orphans surely represent “the least of these.” They were people with no one left to care for them. Jesus took this call quite literally. Are we reaching out to “the widow and the orphan?” Figuratively and literally? We should be.
Father, give us a heart for the widow and the orphan, for all of our least brothers and sisters. May we, like Jesus, be moved with compassion for them. Amen.
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Yesterday as I was carting around my 84 year old widowed father-in-law, these words rang so true. He’s been without his wife for four years now. He’s so lonely and he’s taken ill recently. Without even realizing I was taking care of the “widow and the orphan,” I am and I thank God for the ability to do so. I’ve come to treasure our time together, to hear all of his amazing stories that someday I’ll pass on to my children. He’s had a movie quality life, think Big Fish. And I get to add my little part to his great big story ❤