This episode in Nain is one of three instances recorded in the gospels when Jesus restored life to someone who has died. The others were Lazarus and the daughter of a synagogue official. Perhaps Jesus performed this miracle on other occasions but these are the only incidents we know of.
Without being asked, Jesus stepped forward and touched the coffin and said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” His command reminds me of one of the lines found in the Roman Missal for the kyrie, “You raised the dead to life in the Spirit, Lord have mercy.”Imagine, then, Jesus also touching you and saying, “arise!”
None of us gathered here are physically dead, but are any of us spiritually lethargic? If so, may the Lord raise you to life in the Spirit. The opportunity arises every time we worship God. For us Catholics, the epitome of worship occurs in the celebration of the Mass, when Jesus is made present to us in both scripture and the Eucharist, where he feeds us with his body and blood.
To remain physically alive, much less well, we need to sustain our bodies steadily with adequate sleep, nourishment, and fluids. Skipping any of those requisites is rarely done even for a day, much less a week, by the average person. But many people go days, even weeks, without feeding themselves spiritually through prayer and worship, thus becoming spiritually dead.
Statistics show that we Catholics make up the largest single religion in our country. The second largest, unfortunately, is the fallen away Catholic. Folks like you and me who once fed themselves on the Eucharist and scripture by attending Mass every weekend but began to drift away, becoming spiritually lazy as they did so and for any number of reasons, they quit coming to Mass to worship God in the manner that Jesus instructed us to do at the Last Supper.
As summer draws near, I would like to speak about the sin of sloth, one of the seven deadly sins, known also as spiritual laziness. Now some of you may be thinking, “But, Father, I am not lazy. If anything, I’ve worked hard or studied hard all week and I’m ready to relax over the weekend.” You may not be physically lazy but are you becoming spiritually lazy?
Sloth can be defined as the avoidance of physical or spiritual work; for those who have drifted away from the faith, sloth is spiritual apathy, not physical laziness. When early Christian writers warned about this deadly sin, they were not trying to get people to fill every waking moment with work; they were trying to get them to do the opposite, to keep holy the Lord’s Day.
You remember what God did once everything was created? The Bible tells us, “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rested after all his work of creating.” God set this day aside from the rest of the week as a day for us to rest all right, but more importantly, to worship God. Sloth is that deadly sin which draws us away from this very important task that is essential for our spiritual well being.
More than once, people have told me that they have more productive things to do than be bothered with attending Mass. Their excuses range from having garage sales to doing housework, from spending the day relaxing with family and friends to getting some important project done, from playing golf or attending an event off island. None of those tasks or activities,however, contributes readily to the act of worshipping God. I cannot think of a more productive hour in one’s week than the time spent at Mass, allowing ourselves to be fed with both God’s word and the Eucharist, given that this hour does more to deepen our relationship with God than just about any other activity that would keep us from worshipping God.
The slothful person is unwilling to do what God wants because of the effort or time it demands, yet if we refuse to make time to worship God in this lifetime, will we be inclined to worship God in the next? We are so accustomed to being productive, but keep in mind that for the sake of attaining our ultimate goal in life, that is, eternity with God, the most productive thing we can do in this lifetime is spend time with God in worship, keeping holy the Lord’s Day, and getting to know his Son intimately.
Our readings dealt with life and death. Sooner or later, the sons whose lives were restored encountered death. We cannot avoid death either even if we try not to think about it. Someday, our appointed time will arrive and when it does, what will our reaction be? Fear of something terrible or a welcoming encounter withJesus Christ? In his book, No Man Is An Island, Thomas Merton wrote, “If death comes to us as an unwelcome stranger, it will be because Christ also has always been to us an unwelcome stranger. For when death comes, Christ comes also, bringing us the everlasting life he has bought for us with his own death.”
Death must be seen, my friends, not as an encounter with a terrible unknown or a moment of great loneliness but as an encounter with a compassionate Christ who bids us to rise to everlasting life.
I hope you find time this summer for relaxation – time for family and friends, but above all for what matters most; always finding time for God, welcoming his Son into your life every weekend at Mass, wherever you are. When you put God first, everything else will find its right place. That’s why it’s natural after Sunday worship to rest, have family time – or quiet time or time for good reading or even an afternoon siesta.