By Father Alonzo Q. Cox

Just a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to spend some time with my nieces and nephews on a Sunday afternoon. They are at that age where they begin to ask questions – a lot of questions – especially my 7-year-old niece.

While my sister and my parents get random questions about school and other aspects of life, I always seem to get the questions about faith, most especially God. My niece asked me one question in particular that was really quite profound, and was at the center of my prayer for the following few days.

Her question was this: “How does God show Himself?”

It’s a question that many people seem to ask over and over again. It’s a question that – at one time or another – each of us tends to ask, most especially in times of pain and sorrow. How does God reveal Himself to us, or as my niece asked, how does He show Himself to us?

Various Means of Revelation

Of course, we have an answer to that question. God reveals Himself to us in many different ways. God reveals Himself to us through the beauty of His creation. He reveals Himself to us through the people that He places in our lives.

But most especially, God reveals Himself to us though His Only Son, Jesus Christ.

In today’s second reading, St. Paul tells us so beautifully in his Letter to the Galatians that through God’s revelation of His Son Jesus, He has become a witness to the Good News.

“I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. For I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11-12).

That revelation allowed St. Paul to radically conform his life to spreading the Good News of Christ, our Savior. God touches the life of St. Paul though His revelation.

Encounter with Jesus

The same can be said for the widow of Nain in today’s Gospel passage. This poor widow, who is preparing to bury her only son, has an encounter with Jesus.

How is God revealing Himself to this poor woman who not only loses her husband, but her only son in death? How is God going to bring her comfort and healing during this most painful and difficult time?

Jesus, who was moved with pity for the woman, tells her not to weep, and brings her dead son back to life. The reaction of the people who witnessed this miracle sums it all up: “‘A great prophet has arisen in our midst’ and ‘God has visited his people’” (Luke 7:16).

Through the revelation of His Son Jesus, God continues to show Himself to us. In times of great joy and even in times of sadness, God makes His presence known and seen among us. It is through the saving power of the Incarnate Word made flesh that we continue to proclaim the Good News in all we say and do.

May we give thanks to God our Father, who bestows abundant blessings upon us, and praise to His Son Jesus who unites us all together as His faithful and holy witnesses.

 

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Readings for the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time  

1 Kings 17: 17-24

Psalm 30: 2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13

Galatians 1: 11-14A, 15AC, 16A, 17, 19

Luke 7: 11-17

 

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Father Alonzo Q. Cox is the pastor of St. Martin de Porres parish, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and the diocesan coordinator of ministry to African-American immigrants.