The effect of raising the Widow's Son at Naim
The miracle was a sign to both the people and to St John the Baptist and his followers – and a message to the religious establishment in Jerusalem.
The miracle was a sign to both the people and to St John the Baptist and his followers – and a message to the religious establishment in Jerusalem.
Editor’s Notes
How the miracle stirred awe, fear, and thanksgiving in the multitude of witnesses.
That the people’s words revealed both Messianic expectation and recognition of God’s visitation.
Why the report spread so quickly, reaching even John the Baptist in prison.
He shows us that Christ chose this moment to reveal His power unmistakably, raising faith and hope in Israel.
For more context on the events discussed in this mini-series – and an odd connection between “the widow’s son,” Freemasonry and contemporary Catholic controversy, see Part I.
The Raising of the Widow’s Son
The Training of the Apostles—Part II
Chapter XII
St. Luke. vii. 11-16; Story of the Gospels, § 51
Burns and Oates, London, 1882
Result of the miracle
The result of the miracle is dwelt upon by St. Luke with unusual stress.
‘And there came a great fear on them all, and they glorified God, saying a great Prophet is risen up amongst us, and God hath visited His people.’
This great miracle therefore completely answered the purpose for which it is probable that it was wrought by our Lord. We hear of no cavilling or unbelief in this large multitude. For a time the voice of His enemies was hushed. The whole multitude was filled with that holy rejoicing awe which pervades large masses of men when they are full of faith and are collected together for some holy purpose, such as a pilgrimage, or the celebration of a great festival, or of some deliverance of the Church from her enemies, and when they have felt very nearly and unmistakably the working of Divine power, whether by external miracle or by the effusion of the grace of conversion as the fruit of some Apostolic preaching.
In such times the faith of each is as it were multiplied by the faith of all—each one helps his neighbour to greater fervour, and the general feeling is chiefly one of fear, but without terror. Men feel that God has been and is among them, and this feeling in our present state cannot but have something of fear about it, on account of the uncertainty in which we all must be as to the state of our own consciences.
The great prophet
But this reverent fear of the multitude was not such as to hinder them from breaking out into thanksgivings and rejoicings, glorifying God for the great work which they had witnessed, and which they could attribute to no one but to Him. The words in which they manifested their praise and glorification of God are twofold in the record of St. Luke, and in both cases there is reference to the promise of God and the expectations of the people as to His mercy towards them.
‘A great Prophet has risen up amongst us.’
These words may imply that a prophet of the highest class had been manifested by the miracle, a prophet like Elias and Eliseus, of whose miracles this was a repetition, with so many circumstances of additional splendour; or they may refer to the express promise made by Moses of a great Prophet like to himself, by whom he meant the Messias, though it is not certain that the Jews of our Lord’s time had not come to distinguish between this Prophet and the promised Son of David. As it is St. Luke who is writing, and as his Gospel is mainly addressed to the Gentile Churches, it is not conclusive against this last meaning that he does not say ‘the Prophet’ rather than a great Prophet.
The second thing that the multitudes expressed in their praise of God on this occasion was that He had visited His people, words which remind us of the same expression in the Canticle of St. Zachary on the birth of his son, St. John Baptist. In that canticle the word can mean no one less than the Messias Himself, for it is there added not only that God had visited His people, but that He has redeemed them.
The lowest sense of these words, in the mouths of this crowd of disciples and of friends of the happy widow of Naim, is that which signifies no more than one of the many great visitations of mercy vouchsafed, from time to time, by God to His people.
The highest sense is that in which the words are understood of the great Prophet promised by Moses himself, whether they distinguished between Him and the Messias or not, and of that supreme visitation of which Zachary spoke when he rejoiced over the advent of God in the flesh, Who had dwelt so many weeks under his roof, as a Child in the womb of His Blessed Virgin Mother, ‘through the bowels of mercy of our God, whereby the Orient from on high hath visited us, to enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.’
The tidings widely spread
As the circumstances of this miracle were so divinely chosen in other ways, so especially were they most admirably fitted for the end which our Lord appears to have had in view when He worked it, namely, for the speedy and wide propagation of the news that He had at length manifested His power by raising one from the dead.
The miracle had an immense number of witnesses from all parts through which our Lord had passed, for it was now customary for people to follow Him from one city to another, and a large part of the population of Naim itself had seen the wonderful act of mercy. In all simple populations such tidings fly on the wings of the winds.
‘And the rumour of Him went forth throughout all Judea, and throughout all the country round about.’
The whole of the Holy Land was filled with the report of this miracle, and it reached even the outlying border regions by which Judea and Galilee were encompassed. How it struck on the hearts of the envious priests at Jerusalem, or of the crafty servants of Herod on the lake of Galilee, we are not told.
But the next words of St. Matthew on which we are to comment show us how the tidings reached even the Blessed Precursor in his dungeon, and sounded in his ears like a special message from Heaven.
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