The Lord whom we meet is a Lord of life, not death. As Jesus walks into the village of Nain, a procession of death is coming out. These two processions cannot be allowed to bypass one another. Compassion for a widowed, grieving mother causes Jesus to go up to her and to touch the bier of her dead son. “Do not cry,†Jesus says. “Young man, I tell you to get up.†What a transformation must have come over that place that day.
The risen Lord is in our midst. This Lord, who restores life to the dead, who reveals to us the promise and the hope of everlasting life, is also the Lord who brings us to life today. Wherever death and destruction threaten us, wherever anger and violence darken the world, wherever sadness and despair rob our souls of light, there the risen Lord comes to meet us. Saul of Tarsus, who threatened others with imprisonment and even death, did not realize how imprisoned his own soul was, how deathly was the life he lived. But the touch of the Lord changed all that. Confusion first, blindness even. But then, new sight and a new way of living. Paul, the new man, could never stop thanking God for such salvation. He would become all things to all people if he could save them at any cost. Such was the love that had captured his life.