An elderly gentleman daily took up a spot at the entrance of their town in the local service station and sought to great people who were coming into town. His mission of welcoming introduced him to many a type of human being. On this one day a family was coming into town and stopped to fill up with gas. Upon seeing the elderly gentleman they went up and asked a simple question: “How are people in this town?” He responded by asking how the people were in the town from which they came? The family began to say how they missed their friends who were so kind and caring. They were only moving because of the work. The gentleman answer and said the people here were of the same nature. They were always generous and helpful. The family left happy that their new home would be much like their other home.
Later that day the gentleman greeted another family coming to live in the town as well. These also inquired about the type of persons they would find. The gentleman asked about the persons they left behind. Their response was quite negative. Their neighbors were mean, uncaring, detractors, etc. Then the gentleman answered the people in this town were just as bad. The prophetic point is that in word and work we find our lives interpret the reality that we perceive.
Our Lord perceives the need of the widow of Naim and recognizes in her the prophetic image of the Catholic Church. The sons and daughters of the widowed Church are dead due to the acceptance of the mortal sins they have come to experience. They have chosen the world and the deceits of the devil over the life giving presence of our Lord. The Widow weeps for the souls of the dead. Our Catholic Church weeps today over the heresies of modernism that have poisoned her sons and daughters. Perhaps through her tears the touch of the Lord’s finger (representing the power of the Holy Ghost) will bring back to life those who are dead.
Only those who are living the traditional life of the Catholic can see the need for the tears of reparation and the penance necessary to bring back life to our lost brothers and sisters. Our Lord gives us both the words of Life and the work of salvation. The dead are located on the wooden bier which cannot give life until the body of Christ touches that wood in sacrificial offering. Through his death upon the Cross Life is restored to all who have a widowed mother weeping for their souls. The multitude will and has witnessed the event of resurrection and knows that unless they come into the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, they will lose the salvation promised.
Brothers and Sisters please realize that we are in a funeral march which will either end the burial of our souls or in a resurrection. Our plans as we move from the city of this world to the eternal city are prophetic. Will we die to this world in order to live with our Lord or will we die to Christ and seek some sort of satisfaction in this world? All the words of our Lord call us to the narrow way that will bring us to a happiness in Him. All of His Works bespeak the resurrection of the soul to grace.
Our words and our works bespeak the future that we are constructing as we pass through the test of this life. We are the prophets of our future and we can learn to prepare ourselves by imitating the Lady of Love and accepting in willing obedience the trials of our daily lives. Follow the pattern of the saints and you will know that the saints await you. Lift up your hearts in whatever you do and you will find the happiness that will one day embrace you.
Naim is the place of testing and the tears of our widowed mother purchase our souls for the Holy Trinity. All souls belong to God but not all souls wish to die to this world to belong to Him. Imagine the multitude in heaven that rejoice over one repentant soul that finds the way to true happiness in Jesus, Mary and Joseph. God bless you all with that grace that surpasses human understanding.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Voigt
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