Saint Monica
Tuesday of week 21 in Ordinary Time
Gospel – Luke 7:11-17
“When the Lord saw her, he felt sorry for her. ‘Do not cry’ he said”. There are so many miracles which Jesus did as a response to requests and prayers. But this is an episode in which Jesus walks up to the widow who lost her only son. He saw her and He felt sorry for her. She did not ask Jesus for a miracle. But Jesus recognizes the pain of that mother who lost everything in her life. She is already a widow. Now she lost her only son. Jesus saw her grief. Jesus saw her suffering. He walks up to her. This is Jesus. He sees our tears. He sees our sorrows. He walks up to us and says, “Don’t cry”. Don’t cry because Jesus is there. He is going to make her sorrows go away. He asked the dead man to get up. “And the dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him to his mother”. Jesus gave him back to his mother. Today we are celebrating the feast of St. Monica whose tears also did the same miracle. The son about whom she cried was given back to her as St. Augustine. Jesus sees our tears in prayer, and He will walk into our life to say, “Don’t cry”. Let’s reflect: Do I recognize the voice of Jesus who says to me, “Don’t cry”?
Don Giorgio