In our Gospel, Jesus encounters a widow who has lost her only son. He sees her devastation, and the scripture says he was "moved with p...
In our Gospel, Jesus encounters a widow who has lost her only son. He sees her devastation, and the scripture says he was "moved with pity," a deep, gut-wrenching Compassion that ached in His very core. But this compassion is not passive; it demands action. Jesus steps forward and stops the funeral procession, confronting death itself. He performs this miracle to restore the woman’s son, but perhaps just as importantly, to restore her to her place in the world. He stops her isolation.
This is the model for the saints we honor today, Cornelius and Cyprian. They were leaders in the early Church who understood that Christ’s compassion must be extended to the entire Community—what St. Paul in our first reading calls the "Body of Christ." They lived during a time of horrific persecution. Many Christians, under torture, had renounced their faith. Cornelius and Cyprian argued forcefully that the Church must show mercy—compassion—and allow those who repented to be restored to the community, rather than casting them out forever.
Both of these acts—Jesus raising the dead and the saints restoring the lapsed—required immense Courage. It took courage for Jesus to defy ritual purity laws and death itself. It took profound courage for Cornelius and Cyprian to defend mercy against the rigorists of their time, a stance that ultimately led both of them to martyrdom.
True discipleship demands all three: We must be filled with Christ’s compassion for those who are lost, dead, or grieving; we must fight to preserve the unity and mercy of our Church Community; and we must pray for the courage to act, even when it costs us everything.
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