From the Friars: The Holy Widows

God clearly seems to have a special place in His Heart for widows. They are written about in many places in the Bible, two of them being in the readings for today. Besides the sorrow of losing their husband, many widows in the ancient world, and still today, suffered great hardships, economically and otherwise. But they are also numerous among the greatest and holiest human beings that have ever lived. Our own beloved St. Rita of Cascia comes to mind.

The Widow of Zarephath, a gentile no less, is called by God to feed the prophet Elijah, who later raises her son from the dead. In the gospel we hear again the high praise of Jesus for the widow who gave all that she had to the temple treasury. Ruth is another beautiful example of a holy gentile widow. She leaves her homeland to take care of her likewise widowed mother-in-law Naomi. Ruth became the great-grandmother of King David and hence is a blood relative of our Lord Himself.

Especially in the incident of Jesus raising the only son of the widow of Nain from the dead, do we see a connection to the greatest of widows, Our Blessed Mother. No doubt Our Lord was thinking of the suffering His own Mother would experience as she watched him die on the Cross. This moment became the occasion of the gift of Mary to all of us as our spiritual mother. But it is also a providential sign of an even greater truth of our Faith.

This Monday is Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day which commemorated the end of World War I. That horrible slaughter left between three and four million widows. So many wives and mothers were left alone to raise their families in the pain of their loss. But such is the Church, the bride who is left in this world longing for the return of her Spouse. Such is the reality of each soul, created for spousal union with our Creator and longing for the ultimate fulfillment of seeing Him face to face.

Like the wife of James Busbee in the movie Little Boy, our Bridegroom is not dead and He will surely come and bring us home.

–Fr. Peter