A homily on Luke 7:11-17 : “The gate of Nain in every family is the place where sorrow and hope converge, and where life’s choices are forged.” ( 16-9-25)
Praise be to Jesus Christ
Once, I stood at a railway station and saw two trains arriving simultaneously. From one train came workers returning after a long day. Their faces were tired, their clothes dusty, their bodies carrying the weight of struggle. From the other train, school children stepped out who had gone on a picnic. They jumped out with laughter, holding balloons, singing and clapping. Both groups walked onto the same platform. At that moment, the magical possibility of the same place holding two different moods ran through the mind. The platform became the meeting point of joy and fatigue, laughter and silence.
Today’s Gospel too depicts a similar picture. At the gate of Nain, two processions met. From inside the town came a funeral procession, heavy with sorrow. While from outside the procession of Jesus and his disciples, carrying life and hope. When these two processions encountered, outlook changed. Jesus touched the coffin, giving life back to the young man. The tears of the mother turned into joy.
Every home has a gate of Nain. Like that railway platform, our homes are meeting places with distinct moods. In one room, there may be laughter, in another, there may be tears. A son comes home with success, another comes home with failure. Parents sit with worries, children run with play. The same home carries sorrow and joy, fatigue and celebration. At these gates of our lives, Jesus desires to enter.
A boy once asked his grandfather why some people walk with faces full of light while others seem burdened and broken. The old man replied, “Inside every person, two voices are walking. One says, ‘There is no hope, everything is lost.’ The other says, ‘Do not be afraid, God is near.’ Whoever you listen to, that is the road you walk.” The boy never forgot it, because he realised that he too must choose which voice to follow every day.
Saint Augustine once said that humanity is always walking in two processions: one with Adam that leads toward death, the other with Christ that leads toward life. Those two roads stood face to face at Nain, and life won. The same happens to us. Every day in our families and choices, we find ourselves at the gate where the two processions meet.
The story of the widow of Nain also reminds us of the Old Testament story of Elijah. When the widow of Zarephath lost her son, Elijah stretched himself over the child and prayed with tears. The boy came back to life. There, too, death and life met in one house. But at Nain, Jesus did more. He did not pray to another power. He commanded, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” In Him the fullness of life has come.
Think also of Saint Francis of Assisi. One day, he met a leper on the road. His first feeling was fear and disgust, but another procession was also present in his heart, the procession of Christ’s love. He embraced the leper then, and his life was never the same. That was his gate of Nain, where the road of fear met the road of Christ, and he chose love.
In our families, too, we often stand at this gate. One procession may be the burden of quarrels, misunderstandings, or disappointments. The other procession is prayer, forgiveness, and trust in God. When we allow these two to meet and let Christ touch our pain, something new is born.
So let us keep the gates of our homes open. Let the Rosary, family prayer, the words of forgiveness, and the gestures of love be the road by which Christ enters. Then our homes, like Nain, will become places where tears turn into joy and sorrow into hope.
Lord, let me meet you at the gate of Nain in my Life. Amen.
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