The Lord's Sermons
- Sermon 41 -
Fifteenth Sunday After Trinity. The Raising of the Young Man of Nain
St. Luke VII, 11-17: "And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people. Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, that God hath visited his people. And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judaea, and throughout all the region round about."
(April 22, 1872)
Here again you have one of those miracles that were to strengthen the belief in people that I was not just an ordinary man, not just a prophet, but something greater, so as to make them more and more willing to follow My ways and make it easier to guide them.
The Essenes, too, raised from the dead; but how this was done I have already explained to you in the Great Gospel of John. If I wanted to perform a miracle, it had to be done in a different way. Only in this way and with compelling evidence could I set right these people who were so stubbornly attached to the Mosaic doctrine and ceremonies.
A raising from the dead, as took place with the young man of Nain, was quite new to them and so they were justly amazed at My power over life and death, the like of which they had not yet seen in a human being.
Thus I educated My disciples and many other people, including Gentiles, to be propagators of My teaching of faith and love. That My words were true and My mission essential, the reason why I came to this earth, and the object and purpose of My life as a man on earth - all that I proved to them through parables, talks and miracles. Only few understood Me, but the seed had been planted in the hearts. It gradually sprouted and began to bear fruit, even though the growth was sparse. I always adapted Myself to the circumstances; either I delivered powerful speeches or I performed miracles, which had to help proclaim the Son of man as that which He really was.
The miracle of the raising of the young man of Nain should, however, be interpreted in a spiritual sense if it is to be any use as a sermon. The significance of this act for all times must be found, so that you may recognize that in every one of My actions during the years of My ministry there is a hidden significance which is important for all times.
This Gospel describes an ordinary funeral where a weeping mother follows the coffin of her beloved only son. An ordinary event, one that you may any day experience, either in your own family or with your friends and acquaintances. In every case you will find a stiff corpse and weeping people following it.
To interpret this ordinary event spiritually, you must also understand spiritually that which precedes a funeral.
Every death is a transition from one extreme to the other, from life to death, a transformation of the solid body into primary elements, a separation of the spiritual from the material or, if you want to express it even better, the beginning of the spiritual and the end of the material life.
There exists in creation an apparent material death and a real spiritual death. In view of this, a funeral must be regarded either as the burial of the spiritual in a person or as an abandoning of all that is of the world.
Here in this case a mother mourns her only son and follows his coffin. I encountered this sad scene and felt pity for the mother. I stopped the coffin-bearers and raised the son that he might also in future continue to sustain his loving mother.
The spiritual interpretation of this act is as follows: Now, and still often, parents will weep over their children who have taken a wrong course. They will be sad if they see how their children - notwithstanding their parents' care and efforts -like a material corpse that no longer holds anything spiritual, follow only the world and its pleasures, thus hurrying towards their spiritual death.
To many such weeping and mourning parents who only too late recognize that they themselves are responsible for the early spiritual death of their child, I step up and raise their children from sin and vice back into a spiritual life by allowing them to taste the bitter consequences of their way of life. I raise them through suffering and illness, ruin their physical health and their worldly circumstances, thus returning to the child who had turned into a corpse, his spiritual life so that he may start afresh to regain what was lost, thus through penitent reform relieving his parents' conscience and self-reproaches.
Such funeral processions take place every day in material as well as in spiritual life. There is more decay on your earth these days than spiritual life. Practically all mankind is buried in material desires, as if lying motionless in a coffin of worldly cares and pleasures. And the few who still possess any spiritual life are the mourners who walk behind the coffin praying to Me for help and deliverance since they are sorry for the dead, their fellowmen, but cannot save them.
This funeral procession on a small and a large scale, as well as the laments of the few better ones, causes Me to step up to the coffin and awaken those sleeping or apparently dead, to prevent them from being lost for the spiritual life. I awaken individuals as well as entire nations through all kinds of events and calamities and let them experience the consequences of their wrong way of life and complete disregard of the spiritual.
Look, this large funeral procession moves slowly to the place where the decomposition of the material body takes place! The condition of the souls of many people, as well as the states of many nations, is beginning to decay, and a general process of decomposition, purification and separation is manifesting, as is the case with every body which has been abandoned by life and, subject to the laws of nature, has to serve again other forms as a basis and the stuff to further their development.
Amid this general process of decomposition of entire mankind which - figuratively speaking - is lying lifeless in the coffin of worldly pleasures, I step up to it and through My messengers and scribes cause new vigour, new life, a new spirit to fill the veins of the human soul, calling to the worldly people who have fallen asleep, as I once did to the young man of Nain: "Young man, I say unto thee, arise!"
Mankind as it is today, because of the short duration of its trial life, can be compared to a young man who is still far from having fulfilled his mission. Mankind, too, must proceed to manhood and then to old age so that it may mature and begin to shed its old clothes of partly decayed worldly opinions and put on a spiritual garment which does not ever decay but remains serviceable also beyond this short life on earth for the other, greater, eternal life. To this mankind, which is on the point of decomposition, I call: "Arise, for you were not created for the tedious road of matter, but for the shorter path of the spirit! Arise and pay attention to My call before the complete disintegration of all social ties will teach you the bitter truth that there still exists quite a different world from the one you had in mind until now, one which consists only of speculations, deception and despotism!"
Just as in the past, today I am also moved to compassion by this present state of decay. I pity the better kind of mourners, but also the dead who - not knowing My Word -would irrevocably fall victim to decay, the spiritual process of decomposition, and would have to start out voluntarily on the painful road of cognition from within. To see mankind as a corpse moves Me to compassion since, when I created men, I gave everyone a spiritual spark from My own being. Later on, through My descending to your earth, I not only reanimated this spark, but - for which I had to pay with humiliation and sacrifice - I chose you humans from among so many other beings to recognize Me not only as the Supreme Spirit, but also as the Father and with Me and through Me to help also other worlds towards perfection, thus bringing them new beatitudes and new truths. The giving of these will enhance your own bliss, and only as children of My love will you experience what it means to be privileged by the almighty Creator and Lord of the entire universe.
Therefore, I pity this funeral procession and as a result I have, through My words and gifts from heaven, kept calling to you already for years: "Arise, awake from your worldly sleep! Awake to the spiritual, eternal life; for only there is salvation for your own existence!" Only there is the beginning and the end of the human race. You do not have to disintegrate like the material body in order to become part of other forms, beings and things. No, you shall, aware of your origin, live as immature souls through the stages of childhood, youth and adulthood, so that in old age, conscious of good deeds and with a feeling of exaltation, you can pass into that world which is out of reach of worldly decay, that world where everything is spirit, love, light, where everything breathes warmth and eternal life, where there are no mourners but only happy, jubilant spirits. These shall be guided with and through you to the great goal, to My boundless realm of the spirit, and I, as the Father of My children, shall guide the awakened to the eternal light-source of life. Only then will they fully comprehend Me as a Father.
The purpose of all My words is this raising from the material, from the worldly coffin, just as I once wanted to protect and prepare the world of that time with My miracles, words and parables that it would not decay spiritually.
In those times, the prophets, My disciples and other believers were the mourners. Today, it is YOU whom I have given the Word of salvation and eternal life so that you may contribute as much as possible to the work of salvation.
Work in your own families toward this end. See that there is no one who is dead or decaying. Sow the seed of life which My spiritual wind, like the autumn winds that carry the material seed to the fields, will carry into the hearts duly prepared through suffering and calamities, so that the feast of resurrection may repeat itself there, too. Then, of mankind's lifeless body there will remain only the coffin, the world itself which, if it wants to be of any use to mankind, will have to spiritualize too under the influence of spiritualized mankind. Thus the former paradise will return where man - a spiritual being out of My Creator's hand - will once more be a spiritual lord over all beasts and even over the elements. This, however, can only be accomplished by the living, not by the dead "young man of Nain". Amen.