Jesus Our Shepherd
What Would You Do?

Patricia Sanchez, NCR

Two widows are featured in the sacred texts today. The text from Kings tells the plight of a Sidonian woman. With no husband, no inheritance rights and no voice, she was dependent upon her son, the man of the family. So it was with the widow of Nain in the Gospel: Her son, her only son, was her legal protector. When both widows lost their sons to death, they suffered not only the loss of a beloved child but also the loss of their rights -- or, as Bonnie Bowman Thurston has put it, they lost their “social security” (The Widows, Fortress Press, 1989). Therefore, when Elijah restored the Sidonian widow’s son and Jesus restored the widow of Nain’s son to life, each was in effect restoring two people to life.