It’s very likely that at times in your life you have been doubted, mistrusted, or had your abilities questioned. As you can hear in this Sunday’s readings, Ezekiel, Saint Paul, and Jesus experienced the same thing.

Separateness and belonging. What would human experience be like without these two polarities? Many of us form our core identity alone and within. But we sustain it externally in supportive relationships.

Jesus went to the village Nain. His disciples were with him, along with quite a large crowd. As they approached the village gate, they met a funeral procession—a woman’s only son was being carried out for burial.

What do you say to the woman who has lost her husband to cancer and less than six months later her son in a car accident?  What do you say in the funeral home revisited again so soon, at that moment when the pain is so raw?

We pray in the merciful presence of God.

He [Jesus] became what we are that he might make us what he is. —Saint Athanasius