June 5 I Kings 17, Lk. 7:11-17
Elijah and the oil for bread and the she gets him water even as she is preparing a last meal for her and her son--then he becomes ill-were they saved just so now the child would die of an illness- For her goodness happens as a prelude to something even worse happening-she will have lost a husband and a child-Elijah may have been offering his life for the life of the son this is done for an outsider do not forget- See your son is alive-now he has breath/spirit within him-there is a little church built on the supposed site straight west of Damascus north of the territory of Israel-Phoenician linked to worship of Baal and Ashtart. She is bereft of food and a husband and now a child. It is a bit of the same story as the miraculous oil that kept burning for the rededication of the temple that Hanukkah celebrates.
Widow of Nain seems to be a spontaneous act of compassion not requested-how could it be? Perhaps Joseph has died and Jesus has experienced the effect of widowhood on Mary. Her life has already been defined by death, the widow, and now would she lose a son as well? It was her only son, perhaps her only hope of security in the world-why young man?.I can’t find a reference what happened to this raised man?southwest of the great lake in home territory. What would it be like to be raised not to heaven but back on earth? Buffy the Vampire slayer dealt with this.I suspect that life became usual very quickly. Mr.DeVaney died of the same illness I was stricken with. did not take long to fall back into routine after the discomfort of radiation passed.Survivor guilt and Lifton 1. The death imprint results from the survivor's immersion in death."3. Death guilt describes the survivor's struggle with guilt for having survived. It is the guilt "over what one has done to, or not done for, the dying while oneself surviving."In addition, death guilt captures how the survivor feels guilty about feeling glad that he is alive: he knows "the tainted joy of having survived amid others' deaths." In sum, he mourns for his former self, for what he was. Surviving, therefore, is a kind of terrible rite de passage during which one self dies symbolically and a new self—a sadder self forever imprinted with the image of death—is born. For these reasons, surviving always involves a terrible sense of loss and grief.
5. Psychic numbing, "the cessation of feeling,"or closing off in its acute form. These psychic processes are defense mechanisms through which a person shuts himself off from death itself: " 'If I feel nothing, then death is not taking place'", destructive processes because they themselves are a "form of symbolic death." After all, if a person is numbed, he not only feels less but he also feels less alive .
.what happened to the raised son?-Imagination plays tricks- Maybe he discovered a different purpose in life. Maybe he became a disciple. Maybe he thought he was bulletproof and acted like the prodigal.Maybe, after a while, the novelty of being raised from death faded into insignificance and he lived a typical one day at a time life of struggle.
treating widows-effect of widowhood- Our country has almost a million people widowed a year, and most of them are female.they average being widowed for 14 years. worldwide we have a quarter billion widows and more than half live in poverty.The Peace hanging on my office door was made by a widow whose husband was killed in the horrors of the former Yugoslavia.
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