First Reading
1 Kings 17:17-24

1. The widow said to Elijah, “The word of the Lord comes truly from your mouth.” Can you say this of any people you know? What is it about them that would prompt you to think that?

2. In this Old Testament story the widow assumed that her guilt was the reason for her son’s death. What do you think Jesus would say about the idea that her sins caused the death of her son, or that “sons bear the guilt of the fathers/mothers”?

Second Reading
Galatians 1:11-14a, 15ac, 16a, 17, 19

1. Paul says he “persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.” How does he fit in with the two who died in today’s First Reading and Gospel? What caused Paul’s conversion? Could you say which transformation in Sunday’s readings is greater or greatest?

2. Why do you think Paul went to Arabia and Damascus after he received the grace of conversion? What do you think he wanted to do before going to Cephas (Peter)?


Gospel
Luke 7:11-17

1. What did you think when you read that Jesus was “moved with pity for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep’”? Did anyone ask him to raise the young man from the dead or did he do it on his own? Could he have been thinking of his own mother? How does this scene make you feel?

2. According to Pope Francis, below, what does Jesus do that lets us know he didn't come merely to explain suffering, but to suffer with us and weep with us?

Have I learned to weep? Have I learned to weep when I see a hungry child, a drugged child on the street, a homeless child, an abandoned child, an abused child, a child used as a slave by society? [Or do we only weep when we want something for ourselves?]

Why do children suffer? The great answer we can all give is to learn to weep. [Christ] wept for his dead friend; he wept in his heart for that family that had lost their daughter; he wept in his heart when he saw that mother, a poor widow, taking her son to be buried; he was moved and wept in his heart when he saw the multitudes like sheep without a shepherd. If you don't learn how to weep, you're not a good Christian!

Pope Francis
Asian Tour, Manila University of Santo Tomas
January 23, 2015

Anne Osdieck

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