Firstborn Sons and the Widow of Nain

by Irene Zimmerman, OSF

(Luke 7:11-15)
Jesus halted on the road outside Nain
where a woman's wailing drenched the air.
Out of the gaates poured a somber procession
of dark-shawled women, hushed children,
young men bearing a litter that held
a body swathed in burial clothes,
and the woman, walking alone.
A widow then -- another bundle
of begging rags at the city gates.
A bruised reed!
Her loud grief labored and churned in him till
"Halt!" he shouted.

The crowd, the woman, the dead man stopped.
Dust, raised by sandaled feet,
settled down again on the sandy road.
Insects waited in shocked silence.

He walked to the litter, grasped a dead hand.
"Young man," he called
in a voice that shook the walls of Sheol,
"I command you, rise!"

The lines stirred.
Two firstborn sons from Nazareth and Nain
met, eye-to-eye.

He placed the pulsing hand into hers.
"Woman, behold your son." he smiled.



 
 

Reprinted from Woman Un-Bent by Irene Zimmerman, OSF.
(Winona MN: Saint Mary's Press, 1999).
Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.