Today’s readings: 1Kings 17,17-24; Galatians 1,11-19; Luke 7, 11-17.

If religion does not enhance life’s beauty and its meaning, then we would be better off without it. Even in religion there are cliches that do not convince. Religion deals with questions of ultimate concern, yet it has to be consistent and coherent in its way of dealing with all that distresses people’s lives.

Today’s Scriptures speak of the restoration to life where death takes over. Two very similar narratives involving the prophet Elijah and Jesus give account of a dead only child being brought back to life. In the second reading, St Paul narrates to the Galatians his own resurrection from the dead person he was as a merciless, practising Jew.

The key to grasp the real meaning of these narratives is prophetic proclamation, or the hidden power of God’s presence in history which, as made manifest in Jesus, was meant to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to the oppressed. God’s kingdom is not simply of a spiritual nature, but concerns bodily liberation, physical wholeness, and authentic living.

The miracle-working side of Jesus may not be for many the easiest side of his identity. This is what happened constantly with people around him and what continues to happen with people today, even with those who may have great admiration for who he was and what he represents.

Luke in his gospel does not present Jesus in the first place as a miracle worker but as the prophetic proclaimer of good news to the poor. In today’s narrative, what is mostly highlighted is how Jesus is recognised as a “great prophet”.

Christ’s salvation has historical content, it has to be translated tangibly, it is not the pie in the sky. That truth we cannot afford to forget, otherwise the Christian message would be seriously lacking and incapable of addressing the issues of human wholeness.

The power of Jesus is prophetic in the sense that it can contrast all that is oppressive in our lives, whether it comes from the inside or from the outside. From the inside, because we are all prone to be abusive of others, to give in to our weaknesses, to opt for patterns of behaviour that imprison our own selves. From the outside, because the culture around us, including religion itself, may so easily condition us and shape our lives and our beliefs in manners that are demeaning.

St Paul in Galatians is affirming that what he learnt “only through a revelation of Jesus Christ” sufficed for him to take the plunge without even feeling the need to “stop to discuss this with any human being”. There was a before and after Damascus for Paul. Touched by Jesus, Paul could realise he was a dead man walking in spite of his enthusiasm for the traditions of his ancestors.

Enthusiasm for past traditions may have nothing to do with authentic faith. Before Damascus, Paul was totally projected towards the past. He was a traditionalist, captive of laws that bring no freedom. His encounter with the Lord Jesus brought him back to life, made him a man of tradition but capable of prophecy in all life situations.

Life is beautiful. There is so much that masks that beauty, but God is able to restore authenticity and originality where distortions thrive. This is what God’s visitation is about.

At the proclamation of life on the part of Jesus, people acknowledged that “God has visited them”. Both as individuals and as Church, we need a stock take of our proclamation today to discern to what extent it is evoking God’s presence among His people.

God still visits his people, many a time mysteriously and softly. It happens in people we least consider fit for it, in instances we least expect it to happen. It happens even outside the confines of our celebrations and religiosity. Because God is basically a lover of life, and where life is, there is God.

That is the most beautiful thing about the God we believe in, that while we carry painstakingly our own selves to all forms of death, He sustains us patiently and gives us the eye to behold Him beside us. Which makes all the difference.