At that time: Jesus went into a city, called Nain: and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.
St. Augustine the Bishop
That her son was called again to life was the joy of that widowed mother; that souls of men are every day called to life is the joy of our Mother the Church. He was dead in body; they have been dead in mind. His death was outward, and was outwardly bewailed; their inward death hath been neither mourned for nor seen. But he hath sought for them, who hath seen that they are dead, and he only hath seen that they are dead. Who hath been able to make them alive. If he had not come to raise the dead, the Apostle had not said: Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
We find written how the Lord raised from the dead three persons visibly, but thousands invisibly. But how many they may have been whom he raised visibly, who knoweth? For all the things which he did are not written. John saith thus: There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. There were then, doubtless, many more raised to life, but it is not meaningless that three are recorded. For our Lord Jesus Christ hath willed that those things which he did carnally, we should understand also spiritually. He worked not miracles only for the sake of working wonders, but that his works might be at once wonderful to them that beheld, and true to them that understand them.
Even as one that looks upon a scroll right fairly written, and knows not how to read therein, praiseth the hand of the old scribe when he sees the beauty of the points, but what it says, what those points mean, he knows not, and praiseth by the eye, without understanding by the mind―and as, on the other hand, he that can not only gaze on it, as can all men, but also can read it, praises the penmanship, and catches the sense likewise, which the unlearned cannot do: even so, there were some that saw the miracles that Christ did, and understood not what they meant, nor what they, as it were, hinted to such as did understand them, and these only marvelled to see them wrought. And other some there were which saw the works, and marvelled, and understood them, and profited by them. And it is as these last that we ought to be in the school of Christ.
St. Augustine the Bishop
That her son was called again to life was the joy of that widowed mother; that souls of men are every day called to life is the joy of our Mother the Church. He was dead in body; they have been dead in mind. His death was outward, and was outwardly bewailed; their inward death hath been neither mourned for nor seen. But he hath sought for them, who hath seen that they are dead, and he only hath seen that they are dead. Who hath been able to make them alive. If he had not come to raise the dead, the Apostle had not said: Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
We find written how the Lord raised from the dead three persons visibly, but thousands invisibly. But how many they may have been whom he raised visibly, who knoweth? For all the things which he did are not written. John saith thus: There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. There were then, doubtless, many more raised to life, but it is not meaningless that three are recorded. For our Lord Jesus Christ hath willed that those things which he did carnally, we should understand also spiritually. He worked not miracles only for the sake of working wonders, but that his works might be at once wonderful to them that beheld, and true to them that understand them.
Even as one that looks upon a scroll right fairly written, and knows not how to read therein, praiseth the hand of the old scribe when he sees the beauty of the points, but what it says, what those points mean, he knows not, and praiseth by the eye, without understanding by the mind―and as, on the other hand, he that can not only gaze on it, as can all men, but also can read it, praises the penmanship, and catches the sense likewise, which the unlearned cannot do: even so, there were some that saw the miracles that Christ did, and understood not what they meant, nor what they, as it were, hinted to such as did understand them, and these only marvelled to see them wrought. And other some there were which saw the works, and marvelled, and understood them, and profited by them. And it is as these last that we ought to be in the school of Christ.
