Our Vocation in Life - Fr. Micah - October 19, 2025

In today’s Gospel reading, Christ raises a widow’s son from the dead. Fr. Micah explains that this passage has three powerful insights into the divine reality, which also gives us insights into our own human reality and communion.First, the passage teaches us that Christ is God. He does not call upon his Father to raise the man from death, but simply says, “Young man I say to you, arise.” And if Christ is God, this means that He has revealed himself to us and spoken to us. In response, we are to bless and praise and worship him. Second, it gives us the insight that God is love. It is his love that raises the widow’s son, and his love will raise us up on the last day. The same compassion that he had on the widow he has for us. Third, this Gospel reading teaches us that life is not merely biology, but it is communion. When Christ raised the man, he gave him to his widowed mother. This is a common theme throughout the accounts of raisings — immediately following the raising, communion is restored.Fr. Micah emphasizes that life is communion and love, and he quotes Elder Vasilios of Mt. Athos, who said, “Man’s vocation in life is one. It is an exodus from the narrow prison of self-love into the promised land of my God and my neighbor — to live not for the self but for the other.” He connects this idea to today’s Epistle reading, in which St. Paul writes that he knows a man who was caught up into Paradise. Paradise, Fr. Micah explains, is an image of man’s right relationship with God, with each other, and with creation. This relates to how many church fathers speak of the Fall. Instead of placing the emphasis on the disobedience, they emphasize that our Lord searched for Adam and Even that he might lead them to Paradise. The true fall is when Adam says, “It is the woman that you gave me,” thereby breaking communion both with neighbor and God — a communion that’s restored when we love God with all our heart, mind, and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. This communion of love is what we must seek, the communion that gives our lives eternal meaning.