John Chrysostom, On the widow's son

But if it happens that the child also dies while his mother is living, and he takes leave of his mother but is joined to his father, which is what this present widow has suffered, she receives all the pain at once.

For the only-begotten son of the aforementioned widow had just died, and she, clothed in the garment of mourning, began to utter rash words, and argued as if with an indiscriminate being, bringing forth blasphemous words; she spoke as one suffering violence, saying: Did my son alone weigh down the world? Others are burdened with many children, and has the only son of me, who am alone, been snatched away? I, the childless one, live, and both my husband and my son are dead. Where then will anyone advise me? Who will look after me? I thought to have at least a little confidence because of him; for it was enough for me just to be called a mother. His father left him to me, still an infant at the breast, without money; and I, an unprotected widow, setting my hands to work, diligently raised him; I have made for him double and triple garments, I generously provided wages for those who taught him; and now, when I expected the harvest of good things, then I have received the hail of temptations. O the pain! But I have found what to do; I am being buried with my son; I satisfy those who envied me; relatives were devouring me because I had a manly child. Forgive me, all you who cast the evil eye on my good fortune in children; for I now go before my own true child to the tomb; for to me, to live hereafter is a mockery.

When the widow cried out these things and was in anguish, immediately our Maker, Christ the God, 61.792 arrived, and seeing her, the God who foresees all things, who also clearly knows all things before making them; For before I formed you in the belly, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb, I consecrated you; the father of orphans, and judge of widows, who transforms tears into gladness, who made the gate of the city of Nain a church, and showed the bier of the dead man to be an altar. For where there is the gift of resurrection, there is the adornment of an altar; and where the hands of the Word of God are stretched out, there the measure of the resurrection has been fulfilled. For the funeral procession has become a sanctuary, and the carrying out has become a carrying in. For what does the Evangelist say? But when Jesus saw her; that is, the Savior, and God the Word, the Christ, had compassion, seeing her. Seeing what? A widow childless, without a husband, elderly, bent over, wailing, tearing her hair, sprinkling her head with dust, blinding her heavy-lidded eyes, having torn her unseemly garment, beating her much-groaning breast, and no longer having the strength to cry out, having finally become frenzied. Seeing her in this state, Jesus had compassion on her, and approaching, said to her: Do not weep. But she, being preoccupied with her grief, not truly perceiving the one who had come, shaking off her grief, answered the Lord and said: You tell me not to weep? And what comfort will you offer me then? For even if you move the whole world for my consolation, you will show me no consolation. For what is sweeter than a son for a mother's consolation? And especially, when they are widows, and rely upon only-begotten sons. How then do you tell me not to weep? Strangers mourn my son, and shall I not weep? The stones are groaning, and shall I be silent?

My hope has been taken away, my life has failed, my confidence has been plundered, I see my own life as hopeless, and I am naked of all hope. Death has reaped my expectation; it has made me helpless on every side; it left me behind, and contrived against him; it left the root, and cut off the branch; it spared the stump, and withered the beautiful shoot; it left the old, and cut down the new. I have no one to look at. For if I had another son, I could balance the grief, and by the sight of the living one lighten the pain for the dead one; but now for me there is nothing

εἰ δὲ συμβῇ καὶ τὸν παῖδα ζώσης τῆς μητρὸς ἀποθανεῖν, καὶ τῇ μὲν μητρὶ συντάξασθαι, τῷ δὲ πατρὶ προσρυῆναι, ὅπερ πέπονθεν ἡ παροῦσα χήρα, πᾶσαν ὑφ' ἓν ἀναδέχεται τὴν ὀδύνην.

Μόνον γὰρ τέθνηκεν ὁ μονογενὴς υἱὸς τῆς μνημονευθείσης χήρας, τὴν στολὴν τοῦ πένθους ἠμφιεσμένη, ἤρξατο προπετῆ φθέγγεσθαι ῥήματα, καὶ ὡς ἀκρίτῳ τῷ ὄντι ἐδικάζετο, βλασφήμους λόγους προσάγουσα· ὡς βίαν ὑπομένουσα διελέγετο, λέγουσα· Ἆρα ὁ υἱός μου μόνος τὸν κόσμον ἐβάρησεν; Ἄλλοι στενοχωροῦνται ἐπὶ παιδοποιίαις, κἀμοῦ τῆς μόνης ὁ μόνος ἀπεσπάσθη; Ἐγὼ ἡ ἄτονος ζῶ, καὶ ὁ ἀνὴρ τέθνηκεν ἅμα καὶ ὁ υἱός. Ποῦ λοιπὸν παραινέσει μέ τις; τίς δέ με περιβλέψεται; Ἐδόκουν κἂν μικρὰν παῤῥησίαν δι' αὐτὸν κεκτῆσθαι· ἤρκει γάρ μοι μόνον μητέρα ἀκούειν. Ὑπομάζιόν μοι αὐτὸν ὁ πατὴρ ἄνευ χρημάτων ἐγκατέλιπε· κἀγὼ ἡ ἀπροστάτευτος χήρα χεῖρας εἰς ἔργον ἐρείσασα, τοῦτον ἐπιμελῶς ἔθρεψα· διπλᾶς καὶ τριπλᾶς αὐτῷ στολὰς πεποίηκα, μισθοὺς τοῖς παιδεύσασιν αὐτὸν ἁπλῶς ἐχορήγησα· καὶ νῦν, ὅτε τὸν τρυγητὸν τῶν ἀγαθῶν προσεδόκησα, τότε τὴν χάλαζαν τῶν πειρασμῶν δέδεγμαι. Ὢ τῆς ὀδύνης! Ἀλλ' εὗρον τί πράξω· συνθάπτομαι τῷ υἱῷ μου· πληροφορῶ τοὺς φθονήσαντάς μοι· συγγενεῖς με κατήσθιον ὡς ἀνδρεῖον παῖδα κεκτημένην. Συγχωρήσατέ μοι, πάντες οἱ βασκαίνοντές μοι τὴν εὐπαιδίαν· ἤδη γὰρ ἐγὼ τοῦ γνησίου μου παιδὸς προκαταλαμβάνω τὸν τάφον· ἐμοὶ γὰρ λοιπὸν τὸ ζῇν καταγέλαστον.

Ταῦτα τῆς χήρας βοησάσης καὶ ὀδυνωμένης, εὐθέως παραγενόμενος 61.792 ὁ ποιητὴς ἡμῶν Χριστὸς ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ δὼν αὐτὴν, ὁ τὰ πάντα προορῶν Θεὸς, ὁ καὶ πρὸ τοῦ ποιῆσαι τὰ πάντα σαφῶς ἐπιστάμενος· Πρὸ τοῦ γὰρ πλάσαι σε ἐν κοιλίᾳ, ἐπίσταμαί σε, καὶ πρὸ τοῦ ἐξελθεῖν ἐκ μήτρας, ἡγίακά σε· ὁ πατὴρ τῶν ὀρφανῶν, καὶ κριτὴς τῶν χηρῶν, ὁ τὰ δάκρυα εἰς εὐφροσύνην μεταποιῶν, ὁ τὴν τῆς πόλεως Ναῒν πύλην ἐκκλησίαν ποιήσας, καὶ τὴν κλίνην τοῦ νεκροῦ θυσιαστήριον ἀποδείξας. Ὅπου γὰρ ἀναστάσεως δῶρον, ἐκεῖ θυσιαστηρίου κόσμος· καὶ ὅπου τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου αἱ χεῖρες ἐκτείνονται, ἐκεῖ τῆς ἀναστάσεως τὸ μέτρον ἐκτετέλεσται. Τὸ γὰρ ἐξόδιον γέγονεν ἱερουργεῖον, καὶ ἡ ἐκκομιδὴ γέγονεν εἰσκομιδή. Τί γάρ φησιν ὁ Εὐαγγελιστής; Ἰδὼν δὲ αὐτὴν ὁ Ἰησοῦς· τουτέστιν, ὁ Σωτὴρ, καὶ ὁ Θεὸς Λόγος, ὁ Χριστὸς, ἐσπλαγχνίσθη, ἰδὼν αὐτήν. Τί ἰδών; Χήραν ἄτεκνον, ἄνανδρον γηραλέαν, κυρτίζουσαν, γοερὰν, κόμην ἑλκύσασαν, κόνει τὴν κεφαλὴν καταπάσσουσαν, τοὺς βαρυωπεῖς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐκτυφλώττουσαν, ἀπρεπῆ στολὴν διαῤῥήξασαν, τὸ πολυστένακτον στῆθος τύπτουσαν, καὶ βοᾷν μηκέτι ἰσχύουσαν, φρενήρη λοιπὸν γενομένην. Ἐν τούτοις ἰδὼν αὐτὴν ὁ Ἰησοῦς, ἐσπλαγχνίσθη ἐπ' αὐτῇ, καὶ προσελθὼν εἶπεν αὐτῇ· Μὴ κλαῖε. Ἡ δὲ περὶ τὸ πένθος ἀσχολουμένη, εἰλικρινῶς μὴ κατανοήσασα τὸν παραγενόμενον, τὸ πένθος ἀποσεισαμένη, πρὸς τὸν Κύριον ἀνταποκριθεῖσα εἶπε· Μὴ κλαίειν λέγεις μοι; καὶ τίνα μοι παραμυθίαν προσοίσεις λοιπόν; κἂν γὰρ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον κινήσῃς εἰς ἐμὴν παράκλησιν, οὐδεμίαν μοι δείξεις παράκλησιν. Τῆς γὰρ μητρικῆς παρακλήσεως τί υἱοῦ ὑπάρχει γλυκύτερον; καὶ μάλιστα, ὅτε χῆραι ὑπάρχουσι, καὶ μονογενέσιν υἱοῖς ἐπαγγέλλονται. Πῶς οὖν μὴ κλαίειν λέγεις μοι; Τὸν υἱόν μου οἱ ξένοι πενθοῦσι, κἀγὼ μὴ κλαύσω; Οἱ λίθοι στενάζουσι, κἀγὼ σιωπήσω;

Ἡ ἐλπίς μου ἐστέρηται, ἡ ζωή μου ἐξέλιπεν, ἡ παῤῥησία μου σεσύληται, ἀνέλπιστον ἐμαυτῆς θεωρῶ τὸν βίον, καὶ γυμνὴ πάσης ἐλπίδος εἰμί. Ἐθέρισέ μου τὴν προσδοκίαν ὁ θάνατος· ἄπορόν με πανταχόθεν κατέστησεν· ἐμὲ κατέλιπε, κἀκεῖνον μεθώδευσεν· ἀφῆκε τὴν ῥίζαν, καὶ τὸν κλάδον ἀπέτεμεν· ἐφείσατο τοῦ πρέμνου, καὶ τὸν ὡραῖον ἐμάρανεν ὄρπηκα· τὴν παλαιὰν κατέλιπε, καὶ τὸν νέον ἐξέτεμεν. Οὐκ ἔχω τίνα θεάσωμαι. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἕτερον εἶχον υἱὸν, ἐδυνάμην τὸ πένθος ζυγοστατεῖν, καὶ τῇ ὄψει τοῦ ζῶντος τοῦ θανόντος τὸν πόνον ἀποκουφίζειν· νῦν δὲ οὐδέν μοι