St. Francis de Sales provides an interesting observation related to Our Lord calling the son of the widow at Naim, “young man”…
“…Our Lord said, “Young man, I bid you, get up.” It is a little difficult to understand whom He is addressing as “young man.” The deceased was certainly not so, wither in body or in soul. The soul is neither old nor young. It neither grows nor recedes; it is in no way affected by time. The body was no longer young. Being dead, it was nothing but a corpse. Now inasmuch as this dead man’s soul was impervious to change, and inasmuch as a body, separated from its soul, is nothing but a corpse, to whom then was Our Saviour speaking when He said, “Young man, I bid you, get up”?
Here is the explanation of this difficulty. This deceased man was not a youth either in body or in soul. Therefore, Our Lord was not speaking to him as if he were, but only as to an object to which He wished to give life. He is demonstrating here His almighty and efficacious word, a word that effects what it says. [Ps 32 (33):9; 148:5]. As soon as the Saviour pronounced these words, “Young man, I bid you, get up,” he who was not a youth became one.
By an all-powerful word God created Heaven and earth. He brought forth being from non-being, since this word is efficacious, effecting what it says. By that word, it made that which is not to be that which is. [Rom. 4:17; 1 Cor. 1:28]. But to whom is He now speaking? To a dead man. The dead do not hear. Who, then, will answer Him? He speaks to this dead man as if he were living, to indicate that the voice of God is heard not only by those who have ears, but also by that which is not. By this He shows that He is powerful over things both created and uncreated. So efficacious is His word that if He speaks to uncreated things, they answer Him by coming into being.
The Saviour also desires to speak to this dead man as if he were living in order to help us understand the manner in which we will rise. On the day of judgment, or shortly before, the Archangel will come. [1 Thess. 4:16]. By God’s order he will say, “Arise, you dead, and come to judgment!” And at the sound of this voice all the dead will be raised [1 Cor. 15:52] to be judged. But to whom will the Archangel speak? To the entombed dead, to rotting flesh, for our bodies are nothing more than rottenness when they are separated from the soul. And why does the Archangel speak to those cadavers, which are wholly reduced to dust and ashes? Does he not know that the dead hear nothing? And if he does know it, why then does he command them thus: “Arise, you dead”? How can they arise, since they have no life? Yet it is certain that the Archangel will speak to these dead bodies. Spoken by God’s order, this word is so powerful and efficacious that it gives life to those without it. Spoken, it does what it says, and from that which is not it brings forth that which is. Thus, these dead, though once reduced to ashes, will rise or be raised up in body and soul and be truly alive once again, just as Our Lord, by His own power, raised Himself on the third day.”
Source: “The Sermons of St. Francis de Sales for Lent”; Sermon for the Thursday after the 4th Sunday of Lent, March 10, 1622 -- “Proper Fear of Death” (pages 132-133); TAN Books & Publishers, Inc.; copyright 1987
Photo by Sergey Shmidt