Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, gives us the allegorical reading of today's Gospel.
He tells us that, like the widow of Nain, the Church, too, weeps for her children, her children who are dead in sin.
He tells us that without the Church, we cannot be raised to new life, and we cannot persevere in that new life that we receive through the sacraments of the Church.
St. Ambrose says, although there is grave sin that you cannot wash away yourself by tears of penitence, let Mother Church weep for you, she who intercedes for all as a widowed mother for only sons, is she who suffers with spiritual grief of nature when she sees her children in death through mortal sin.
If you allow the Church to weep for you, already at your funeral you will arise, already you will be released from the sepulcher.
Those who attend your funeral will stand still, you will begin to speak words of life, and all will be amazed, for very many are corrected by the example of only one.
They will praise God, who has bestowed upon us such great aid for the avoidance of death.
So the widow of Nain symbolizes the Church, which weeps for her children, but also offers her children new life through the sacraments, baptism first and foremost, to receive that life for the first time, but then the Holy Eucharist and confession.
Although there is grave sin that you cannot wash away by yourself with the tears of penitence, with the help of the Church and the sacraments of the Church, we can overcome sin, whether it be mortal or venial, by frequent confession, by frequent Holy Communion, we can overcome sin.
We cannot do that without the Church, we cannot do that without the sacraments.
But then there's one more step, there's another layer, because the fathers of the Church, whenever they see the Church, they see Our Lady, when they see Our Lady, they see the Church.
Our Lady is the mother of the Church.
So there's another step here.
The widow of Nain symbolizes the Church, but the Church reaches its perfection in Our Blessed Lady.
So devotion to Our Lady is also indispensable to overcome that sin, which without the Church, without Our Lady, we cannot overcome.
St. Maximilian Kolbe says, let us pray, let us pray well, let us have this devotion to Our Lady, let us pray to her with our lips and with our thoughts, and we shall experience in ourselves how the Immaculate will take increasing possession of our souls, how our belonging to her will deepen more and more in every respect, how our sins will vanish and our flaws will weaken, and how gently and powerfully we will come ever closer to God.
Devotion and of all the devotions to Our Lady, the most perfect one, consecration to Our Lady, is the key to overcoming all sin and to overcoming it thoroughly, completely, and to replacing it with virtue.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.