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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Gregory of Nyssa
When He said, Young man, He signified that he was in the flower of his age, just ripening into manhood, who but a little while before was the sight of his mother's eyes, just entering upon the time of marriage, the scion of her race, the branch of succession, the staff of her old age.
Cyril of Alexandria
He performs the miracle not only in word, but also touches the bier, to the end that you might know that the sacred body of Christ is powerful to the saving of man. For it is the body of Life and the flesh of the Omnipotent Word, whose power it possesses. For as iron applied to fire does the work of fire, so the flesh, when it is united to the Word, which quickens all things, becomes itself also quickening, and the banisher of death.
Titus of Bostra
But the Saviour is not like to Elias mourning over the son of the widow of Sarepta, (1 Kings 17) nor as Elisha who laid his own body upon the body of the dead, (2 Kings 4) nor as Peter who prayed for Tabitha, (Acts 9:40) but is none other than He who calls those things which be not, as though they were, who can speak to the dead as to the living, (Rom. 4:17) as it follows, And he said, Young man
Western Saints
Ambrose of Milan
This dead man was borne on the bier by the four material elements to the grave, but there was a hope of his rising again because he was borne on wood, which though before it did not benefit us, yet after Christ had touched it, began to profit unto life, that it might be a sign that salvation was to be extended to the people by the wood of the cross. …
Bede
And he approached and touched the bier. But they who carried it stood still. The bier, on which the dead person is carried out, is the badly secure conscience of a desperate sinner. And those who carry it out for burial are either the unclean desires which drag a person to perdition or the poisonous flatteries of deceitful companions, which indeed augment sins while they elevate them with favors, and bury the sinners under contempt, like a heap of earth. Of these it is said elsewhere: "Let the dead bury their own dead" (Matthew 8). …
Bonaventure
And because it is fitting that the effect of work accompany the affection of the heart and the utterance of the mouth, therefore he adds: And he came near and touched the bier, to show to all his kindness, by which he does not despise the dead, since according to the Law one who touches a dead person would be unclean, as is said in Leviticus twenty-one; and so that by touching, not by commanding, he might humbly make the bearers stop. …
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