THE THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – B 11/8/09
Leave a CommentNo one said it would be easy. Jesus didn’t when he invited those first ones to come and follow him. He didn’t when the crowds and the disciples gathered around him and he taught them what being a disciple would mean. And if the Good News is being proclaimed with sincerity and truth, you won’t come away from the preaching saying there is no big deal here. Much less will you think that anybody can do this, be a disciple, and go on living life as it was lived before you met Jesus.
By now in this Church’s Year, having journeyed this far with the Gospel of Mark, you realize that the Year is coming to a conclusion with the celebration of the Feast of Christ the King in just a couple of weeks. The questions you have to ask yourself are: How have I been changed? How am I different from what I was when the Year began? How you respond to the Liturgy of the Word for this Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time will tell you a lot. If you have sat under the Word each Sunday of this year and been open to it, you will notice a change – provided, of course, that you remember where you were inside when you began the trek. And regardless of where you are at this point, remember that conversion is a life-long process. God’s grace and the Holy Spirit will not be finished with you until you breathe your last in this world and hasten to the Kingdom that is dawning.
How much do you trust in God? What place does God occupy in your life? That’s not easy to say, unless you have been through a period of trial. The widow of Zarephath, in the first reading, has been living through a season of famine and draught when Elijah happens upon her as she is gathering sticks for a fire to be laid in her hearth. Widows, remember, are among the most vulnerable and dependent people in the Hebrew Scriptures. Often their very survival rests on the kindness and generosity of neighbors. This widow expects to use the fire for the preparation of one last meal for herself and her son and then await death. That meal will be a hearth-cake made from the last bit of oil and flour in her possession. Did we say she was desperate?
Elijah, the prophet of God, asks her to first make a cake for him and bring him some water to go with it, then she can tend to her son’s and her own needs. When she hesitates, Elijah tells her to be confident: The Lord, the God of Israel, says, The jar of flour shall not go empty; nor the jug of oil run dry until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth. Her decision turns about her trust in the Prophet’s word and in his God. Remember, Zarephath is the god Baal’s territory. The Widow might not even know the God of Israel. But she trusts, does as she is asked, serves Elijah, and neither the flour nor the oil runs out before the drought ends.
This reading will resonate with you only if you have known difficult times and have had nowhere to turn. Have you known what it is like to have your faith tested to the breaking point? Then you understand the widow’s desperation and the magnificence of her response. This reading challenges all of us to trust and believe in the God of the Israelites, and to believe that this God has sent Jesus who is the Bread of our Lives. This reading challenges us to remember that what will strengthen us along the way is the Bread that is given to us each time we celebrate Eucharist. That will never fail. Of course you do realize that if we take and eat the Body what will be expected of us in return is that we will allow ourselves to be broken and distributed until all have been fed.
The widow is the link between the first reading and the gospel where we experience the witness of another widow. But before that we are confronted by Jesus and have to ask what kind of witness are we giving as Church. As often is the case in the gospel, the scribes are held up before us as examples of how we are not to live if we are disciples. Clearly these people were stuck on themselves, as we would say today, and gloried in their image of bounty and success. They loved to be praised and never felt that praise to be an exaggeration. They exploited those they should have served – the widows and probably the orphans too. They are not bent on serving but on building up their own fortunes and living the good life.
Please God, that does not resonate with your own experience of Church. The condemnation with which Jesus threatens the scribes reflects that that awaits those who exploit positions in the Church. Ambition has no place among the baptized who are all called to live their priesthood, to live a life of service and ministry to those who are in need. We must never forget that we are a servant Church. Our greatest ambition in the Church is to be feet-washers, the lesson we learned on Holy Thursday. Any other ambition is fraught with danger. Can you hear that? It’s okay if you cannot. But sit with the idea. Let it wash over you and wear down your resistance. That’s how grace works.
So we come to another widow, this time in the area of the Temple treasury. Apparently it was the custom for the people to make their offerings there the way we make ours when the basket is passed during the time of the preparation of the gifts at Sunday Mass. As is true today, so was it in our Lord’s time. Some of the wealthy love to be conspicuous in their offering. The wealthy would dump their coins with loud clamber to the amazement of those standing around. Jesus notes that they gave from their surplus. In other words, they had plenty more where that came from. Do you know that if all the families in a parish tithed, that parish would have plenty to take care of the administration of the parish and support missions of outreach as well? There are parishes where such giving is the norm and they can attest to what I am saying here. Do you give from surplus or from substance? Just a question to ponder and about which to pray. Then, when you are ready, ask, what is the Lord expecting of his disciples?
And this is where the widow comes in. No one in the Treasury area is paying any attention to her. She has no celebrity in the community. No one clamors after her asking for her autograph. She has no significance to those who should be giving her primacy of place among them. In the midst of the hubbub, she makes her way to the offering box and drops in two small coins, all she had, her whole livelihood. And Jesus says: This poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. She gave of her substance. Do you think she was a believer in God and trusted in God’s promises?
Nearing the end of the Church’s Year as we are, The Liturgy of the Word confronts us and dares us to consider where we are on our faith walk. Have we grown in our desire to imitate Jesus, to live our baptismal priesthood? Whose giving does ours imitate – the wealthy scribes or the poor widow’s? Have we grown as a servant people? Are all welcome when we assemble? Is the love in the assembly’s welcome tangible?
We gather to celebrate Eucharist. Jesus gives his very substance to be food for our journey. There is promise in that. Each Eucharist makes the whole Church present and all are fed. This meal foreshadows the banquet that Christ is preparing for us at the Lord’s Table in heaven. Now if you are wondering who can do what Jesus expects? Who can live this kind of life of charity and service? The answer probably is, very few, maybe none, on their own. But, remember what Paul said when he pondered that question in his own life: I can do all things in him who strengthens me. All we have to do is let go of our fears and trust that Jesus meant it when he said he would be with us until the world ends.
Sincerely,
Didymus
