32d Sunday of Ordinary Time
Nov. 6, 1994
Mark 12: 38-44
1 Kgs 17: 10-16
St. Anthony, Nanuet, N.Y.
Since
I was preaching to Boy Scouts and Scouters on Nov. 7 this year (previous item),
I didn’t have a written text for my homily (on the reading from Hebrews this
year). Here’s an oldie for you.
There
was a working man with a wife and 4 kids.
One day one of his neighbors took off, abandoning his family. The poor deserted wife couldn’t handle the
situation and had to be committed. The
worker and his wife took into their home the 2 children of the shattered
family. He explained: “Don’t tell me that it’s up to the government
to change the world! Every one of us has
to do a little more than the little we already do. [What my wife and I have done] isn’t much, I
know, but at least it’s something!”[1]
It’s
true that this worker and his wife and their 4 children didn’t open an
orphanage or a homeless shelter to care for hundreds of the needy. But most of us would agree that they did a
great deal, probably more than most of us would do.
Almost
daily we read or hear of some ordinary person who reaches out, perhaps with
some risk, to help a neighbor or even a stranger—pulling a woman from a burning
wreck on the Cross Bronx Expy., jumping into a river to save someone, holding a
mattress so a woman can jump safely from a burning building, blocking and
holding an ATM mugger inside a bank lobby.
Those real-life examples from the last 2 months or so may not be as
flashy as tackling a madman with an automatic rifle at the White House, but
some were just as dangerous, most saved a life, all made a positive difference.
In
today’s OT and gospel readings, we find widows who put their trust in God and
do their little bit. The starving widow
of Zarephath—who was not even an Israelite, by the way—shares her last
miserable little meal with the prophet Elijah, who is a refugee from the
wealthy but wicked Queen Jezebel of Israel. And God miraculously provides for the widow,
her son, and the prophet for a year.
 |
| Elijah & the Widow by Bartholomeus Breenbergh (d. ca. 1657) |
The
poor widow in the temple
of Jerusalem puts 2
pennies into one of the boxes for the support of the temple and its daily
sacrifices, in contrast with many far wealthier people who were putting in
larger amounts. Jesus praises her because her sacrifice is much more than
anyone else’s. Implicitly she, like
Elijah’s widow friend, has abandoned herself to God. Not many wealthy people do that in the
gospels, and Jesus warns his disciples that consequently it’s very hard for the
rich to enter God’s kingdom.
God
has called all of us, rich or poor, to put our trust in him and to be saved in
Jesus Christ. But trust, or faith, has
to be more than an act of the intellect, more than words. In the 1st part of today’s gospel, Jesus
warns us about the scribes, the theologians of his day, the men who knew all
about God and his law but who did little to practice it, whose faith was
centered not on God but on themselves.
(Kind of reminds you of politicians talking about American ideals, vs.
what they actually do, huh?)
So
our faith has to lead to action, like the 2 widows sharing their meager
resources, like the worker and his family taking in someone else’s children,
like ordinary people taking risks because other ordinary people are in
danger. We can’t say, “I’m not rich
enuf,” “Let the government do it,” “So-and-so is better at it than I am.” God expects us to do our little bit in faith,
whether it’s giving alms, sharing our time, offering expertise, consoling,
encouraging, sharing our faith.
The
one widow found deliverance because she shared her handful of flour and few
ounces of oil with Elijah. The other
widow won Christ’s praise for her sacrificial generosity. Remember them the next time you have the
opportunity to reach out to the homeless, the hungry, the exile, the
missionary, the parochial school child.
The psalm said it is the Lord who secures justice for the oppressed,
feeds the hungry, sets captives free, protects strangers (Ps 146:7,9). [2] When we do the same, even according to our
limited abilities and with our limited means, we are doing his work.
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