Monday, November 5, 2012

11/11/12 – 32nd Sunday in ordinary time – 1 Kings 17:10-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44


         A widow is saving her last portion of flour for her final meal; she uses that flour to make bread to feed the prophet Elijah.  And in the midst of the scribes wearing luxurious robes and sitting in the places of honor, a poor widow very generously and graciously puts her livelihood, two small coins, into the Temple's treasury.  Just as these two widows make sacrifices, Christ takes away our sins by the sacrifice he makes.  How do these readings speak to us today in the realities we face in our lives of faith?  What do these readings tell us about the importance of giving and how we are called to give? 
         If many would consider the gift of the poor widow's mites as meager or insignificant, why would she make any gift at all?  If it didn't matter to the treasury, wouldn't she be better off keeping that money for herself and for her own needs?  If she had let the rich and the well-off make all the contributions themselves, couldn't she have kept her pennies and invested them for the future?  But perhaps the widow realized in her heart that by not keeping her mites to herself and instead giving them to the Temple, she was worshipping God and giving glory to God, which is what she did in this humble act. 
         There can be different motivations behind our giving, whether our giving be big or small.  For example, we could give resentfully, hating to part with what we give, doing so begrudgingly.  We can give out of shame, feeling that we need to keep up appearances, to give so that others won't look down on us.  We can give in a calculated manner, thinking we will get something back in return, looking out for our own benefit.  But we can also give out of quite different motives: we can give out of thanksgiving, giving out of the blessings that God has given to us, giving in thanks for God's generosity in our lives.  Why else would the widow give her last mites, her whole livelihood, to the Temple treasury, to the house of God, if it wasn't out of thanksgiving? What is the motivation for what and how we give in our lives?  Do we give mostly out of shame or begrudgingly, or do we do so out of the thanksgiving that we feel in our hearts?
         You know, we can always find excuses not to give.  Many times those excuses are very legitimate.  But look at the widow in our first reading.  King Ahab ruled over Israel in those days. The book of I Kings tells us that Ahab worshipped foreign gods and did more to provoke the anger of the Lord than all the kings of Israel before him.  Elijah went to Ahab, telling that as a punishment for turning away from the Lord, the land of Israel will suffer a drought for years, until Elijah's word tells the drought to stop.  So, here is this poor widow and her son, starving because of the drought that Elijah declared.  And here is Elijah, asking her for her last little portion of food that she and her son are going to eat before they starve to death. Her portion of food is so small that it will not even stop her starvation.  And perhaps her husband even died in this drought.  Who would blame this poor widow if she resisted Elijah's request for a meal, if she didn't want to share the little that she had.  She is desperate, as she initially refuses Elijah’s request, but she listens to God's will, feeding Elijah from the little that she has. What this widow does is way beyond an act of kindness, far more than mere generosity: this is a remarkable act of faith.  First, she resists Elijah's request, but then she accepts God's will in faith. 
         Perhaps we can identity with the two widows in today's readings.  In the two years I have been here at the parish’s in Yazoo City and Belzoni, I have seen many acts of kindness and generosity, seeing families make sacrifices in order to help others and to do God's will in their lives.  But maybe today’s readings are really asking us to look inside of our hearts and to see the way we live out our faith.  Perhaps, if we look into our hearts, we can also see a little bit of the scribes within us as well.  There are probably times when we do honor God with what we have to give, from our talents, from our treasures, from our time.  Yet, there also may be times when we fight the will of God for us in our lives. This can happen when we're afraid, when there's uncertainty in our lives and in the world around us, when we have no idea where we are going. 
         You know, we have talking about Vatican II and the Year of Faith, and one of the things Vatican II advocates is greater involvement on the part of the laity.  We are the Church, and whatever happens at Church is dependent on how much we want to get involved and want things to happen.  Our youth are doing a lot now, and that is because of how Michelle Rutledge, Melissa McGraw, Cynthia Brown, and Jessica Sanderfer and getting them engaged and having activities for them.  For along time, Natalie and Marian have been doing the mass of the anointing luncheons, and now that they have to cut back, we need to have others pitch in to help.  Our Halloween Carnival took a lot of work this year, and it was because of the adults and the youth that were committed to that event that it happened this year.  So when we hear about the two widows in the readings today giving of themselves, it is not only from a financial standpoint that we give, but of our talent and time as well. 
         Our readings today give us a lot to think about in how we give in our lives of faith.  May the way we give in our lives truly reflect our journey of faith, may it give glory to God and reflect God's will for our lives.  

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