Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time / Msgr. Owen F. Campion
The Sunday Readings
The First Book of Kings furnishes this weekend’s first reading from the Scriptures.
Political governance, in the minds of the ancient Hebrews, was not the chief function of their kings. Rather, assuring the nation’s faithfulness to God and to the law of God given through Moses was their kings’ primary duty.
Since this religious function was so vital, it is not surprising that many stories in the Books of Kings do not revolve around the monarchs, but around the prophets who were active at the time.
Such is the case this weekend. The central figure in the story is Elijah, the prophet. In this story, Elijah appears at the gate of a city, and encounters a woman collecting twigs and branches to use as firewood.
She obviously is quite poor. She must forage for fuel. She needs food to provide for her son. The impression given is that she is a widow, and her son is a child.
In fact, she is so poor that she tells Elijah that after she and her son consume whatever she can bake using the meager amount of flour and oil on hand, they will die of starvation because there is no more food for them to eat the next day.
Elijah tells her that she and her son will not die. He says that if she will feed the prophet then God will provide for them. The story ends by relating how she prepared food for Elijah. Because of her generosity, her flour and oil never ran out again.
The prophet calls her to trust in God’s love and mercy.
For its second reading, the Church this weekend gives us a passage from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews.
Building upon traditional Jewish themes, the author writes about Jesus in the most soaring language.
The reading declares that God has ordained that all people must die, but God also has ordained that all people may live if they turn to Jesus.
This is possible because of the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary, and because of the reality of Jesus as a human and as the Son of God in the mystery that theologians call the Incarnation.
St. Mark’s Gospel offers us the last reading.
It is a familiar story, appearing also in the Gospel of St. Luke, but not in St. Matthew’s Gospel. In the story, the Lord speaks quite sternly about scribes.
Scribes were able to read and write in an era when religious knowledge mattered more than anything else, and they were specialists in interpreting the Law of Moses and well regarded as such.
Jesus does not belittle the Law of Moses, but calls attention to the self-satisfaction and even sinful pride of the scribes.
He presents a contrast. At the time, in that culture, widows could be very vulnerable. The poor widow who gave a small donation to the temple, which was a great sacrifice for her in her poverty, is the paragon of love for God and trust in God. Jesus spoke of her as such.
Reflection
The widow’s mite is a Scripture story that has been beloved by Christians for generations. It is a story of generosity. Even sinners, however, at times can be generous.
This widow’s generosity is a sign of her trust in God and her understanding that the work of God on Earth—such as the worship provided through the religious treasury—was entitled to her cooperation.
Trusting in God has its challenges. The times may be uncertain, leading us to fret about warnings and dire possibilities in the future. As in everything, the world, the flesh and the devil distract us.
The wise are humble. Humility is about recognizing that we belong to God, and that God is supreme.
The wise place their trust in God. We can never fully control our futures in this world. Reversals may, and usually do, come to us at some time in our daily lives.
But we can assure for ourselves a place in eternity by never failing to love God and obey God. †