32^nd Sunday in O.T. (B); 11-07-2021

1 Kgs 17:10-16.  Ps 146.  Heb 9:24-28.  Mk 12:38-44

Deacon Jim McFadden

            If some roving reporter came up to our Lord today and asked, “Jesus of Nazareth: in one succinct sound-bite, what’s your message?”  In response, he may have said, “My message is my life.”

            Whoa, Jesus could get away with a statement like that because he is the Son of God and the Son of Man (the theological expression for that is the hypostatic union).  As such he is fully realized, fully integrated because he is God in the Flesh!  So, the thoughts of his heart and the words on his mouth and the way he lives are in perfect harmony.

            Concurrently, Jesus perfectly lives the Great Commandment: he loves God his Father with his whole heart and soul and his neighbor as himself.  There is no discrepancy.  That’s why Jesus is really attuned to hypocrisy and a lot of his teaching deals with the unmasking of hypocrisy of the religious establishment—which brings us to today’s Gospel reading, which contains two contrasting figures: the scribes and the poor widow.

            Why are they counter-posed?  The scribes represent people who are important because they are wealthy and have influence; the other person—the widow—represents the anawim, the least and the poor.  Jesus is not against the religious establishment per se; after all he was a practicing Jew!  But, he is in opposition to those who flaunt their social status, embellish their reputation with a lofty title of ‘rabbi’—that is, teacher—who loved to be revered and take the best seats whether it be the synagogue or the banquet table (cf. Mk 12: 38-39).

            What’s worse is that their ostentation is derived from religious impetus: they do pray, but they do so for the wrong reason: “for a pretense (they) make long prayers” (v. 40).  And, what’s worse is that they use God to gain respect for themselves as the defenders of the law.  In other words, through religious trappings, they are really about themselves: self-love, self-absorption has replaced love of God.  That why they liked long robes, admiring salutations in the market place, and the best seats is the house.

            Would they love their neighbor?  Only if they’d get something out of it.  Their attitude of superiority and vanity causes them to look down on those who count for little, who aren’t a member of the privileged class.  If they were poor, like the widow, or who were diseased, malformed, or public sinners (read: prostitutes), they’d have nothing to do with them because they wouldn’t want to risk ritual purity.  The result of all this was hypocrisy, pretense, and duplicity.  And, Jesus sees right through it.

            Jesus exposes this perverse mechanism: he denounces the oppression of the weak carried out misleadingly on the basis of religion!  More to it, Jesus declares that God is on the side of the least.  To drive home his point to his disciples, he draws their attention to a living example: the poor widow.  In a kinfolk society, she has no social position at all because she has no husband to defend her;  so, she’s easy prey to unscrupulous creditors—the ancient version of scam artists who try to take advantage and fleece the elderly.  

            So, this woman goes to the temple treasury and divests herself of all her support.  She gave “two small coins worth a few cents,”  which probably made a tinkling sound when it was cast into one of the metallic trumpet-shaped containers. According to Jesus, this was “all that she had, her whole livelihood” (v. 44).  Brothers and sisters, in her very humility, she is performing an act of profound religious and spiritual significance.  She is making an offering of pure sacrifice: she is giving all that she has; indeed, she’s giving all of herself. 

            Her sacrificial gesture does not escape the gaze of Jesus, who understands where the widow is coming from and he wants to draw the attention of his disciples to her self-giving gesture.  You see, brothers and sisters, God does not measure quantity, but quality; he looks into the purity of our intentions which is why God accepted the offering of Abel, but not Cain’s.  This means that our giving to God in prayer or giving alms to the poor, should always steer clear  of going through a religious check-list or to make ourselves feel good.  We need to go beyond calculation, but as an expression of mercy and grace. 

            Isn’t this what Jesus does for us?  He saved us freely, asking nothing in return but our Faith.  So, we must live our lives as gracious self-giving.  That’s why Jesus points to the poor and generous widow as a model of Christian life.  We don’t know her name, but we do know her heart: like Jesus, she was giving all that she had.

            People of God, generosity shown in the Gospel (as well as our first reading), is about a radical kind of giving: it is religiously inspired and it comes from those who have the least to give.  This kind of giving requires that one go deep down into the inner recesses of their heart and soul, to strip themselves of everything they cling to, and to selflessly give of themselves because they trust that God is with them sustaining them with a love that is boundless.  They give themselves away and, in so doing, God fills that empty hole. 

            Church, these stories are about heroic generosity.  And, as we stand before these readings, we are challenged to do the same.  Amen.