Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
This election, both the presidential candidates together spent close to two billion dollars on their election campaigns. This is just the spending on the presidential election. Closer to home Sherrod Brown and Josh Mandel spent $ 60 million on their campaigns. I find it difficult to imagine what $ 2 million looks like or for that matter what 60 million would look like. All that money was spent to assume an elected office! Let me change the scene. School kids often write to me when they give their tithe envelops. One kid wrote: “Dear Father, you may not have heard m in Church today because my voice is hoarse because I am sick. (I had to go to school today because my mom and dad are at work, I am glad I did so I could go to church). But I did try to sing loud today Could you hear me? Probably not. At least you know now that I tried, right?” Another letter was a prayer. This kid started writing the ‘Our Father,’ went all the way up to “as we forgive….” And then she writes, “I can’t go on. God knows what I mean.”
Obviously the huge election spending and the letters seem unconnected. I will draw the connection between them later. There are also two stories in today’s gospel reading: one of the scribes who yearn for honor, status and power, and the other of poor widow who put everything she had into the treasury. These stories too seem unconnected. As we read these stories we are compelled to find the deeper meaning of these stories. Let me just make one observation before we do that. In the Biblical times, widows occupied the lower rungs of the social ladder. They were counted among the aliens/gypsies, the poor and the orphans. Precisely because they were perceived as weak and unable to take care of themselves, the Law provided for their sustenance and allowed them special privileges (Deut 24:17 – 27:26). In contrast, in today’s readings, the poor widows are portrayed as women of strength. They were small and insignificant in their respective societies but powerful as they live out faith in God.
- The stories of the widows in contrast with the story of the scribes offer us a good insight into the mind of God. Of all the people that the prophet Elijah could have approached in Zarephath for food, he approached this poor widow. The fact that she was collecting firewood told him that she was poor. He could have gone to other influential people in town who could have provided for his needs. Jesus too, as he sat observing by the treasury, took notice of the poor widow rather than all the others who put in large sums. These two stories are not accidental to the scripture. God has a special love for the poor and the weak. Abraham was childless when God called him. The Hebrew people were slaves when God chose them. Moses was a fugitive when God made him a prophet. David was a shepherd when God anointed him king. Mary was poor teenager when God chose her to the mother of his Son. To top it all, Jesus was born in a stable, became an immigrant and led the simple life of an itinerant.
When I look at my own life, I am not poor. I am not rich but I certainly am not poor. If Elijah had to come today, would he come to me? Would he come to you? If God was looking for someone to accomplish an important task would God choose me? Would be choose you? I don’t know the answer to this question but I think that scripture is telling me that even if I am not poor, I must be like the poor. Luke said, “Blessed are the poor,” and Matthew said. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” What does it mean to be like the poor or being poor in spirit?
- The second reading from Hebrews provides us an answer to the question we ended the first point with. The author o Hebrews tells us about high-priests who would enter into the holy of holies in the temple of Jerusalem to offer the blood of animals as sacrifice. And then came along Jesus. He did not end up in the temple but on the cross. He did not offer the blood of animals but his own life as a sacrifice. He was not just making an offering. He was giving everything he had – his last breath and his very last drop of blood – to God. He was the Son of God. The earth on which he walked was created through him. And yet, Jesus lay did not lay claim to his divinity. His life was completely, totally and radically available for God. And that is what it means to be poor or poor in Spirit. To be poor means that we recognize that everything we have is a gift from God. Your spouse, my priesthood, our families, our world, our labor, our homes our savings, our health, our capabilities and our faith… to be poor means that we, like Jesus, we do not lay claim to any of it, but rather, that all that we have and all that we are we can be completely, totally and radically be available to God.
- Jesus in today’s reading from Hebrews teaches us one other virtue. When he came to us as a man he lived like we do. Even though he was God, he recognized that without his Father, he was nothing. When Satan tempted him in the desert with power, glory and the possibility to be like God, he resisted because then it would be idolatry. And this is a huge lesson for us. To limit God from what is God’s gift to us in the first place is the equivalent of idolatry. Selfishness is a form of idolatry. That was the problem with the scribes in today’s gospel reading. They wanted places of honor. Even their donation to the temple was for self-gain. This is idolatry. In contrast when the poor widows made themselves totally available, God was able to work wonders through them. Jesus too, because he lay his life at the altar of the cross he was able to save us all. So I want to repeat the question I asked before. If God was looking for someone to do an important work would God choose you or me? The answer depends on how much like the poor widows or poor in spirit we are willing to be.
As we celebrate this Eucharist, we do not offer silver or gold. We offer simple bread and ordinary wine. That is what Jesus has asked us to do. And see what God can do with them. They become for us the means of our salvation. May be become what we eat and drink. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph