Breaking Open the Word - 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B
32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B - November 7th, 2021
Elijah Receiving Bread from the Widow of Zarephath by Giovanni Lanfranco
This Sunday’s Scripture readings focused our attention on the virtue of generosity – even when we do not feel that we have much to give. We began our discussion with the first reading, the famous story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. One Sister shared an interesting insight about the widow’s miraculous supply of flour and oil: the Lord promises to sustain the supply, but nowhere does He say that the jar and jug will be full. Sister suggested that perhaps this was to prompt an ongoing response of faith on the part of the widow. Each day it would appear that she only had “a handful of flour” and “a bit of oil” left, and she would have to renew her trust that the Lord would, indeed, continue the miracle. How often He acts the same way with us! God always gives us the grace we need for today – but not for tomorrow! He asks us to live trustingly in the present moment, confident in His Fatherly care for us, relying upon Him rather than upon our own resources.
Continuing on the theme of faith, we discussed how both Elijah and the widow are models of this fundamental virtue. The passage immediately before this story shows that the land is undergoing a severe drought, and when Elijah’s food and water fail, the Lord sends him to Zarephath, promising that a widow will provide for him. Prophet though he is, Elijah is still called to act on pure trust in God’s word. All circumstances and human prudence seem contrary: how could someone as poor and marginalized as a widow give him what he needed? And why would a Gentile have any respect for an Israelite prophet? Yet we hear no word of complaint from Elijah. He obeys the command of the Lord, and as a result three lives are saved: his own, the widow’s, and that of her son (whom the prophet also later raises from the dead!).
For her part, the widow is not a member of the people of God, and yet she seems to have some knowledge of and trust in the One she calls “the LORD, your God.” Only such faith could prompt the incredible openness she demonstrates to Elijah’s prophecy, hastening to do what mere reason would consider absurd. And, as we know from the rest of the reading, her obedience is richly rewarded. In fact, this widow’s story is later referenced by Jesus Himself as a model of faith!
The Widow’s Mite by James Tissot
Moving on to the Gospel, we shared about the beautiful meaning hidden in the well-known account of the “widow’s mite.” Here we have another poor widow who shows great generosity despite a lack of material means, and for this she earns the praise of Christ. How different God’s way of thinking is from ours! As one Sister noted, the amount of the gift is utterly irrelevant to the Lord, Who has no needs whatsoever; the One Who “looks into the heart” is concerned rather with the spirit animating the gift. Perhaps this is why the prophets often speak of sinful Israel’s sacrifices as being unacceptable to the Lord. There is nothing wrong with the offerings themselves – on the contrary, they have been commanded by God Himself – but far too often the people began to think that they could compensate for their own lack of virtue by making a more valuable animal sacrifice. Over and over again, God condemns this perennial human temptation to glorify the external and neglect the internal. “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” the Lord cries out through the prophet Hosea. This could make a good examination of conscience for each of us: Where have I tried to substitute superficial expressions of virtue for the “real thing?” How is God challenging me to change?
Finally, we spoke about practical ways in which we can imitate the poor widow who gave “out of her poverty.” Perhaps we are not materially poor, but all of us live with limitations and unmet needs of one sort of another. One very frequent example is what we might call “poverty of time.” In an ever-busy world, we are frequently left with very little free time, and we tend to guard it jealously. But at times, God may call us to sacrifice this precious “me time” for the good of another, perhaps to do some work of charity and help out someone who is even more burdened than ourselves. We can rest assured that this “giving out of our poverty” will not go to waste – after all, our Lord is never outdone in generosity!