Sunday November 11, 2018 32nd Sunday Ordinary Time (Cycle
B)
A Tale of Two Widows
The tie in between
today’s readings: Getting a happy ending
Psalm 146 starts out singing heartfelt
praises to the Almighty God for being an abundant helper. It recounts God’s
resume of great works: the blind see, the hungry are fed, wrongs are made
right, and much more. Anyone who has
prayed for and gotten a miracle shares a bond with the Psalmist for their happy
ending. Many of us though, don’t get the answers to our prayers that we want.
It seems God is not listening. Why can’t we be like the lucky ones? Is there a
magic God formula that we need to follow? Does God play favorites? Let’s
explore this question by comparing the two widows in our readings today.
It hadn’t rained for a long time and
everyone was suffering. The Lord had provided for his prophet, Elijah, up until
now, but even the brook that was sustaining him dried up. Now, God tells him to
go to, of all people: a poor Gentile widow in Zarephath! Here is a key. God
tells Elijah that He has commanded
her to provide for him. Apparently, she did not get the memo because when he
finally gets there, he finds her preparing the last of her rations for her
family’s final meal and he wasn’t on the guest list. Elijah has learned by now
that God doesn’t send where He doesn’t provide. He confidently assures the
widow that if she bakes him some bread first, then God will provide for her and
won’t let the supply of flour and oil run out. With nothing to lose in her
desperate situation, she complies, a happy ending ensues, and she comes to
faith in the God of Israel. She writes a book “Psalm 146 and Me”, makes the
rounds on the talk shows, has it turned into a movie, and lives comfortably off
the royalties. Alleluia! This is the feel good kind of God story we crave, not
only for the widow, but because it gives us hope that one day we too may be a
winner in life’s lottery. Now, let’s take a look at widow number two in today’s
reading in Mark’s gospel.
Jesus finishes condemning the Pharisees
for, among other things, devouring widow’s houses. Then, He sits down with his
disciples and watches the rich Pharisees make an impressive display of their large
contributions to the Temple treasury. They astound the people with their
apparent generosity and holiness. Then a poor widow, who most likely had her
final means of support taken away from her by those self same Pharisees, drops
her last two mites into the chest. Jesus
applies God’s heavenly multiplier to her contribution and commends her for
giving more than anyone else. What becomes of the destitute widow now that she
has laid everything on the altar? We hope that something miraculous happens to
her as a reward for her faith and dependence on the Almighty. Most likely
though, nobody cares about her, she starves to death, and Psalm 146 seemingly
mocks her by the lack of a happy ending.
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So, why the disparity? Psalm 146 has two levels of meaning: physical
and spiritual. Yes, God does rescue the desperate out of their circumstances.
We hear stories about people escaping perils by the help of strangers only to
conclude afterwards that they were with angels. You most likely can recall an
event in your life and wondered if God was in it. Jesus was rescued from treacherous situations
because His time had not yet come and that’s the point. Miracles aren’t done
for miracle’s sake. God intervenes in the physical world in order to promote a
heavenly agenda. The passages of Psalm 146 take on more significance in the spiritual
sense.* We ought to view them more as salvation metaphors than mere physical
deliverances. After all, what lasting good is in the physical? It all ends.
Even those amazingly rescued in the Bible eventually died. Christ’s purpose was
to die as a sacrifice that could satisfy man’s sin debt to God (Hebrews
9:24-28). So when He asked His Father in heaven to rescue Him from His fate in
the Garden of Gethsemane, the answer was “NO!”
We must have faith in God through the
trials of life knowing that all things will work together for good. Even though
He slay me, yet I will hope in Him (Job 13:15). Let us remember that for every
Joseph released from prison, there is an executed John the Baptist. For every
David that slays a Goliath, there is a martyred Stephen. For every Isaac spared
from a sacrificial knife, there is a Christ with a spear in His side. (Praise
God for that!) Jesus triumphed over our greatest adversaries: Sin and Death. In
this world we will have tribulations, but we are more than conquerors in Christ
(Romans 8:37). It’s the focus on the spiritual that gives us the confidence in this
physical world to face the lions…singing. God did not rescue Jesus, so He can
now rescue you. Come to Him for salvation and have a real happy ending.
*See Mass Prep for Sunday September 9, 2018
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