I will sometimes lie down on the
couch, or the floor, to watch TV at night, and often when I do, I will fall
asleep. Well not too long ago I had
fallen asleep on the couch and woke up in the middle of the night and the TV
was still on, and there was one of these late-night infomercials on. They weren’t selling some gadget or exercise
machine, no, their pitch went something like this – if you’re down on your luck
and at the end of your rope financially, all you have to do is make a
contribution to our TV ministry so we can spread the word of God. I watched with interest for awhile, wondering
what sort of contribution they were requesting.
And then they gave the number – if you want to gain God’s good favor and
finally have some success financially, all you have to do is send us
$1000. If you don’t have that kind of
cash, we gladly accept VISA, MasterCard and American Express. I heard that and my jaw just dropped – I
couldn’t believe it. And I got mad. I got incensed. These people, going on television and taking
advantage of people in their financial stress, all in the name of God and Jesus
Christ.
It’s that sort of thing, I
think, that Jesus is talking about in the first part of this Gospel. Beware of the scribes who wear long robes and
say long prayers and then “devour the houses of widows” Beware of those who are
taking advantage of those who are most vulnerable, the most destitute. And make no mistake, a widow was the most
vulnerable and destitute person in society in Jesus’ time.
To fully understand these
readings, we need to explore what it meant to be a widow in Jesus’ time. It was a time in which women basically had no
rights, including inheritance rights, and a time in which women did not, could
not, work outside the home. A woman
depended completely on her husband for her sustenance. And if a woman lost her husband, with no
inheritance rights, she’d have to rely completely on the generosity of her
family or community. It’s a picture of
complete dependence. Complete reliance. Of complete trust.
So Jesus is teaching that if the
scribes, or you or I for that matter, are to take advantage of someone in such
a dependent, vulnerable state, a severe judgment will come upon us. Indeed, we are called to the opposite –
we are called to protect and defend the rights of the vulnerable – the poor,
the elderly, the unborn, the underprivileged in our society. We are called, in fact, to give them
preferential treatment. It’s known as
the preferential option for the poor.
Pope Benedict has said “love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the
sick and needy of every kind, is as essential as the ministry of the
sacraments and preaching of the Gospel.”
But at the same time as He gives
a warning to the scribes, Jesus shines a spotlight on the attitude, the faith,
of this poor widow. See this widow? This woman who has almost nothing? She just dropped her last two cents into the
collection. She gave all she had. She’s gonna have to rely on God, on others’
generosity, for her next meal! So
not only does this woman live a life
of complete dependence, of complete reliance, she has an attitude of
complete reliance. And that’s the
attitude that Jesus is inviting you and me to take on in this Gospel. An attitude of complete reliance. Of complete trust. Of complete surrender.
Contrast that, if you will, with
the attitudes that I think many of us have, certainly that I often have. One is sort of an attitude of my rights,
of entitlement if you will. And that can
show up in multiple ways. One way is
this: I worked hard for that money so
I’m entitled to do with it as I please.
I’m often guilty of this one. I work
long hours and sometimes have to sacrifice seeing my wife and kids, so whatever
success I’ve achieved I’ve earned, I get to keep.
There’s another attitude of entitlement
and it goes like this. The government has
made all these promises to me about benefits I’m gonna get, and darn it, I’m
gonna get what I’ve got coming to me!
BOTH
attitudes, it seems to me, if I really ponder Jesus’ words in my heart, are
contrary to the message Our Lord has for us today.
For by putting the spotlight on
this poor widow, Jesus is calling us, I think, to transcend these
attitudes and take on an attitude of dependence, complete reliance, on
God. An attitude where we realize that
everything we have, everything we are, is a complete gift from God. Everything is God’s gift. Including the work ethic and the smarts and
the luck that helped me to succeed. An
attitude that says that there is nothing I have, or am, that didn’t come to me
from God.
When
we realize that everything is gift, we start to trust God and completely rely
on Him, and trust that He will continue to provide. Provide maybe not necessarily what we want,
but trust that God will always provide what we need. And when we place our trust completely in
God’s providence, we can’t help but to be thankful. A humble, trusting heart simply has to be a
grateful, thankful heart.
Third,
like the woman in today’s Gospel, we become more and more generous. We
realize that we are stewards o f that which we’ve been given, and we freely
give away, trusting that God will provide.
The widow in the Gospel had a few small coins. She could have held one or two back, but she
gave them all away. The widow in our
first reading had just a handful of flour and a little oil left, yet she freely
gave it away. You see, a trusting and
thankful heart leads us to be completely generous with those gifts God has
given us. God has generously given to us
so, trusting in Him, we give away, we give back.
So
as we prepare for our Sacrament of thankfulness, the Holy Eucharist, the
Sacrament of Christ’s goodness and generosity, let us pray that God will give
us new hearts. New hearts that are trusting
hearts. Thankful hearts. Generous hearts.
In
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
* * *
* * * *
As
a reminder, as we heard in the announcements, we have an opportunity next week
to demonstrate our gratefulness and our generosity. Our neighbors just 350 miles to the Southeast
are suffering greatly in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Thankful for our relatively mild weather here
in Irondequoit, and hearing Christ’s commandment from last week’s Gospel that
we love our neighbor, I urge you to be generous when the second collection is
taken next week to assist with the Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. Thank you.
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