Homily Thirty-second Sunday Year B Trust in the Lord
Homily
Thirty-second Sunday Year B
Reading
1: Elijah has prophesied earlier that God would cause a drought over Israel for
three years because of the sins of the leaders and people. The prophet is led
by the Spirit to Zarephath, a pagan town. There a divine encounter takes place:
two desperate people, himself and a widow with a son. He is thirsty and hungry
and she and her son are hungry and about to eat their last meal before the oil
and flour run out.
Elijah
first says to her: “Do not be afraid.” Elijah then asks her for a cup of water
and then for something to eat. Remember she is a pagan, not an Israelite. The
widow responds in truth, acknowledging the little she has just for herself and
her son. Elijah speaks a word of prophecy, calling her to trust in God’s
providential care for her and her son. “If
you make me a cake first, then the oil and flour will not run out until the
drought is over.”
A
desperate woman could have taken care of herself and her son first, but a woman
of faith trusted in the word of the Lord to her and her child accordingly. She
responded in compassion and trust. As a result, over a year the prophetic word
was fulfilled. In choosing to be generous and to make a life-threatening
sacrifice she was blessed.
It
is easier to trust in God in good times; it is harder to do so in difficult and
desperate times.
Reading
2: The author gives us the ultimate reason we can trust God. Through Jesus’
death and resurrection, not only have my sins been forgiven, but I share in God’s
life and in eternal salvation.
Jesus’
one offering of himself on the cross for my sake out of love and in total
surrender to the will of the Father has given life its true meaning. Now, we
await for the second coming with eagerness. The completion of Jesus’ gift of
salvation will only be experienced by those who eagerly away him. We are saved
but our salvation doesn’t come to perfection until we respond to Jesus and at
the moment of our death are still responding to him.
Gospel:
Again, we have the witness of a widow given to us. In the Gospel we are given
the contrast between the widow and the others making their offerings in the
Temple. Like the widow in the first reading, she gave everything, trusting in
the providential care of the Lord. She gave from her need, quietly and
unnoticed.
On
the other hand, the crowd gave from their surplus and maybe out of obligation
to the law of tithe. But what they gave did not make them any more dependent on
the Lord. The trust of the widow is the trust God is looking for from each of
us—not that we give everything as much as we, in our giving, express our trust
and dependency upon God. This is in response to the awareness that God has
provided what we have.
The
widow was not only materially poor—because she was a widow with no one to care
for her—but also she was poor in spirit. She reflected the first Beatitude. True
disciples of Jesus are able to make themselves vulnerable in front of God, able
to give the best part of themselves. If we are humble like the poor widow, whose
name no one knows, then we will be noticed by God, who will raise us and reward
us according to our sacrifice.
How
often are we afraid to truly trust God completely? What is it that I am still holding
on to that prevents me from totally surrendering myself to God? How dependent are we on the Lord? Do we give
to him first or afterwards? Is God the recognized and acknowledged source of
all that we have? Can I be as stalwart as the first widow and generous as the
second? We can’t on our own but in him, who strengthens us, we can.
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