Homily: Thirty-second Sunday Year B

 

Reading 1: Elijah has prophesied that God would cause a drought over Israel for three years. He is led by the Spirit to Zarephath to provide for him during the drought. There he has a diving encounter. By God’s providence he encounters a widow with a son. She is in a desperate situation and he is in need. He is thirsty and hungry. She and her son are also hungry, about to eat their last meal before the oil and flour run out.

 

Elijah asks her first for a cup of water and also for something to eat. The widow responds in truth. She has enough to feed herself and her son one last meal. Then Elijah speaks a word of prophesy. “If you make me a cake first, then the oil and flour will not diminish until the drought is over.” As a desperate women, concerned about her son, she could easily have ignored these words. She didn’t know this person.  However, the grace of God moved her to do what Elijah had said to her. She trusted the word of the Lord to her. As a result, for over a year the prophetic word was fulfilled.

 

It is easy to trust in God in good times; it is harder to do so in difficult times. To believe on the word of God and to act upon it is an act of faith. God said to Elijah that he would provide for him and he did. God said he would provide for the widow and her son and he did. The miracle was not the providence of God, as much as that was a miracle. The miracle was the trust that Elijah and the widow put in the word of God and acted on it. To what extent do we truly trust in God for everything. We are called to hear his word, to act on it and to totally depend upon God.

 

Gospel: The widow in the Gospel connects us to the widow in the first reading. The focus of the parable in action is 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 God. On the other hand, the crowd gave from their surplus out of obligation to the law of tithe. But what they gave did not make them any more dependent on God.

 

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, show a trust and dependency upon God, who has provided for us to have what we have.  Though in actual value, what she gave in comparison to the others was nothing. But in the eyes of God she gave more out of a generous and dependent heart. She gave her tithe to God first, trusting in God’s providential care for her

 

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?

 

Reading 2: This reading gives us the ultimate reason we have in trusting God. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, not only have our sins been forgiven, but we also share in God’s divine 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 our life it’s true meaning. Jesus gave his all for us, holding nothing back

 

The completion of that grace of salvation will only be experienced by those, who eagerly await him. We are saved but our salvation doesn’t come to perfection until we respond to Jesus and are sharing in his divine life at the moment of his coming.