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Thirty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

Thirty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

Thirty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
I Kg 17.10-16; Ps 145; Heb 9.24-28; Mk 12.38-44

1. In today’s Gospel, Our Lord is teaching the people in Jerusalem, and all of us, about generosity. A few years ago, the difference between the rich putting in a great deal and the poor widow putting in a penny might have seemed to us an exaggeration. However, statistics today reveal that while the developed nations become wealthier, many of the less-developed nations are being left further and further behind. Even in our own country the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer.

The Sunday newspapers love to publish lists of the seriously rich, some of whom love to flaunt their fortunes. We live in a climate of acquisition of wealthy and maternal possessions, the urge to earn more, have more property and get a higher rate of return on investments, where the needs of the poor rate low among the wealthy nations’ interests and priorities.

2. Before speaking about the poor widow in today’s Gospel, Jesus criticised the motivation of the scribes. He accused them of making a public show of praying in order to win people’s respect and approval. “What hypocrites! We would never behave like that!” But can we be so sure? Hmm! I suspect that most of us, if we were to come into serious money, would want to show it off. This materialistic climate we live in leads us away from the spirit of generosity which Our Lord commends in the poor widow. “I tell you, this poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed to the treasury.”

The more interested we become in acquiring more, the more likely we are to become like the rich whom Our Lord criticises: “they have all put in money they had over.” By contrast, although in terms of counting the collection, the “widow’s mite” would hardly be noticed, in Our Lord’s eyes, “this poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed.”
3. Many otherwise good and faithful Catholics still adopt the small change approach when it comes to the Sunday collection – they put in coppers, or silver at the bottom of the pocket or purse. In Our Lord’s eyes, the value of this gift to God’s Church depends on how poor or rich the donor is.

For many people the loose change is a tiny proportion of their weekly income and expenditure. In general, we spend the most money things we think matter most. Calculate approximately what percentage of your weekly income and expenditure you are planning to put in the collection today. Look at this percentage with Our Lord beside you and ask yourself whether it truly reflects how important He and His Church are to you. The widow’s gift sprang from a generous heart. “From the little she had, she has put in everything she possessed, all she had to live on.”

This total generosity is the theme in all the readings at Mass today. In the First Book of the Kings, Elijah’s visit to the widow encourages her to offer him the very last food she and her son have to live on; by God’s providence this was a turning point, and the food was not exhausted.

4. In the Letter to the Hebrews, the writer considers the self-sacrifice of Christ: “He has made His appearance once and for all… to do away with sin by sacrificing himself.” There was no limit to the generosity of God the Son when He became incarnate. He died in innocence and in agony for every one of us.

There was no limit to His love then and there is no limit to His love now. He loves us whether we are generous or mean, whether our lives are driven by the materialism of our century or by spiritual values. Yet His teachings and His life call out to us to imitate His generosity of heart in whatever way we can. Total love and generosity on His side call at least for an attempt to grow in generosity and love in our Christian lives.

5. It is probably true that living in an increasingly materialistic society of money and designer labels makes authentic Christian generosity harder to cultivate. So we must work harder at cultivating it – this is part of our particular calling as twenty-first century Christians. We can begin in practical, manageable, achievable ways. A glance through the Calendar for November reveals a number of saints noted for their practical generosity.

Saint Martin de Porres, working in Peru in the 16th Century among the poor and outcast: “these he worked for to the limits of his abilities, offering them every help and tenderness until he truly deserved his popular title, Martin the Charitable.” St Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan noted not only for being an outstanding administrator, but for risking his life to take Holy Communion to those sick with the plague, while many of his clergy had fled the city.

Saint Martin of Tours, immortalised in art dividing his cloak in order to give half to a cold beggar. Saint Margaret of Scotland and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, both rich women, who devoted themselves to caring for the sick. Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions, who gave their lives as martyrs in Vietnam, the supreme act of generosity. All these saints lived in total generosity of heart, developed by the practice of prayer and by individual acts of love, generosity and self-giving.

6. Many died bravely in a conscious act of sacrificing their own lives for the principle of lasting peace. Many more were caught up in a national mood of shared endeavour to uphold freedom and justice. Today we pray for their souls; we can perhaps also learn from the sense of community endeavour and unselfishness which existed in wartime and try to recapture something of this spirit in our own time. Perhaps you can add your own inspiring instances of Christians in our own generation who live unselfishly and generously. It is up to us to choose which examples inspire and move us to respond to God’s love for us in Christ, to the total generosity of Our Lord.

But there is a more serious choice to be made between the world and the gospel. Our Lord has not called us to remove ourselves from the world in the desert or in an enclosed community of monks or nuns – except perhaps that He may call some of you to that life – but has called us to live in the world in a Christian way.

A way that sees others’ needs before our own. A way that does not rely on designer labels and material possessions. A way that leads us closer and closer to His Sacred Heart, wounded for us. May our participation in Our Lord’s sacrifice in this Mass help us to make an act of will to live more generously for Him.

OSHO

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