Thirty-second Sunday in
Ordinary Time
You go back into that first
reading from the First Book of Kings.
Here’s Elijah the prophet. He’s
been sent by God to this little town near Zarephath. And he’s very hungry. And as the reading points out he comes across
this widow who is at the last moment of her existence probably. As she says “I’ve been going out. All I have is just a little flour and a
little oil in my jar. I’m going to
prepare the last meal for me and my son and then when we finish that last meal,
that’s it, we’ll probably die.”
Now you would think the
prophet would say, “Well golly, I’ll work a miracle and we’ll get you some more
food.” What does he say? He says, “Give it to me.” Taking the last meal that this widow and her
son was going to have and he says, “I want it all, you just give it to me. And trust that somehow you’ll come out
okay.”
So she has to have somehow a
faith or a trust that God will get it to her.
Get something back to her. And of
course she does that. She fixes the food
for the prophet Elijah. And what happens
then? She and her son were able to eat
for a whole year. The jar of flour did
not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry.
The next part in that particular reading from the Book of Kings is not here but
her son gets sick and she feels that this must have been a punishment. Maybe she didn’t trust enough. But Elijah the prophet does heal her son in
the name of God.
So what’s the bottom
line? I think it’s trying to say that we
can never outdo God in generosity. And
really the foundation for any generosity or giving is gratitude for the many
gifts that you and I have. So the
foundation for generosity is a prior gratitude for the gifts given. And I’m sure that each and everyone of us
here tonight, if we really sat down and were honest with ourselves, we would
find that there are many things in our lives that we need to be grateful
for. Clothes, food, shelter, the people
around us, our families, our education, living in such a beautiful country at
this as well, the beautiful weather today.
When we become grateful then we realize that as we have been given we in
turn will want to be generous with our own times, talents and energies for other
people.
That flows through the beautiful
imagery of this poor woman who just puts in perhaps the last few pennies that
she had. And again probably she must
have had a deep faith that somehow God would make it up for her. It doesn’t say that but how could she put
just what was her emptiness and then walk away, and yet she seems to have done
that.
And Jesus says, “Look at
her!” What an example. What a way to live. That even when you’re down and out and you
have nothing left you’re still willing to give something of what you do have.
I guess I think of it this
way, think of the people, perhaps you and I, who perhaps are down and out. We
think we have nothing left to give.
Little remains perhaps inside of ourselves physically, emotionally. Perhaps even spiritually we’re drained, we’re
running on empty. And then somehow
somebody else comes to us and says, “I need a little of your time. I need you to listen to me. Could you help me? Would you be there for me? Could you give me a ride? Could you stay one little more moment to be
with my children while I do this?”
Whatever it might be. When we are
perhaps at our emptiest moment someone calls on us and says, “Could you give a
little more?” What happens, we do dig
down a little bit deeper and we pull up something else. And what happens? Grace is reborn.
God’s magnitude, God’s love
somehow gets back to us in ways untold.
Because then when you’re in that situation, you need help. Who do you usually go to? You go who somebody else who knows, who’s
been there just as you and they help you.
It always comes back around
I keep thinking about this
woman in the gospel, the widow in the first reading. And I had a wonderful woman in my life, my
mom’s older sister. We called her Aunt
Frankie. Frances was her name but we
never called her Frances. It was always
Aunt Frankie. Aunt Frankie never
married. She lived for a while, as a lot
of the Irish did in those days with her other siblings. Three or four of them lived together who had
never married and they took care of their mother, my grandmother. What I found out after a lot of years later,
that it was my Aunt Frankie who paid my tuition all the way through grade
school, high school and college because for my mom and dad, there’s no way they
could have afforded it. Especially when
I went into the seminary and my brother Harry was ahead of me and now they had
two tuitions to pay. It was my Aunt
Frankie, very quietly, without any fanfare, never asked anything for it, but
she did it. She’s an example to me
really when I think of this idea of generosity is all about. Somehow in her own life she realized that she
had been blessed. Whatever God had given
to her she in turn wanted to pass on, to give to other people.
I hope you have somebody
like that who has crossed your path already.
Maybe it was an uncle or an aunt, maybe a grandparent, maybe somebody
else who is a stranger. But I can tell
you I’ve been reading a lot of letters from people with our stewardship appeal
and many of these people are writing back saying, “I can’t give any more. I’m living on my pension or my Social
Security. These are the only things that
I have left but I will do what I can.”
One person enclosed a check and said, “Here’s what I have been able to
save but I want the church to have it.”
I read some of these letters and I sit there so humbled by the
generosity and sacrifices that your fellow parishioners are making because they
really are giving of their whole life.
That’s what the gospel
message is about. Think about it this
way too. You know God gave all He
had. He gave His won son Jesus. And Jesus gave all He had, His very life that
you and I could have the gift of eternal life.
So as you and I have been
given let us be grateful and let us in turn then see how generous we can be
with our time, our talents, energy, perhaps too with our own financial
resources if that’s in the picture as well.
But the important thing, we give from our hearts. We give because we know that God will get it
back to us a thousand fold. We’ll never
outdo God in generosity. That’s been
proven time and time again. And I know
that in my life so many times that I
think, “Oh gee Pat, you’ve done so much, you give so much.” And then I look at what somebody else is
doing and I say, “Oh whoa, I’ve got a long ways to go. I can’t even hold a candle to what some other
people do and give.”
So let’s not feel sorry for
ourselves and let us be grateful. Let us
in turn then be grateful for all the many good people that God has given to you
and to me. Maybe go back home tonight,
take out a little time and just think of all the people that have walked into
your life, how they blessed you, encouraged you, gave you hope and comfort and
consolation, gentleness. Maybe they
didn’t have any money but they gave you their time, they gave you their
heart. What is the bottom line? They gave you God’s life so be grateful. Then somehow in the course of this week I’m
sure that each of will be called upon in some way to do the same or to be the
same for somebody else. All you need sometimes
is just to listen or hold out a hand or to say a prayer. But boy God will make good use of it and God
will get it back to you and me.