The Widow's Mite

                                    32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

                                  

            

Today’s first reading from the Book of Kings tells the well-known story of Elijah, the greatest of the Hebrew prophets, and a poor widow and her son who are about to die of starvation.  A drought has caused famine in the widow’s city and she and her son have lost all hope. 

Nevertheless, Elijah asks her for food and drink and promises that the Lord will not let her and her son starve.  She bakes her last bread and gives it to Elijah, and sure enough her jar of flour does not go empty. 

In today’s gospel Jesus notices another poor widow near the Temple treasury. Although wealthy citizens are obviously putting large sums into the treasury, Jesus points out that though the impoverished widow has deposited only two small coins, she has contributed more than all the others. She had made the ultimate sacrifice. She had given all she had, “her whole livelihood” while the rich had only given from their surplus.

This story reminds me of the days I used to help count the Sunday collection proceeds in my own parish. We would separate the cash from the envelopes and then open each envelope and record the contributions. Every Sunday one woman would just put a couple of small coins in her envelope. It could be that she was just thumbing her nose at the pastor, but I like to think that what she gave meant a lot to the woman. It always reminded me of the widow in today’s gospel. 

Today, in reflecting on the gospel, it seems to me that the Temple treasurer should have returned the widow’s contribution, and given the poor woman much more in return for her great gift.  Unfortunately, in those times and in ours, officials seem to be much better at taking in money than giving it out. In the first part of the reading Jesus tells his listeners to beware of the scribes, the temple officials who lord it over others. 

Beware of the scribes, who like to go about in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplace, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets. They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext recite lengthy prayers.

In another place Jesus told his disciples not to become like the leaders of the Gentiles who lord it over their subjects. Their mission was to serve. Unfortunately, today many leaders in all denominations are little different from secular officials who live high on the hog, and seek to be served rather than to serve the people they have pledged to serve. They are public servants in name only.

A few years ago I visited the Cathedral in San Francisco, a huge architectural masterpiece that must have cost a fortune to build. Unlike the cathedrals of old, there were no crowds of pilgrims streaming in and out of this gleaming modernistic structure. It was virtually empty. The early cathedrals were signs of humility since they were built by the sweat and labor and contributions of ordinary people. The new cathedral in San Francisco seemed built by arrogance and pride.

In today’s second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, we are told that “Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands.” All of our churches today contain sanctuaries made by human hands but we must realize that the real sanctuaries in the church are the ordinary people in the church who have given themselves in the same way as the poor widow in today’s gospel. 

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Reading 1.  1 Kings 17:10-16

Reading II. 9: 24-28

Gospel. Mark 12: 38-44 (The Widow’s Mite)

The Greatest Commandment

                                    31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

                              

            

Today’s first reading from the book of Deuteronomy contains the famous saying that every Jew would have known by heart during the time of Jesus. 

Hear O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone!

Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, 

with all your heart,

and with all your soul,

and with all your strength.

How were the Jews to love God, the God who had delivered them from their captivity in Egypt? Moses told them to keep the statutes and commandments which the Lord had given them. We know that after the time of Moses the original Ten Commandments had grown to more than 600, an incredible array of do’s and don’ts that put a great burden on the people.

However, in today’s gospel passage a Jewish scholar asked Jesus  “Which is the first of all the commandments?” As usual, Jesus chose to simplify and get right to the true spirit of the Law. In his reply Jesus combined two verses from the Hebrew Scriptures, the first that we heard above from Deuteronomy, and the second from Leviticus, 19: 18. 

You shall love the Lord your God,

With all your heart,

With all your soul,

And with all your mind.

This is the greatest and first commandment.

The second is like it:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

He combined them because his life and mission showed that the love of God and the love of neighbor went hand in hand. One is not possible without the other.

How do we love a God who we cannot see or hear? Jesus insisted over and over again that we love God in loving our neighbor. Perhaps mystics and great saints can see more directly but for ordinary people the more we love our neighbor, the more we love God.

But who is our neighbor? Please notice that Jesus did not tell us to love everyone willy- nilly. I once heard a story of a man who loved mankind in general but despised every individual he ever met. A feeling of love for humanity in general is not what Jesus talked about. On the contrary, Jesus always directed his love at individuals directly in front of him. He really meant it when he said love your neighbor.

Our closest neighbors are those entrusted to our care: our parents, our spouses, our children, our sisters and brothers. If we can’t love them, who can we love? It is really sad sometimes to see people neglect their own families for the sake of some seemingly noble cause. 

Loving those closest to us means helping to lift  the burdens that life has placed on them. As children we often thought that our parents were placing unnecessary burdens on us, but we rarely thought about the burden we placed on their shoulders. How often did we neglect to pitch in and help? Why do husbands and wives often make each other’s life harder when it is so much easier to share the load? Even Seniors, who should know better, often place unnecessary burdens on their grown children.

What are friends for, if not to help us share the burdens of life? What kind of love is it that constantly makes demands on others without lifting a finger to help? Actually, the more we love those closest to us, the more will we be able to love others. 

We know that Jesus extended the very meaning of neighbor. In the famous parable of the Good Samaritan, he asked, “who was neighbor to the man”? It was the Samaritan who cared for the Jewish man who had been beaten and robbed despite the animosity between Jews and Samaritans. It is hard to imagine the Samaritan stopping on the road to help a stranger in distress without believing that he had experienced real love and caring in his own family and neighborhood.

Jesus showed us that the way to love God is through the love of our neighbor. All that we do for those entrusted to our care and protection, we do for Him. 

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Reading 1.  Deuteronomy 6: 2-6

Reading II. Hebrews 7: 23-28

Gospel. Mark 12: 28-34 (The Great Commandments)

All Saints

                                    All Saints Day

                                   

Rose Window
Assumption Church
Fairfield, CT

The month of November is sometimes called the month of the dead. As we look around we see the leaves falling from the trees, the sun riding lower in the sky and setting earlier and earlier. Animals are preparing for the long cold winter. The Church year also follows the cycle of nature. We begin this month with the great feast of All Saints, and then remember all the departed on All Souls day. Throughout the month we will remember our beloved departed and at the end of the month we will celebrate the feast of Christ the King where we will come face to face with the end of the world and the Last Judgment.

This weekend’s two great feasts deal not with death, however, but with triumph over death. The first reading for All Saints day is taken from the Book of Revelation. In his vision John sees an angel who holds off the powers about to destroy the world.

Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees

Until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.

John numbers these servants as 144000 but who takes time in a vision to count. Twelve is the mystical number that signifies completeness and 12 times 12 equals 144, as if to say completeness squared. Multiply 144 times 1000 and we realize that the vision includes a multitude. John says as much in the next verse,

After this I had a vision of a great multitude,

Which no one could count,

From every nation, race, people, and tongue.

The gospel for All Saints is the account of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus identifies the Blessed who will inherit the Kingdom. The are the poor in spirit, they who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.

The second reading for All Saints is from the first Letter of John. John identifies the saints not as marble or plaster statues but as the children of God. He says “we are God’s children,” and as such holds out the hope that we all can become like our Father in Heaven.

High up on the wall in the back of many churches, we can observe a great stained glass window that is often called a rose window because it is shaped like a flower with a central core with twelve petals surrounding the core. In the core there will be either the figure of the resurrected Jesus, or the symbolic Lamb of God. Symbols of each of the twelve Apostles will be found in the petals. There is that number 12 again signifying that the Apostles represent all the saints. Like the Apostles the saints were ordinary men and woman who by the grace of God were able to overcome their weaknesses, and become good and faithful servants.

In a small chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome the great painter Caravaggio portrayed two of these ordinary men across from each other. He portrayed St. Peter about to be crucified at the end of his mission, and St, Paul at his conversion, the start of his mission. He portrayed them as ordinary human beings like us or our brothers and sisters who are being persecuted even today all over the world. 

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PS. Halloween has become a huge secular holiday today but the name just means "the Eve of All Hallows" or the evening before the feast of All Saints. Hallows, like in hallowed, is an old english word that means good or saintly.

Reading 1. Revelations 7: 2-4, 9-14

Reading II. 1 John 3: 1-3

Gospel. Matthew 5: 1-12a (Blessed are the…)

Bartimaeus, the Blind Man

                                    30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

                                 

Stained Glass Window
St. Joseph's Basilica
Alameda, CA

            

Today’s first reading from the book of the Prophet Jeremiah is about the Lord’s deliverance of his people from slavery. He speaks of an immense crowd finally able to return to their native land. 

Behold, I will bring them back

From the land of the north;

I will gather them from the ends of the world,

With the blind and the lame in their midst…

In today’s gospel reading from Mark we can see that the cure of one blind man by Jesus is a fulfillment of the prophecy. Bartimaeus was the blind man’s name. Actually “bar” means “son of” and so the poor beggar is only identified as the son of his father, Timaeus. Bartimaeus is begging at the entrance to Jericho when he hears that Jesus is passing by followed by a large crowd.  He raises his voice and says, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” 

We are told that people tried to stop his shouting but he persisted until Jesus stopped and called for him. Immediately, the man jumped up and approached Jesus who simply asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” His reply is simply, “Master, I want to see.” Mark does not bother with any details but only indicates that a few words from Jesus were enough to enable Bartimaeus to see. “Go your way, your faith has saved you.” 

Jesus said that it was the faith of Bartimaeus that saved him and allowed him to see. But Bartimaeus could not see until he encountered Jesus on the road to Jericho. How do we encounter Jesus today in our ordinary lives? If we have faith, we will encounter Jesus at every Mass. Our faith tells us that Jesus is really present in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Moreover, we also believe that at the Consecration of the Mass, the actual priest is Jesus himself who offers Himself for us in the same way that he offered Himself on Calvary. 

If we think about it, we can also encounter Jesus throughout the Mass. So many prayers are directed to him, and we have his own words and deeds in the gospel reading. After the Second Vatican Council the Church revived the Kiss of Peace, an ancient practice that had largely gone out of use. In past times the priest would bow and kiss the altar. The altar represented Jesus and it was understood that the priest was actually being kissed by Jesus. The priest would then turn to a deacon and pass the kiss of Jesus to him while saying, “Peace be with you.” The deacon would then go into the congregation and ask them to pass the kiss of Jesus on to their neighbor. 

If we could only see today that when someone offers us the Kiss of Peace or even a handshake, it is actually Jesus offering his hand to us. The Kiss of Peace is a blessing and we are being asked to bless our neighbor. For all we know, that neighbor could be a real saint, or at least someone doing the Lord’s work in their own little way. On the other hand, we might be passing the blessing to someone who needs the healing of Jesus as much as Bartimaeus did

Today, many people like to think of Jesus as a good man and a fine teacher. Despite the accounts of miracles like the one above, they find it hard to see that Jesus is something else. Such was not the case with the people who witnessed these miraculous healings as well as with the early followers of Jesus. In our second reading today, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews calls Jesus a High Priest, a priest who by offering Himself enabled us all to be healed. 

Whether we realize it or not, we are all at Mass for a reason. We all have problems and need help. Jesus asked Bartimaeus, “what do you want me to do for you?” He wanted to see. We are told that on receiving his sight, Bartimaeus followed Jesus on the way. We can encounter Jesus in the Mass but we can also follow on his way by caring for those entrusted to our care who need our help each and every day.

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Reading 1.  Jeremiah 31: 7-9

Reading II. Hebrews 5: 1-6

Gospel. Mark 1Mark 10: 46-52 (Bartimaeus, a blind man)