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32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

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Fr. Tom Wilson November 11, 2018

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The temptation to be something that we are not or to present ourselves as something that we are not is as old as humanity itself. And because that temptation is so old and is so ingrained within our fallen human hearts, the world around us and the tempters will try to take advantage of that. We see it  in a lot of different ways. Whether that's a city that advertises it-self is being able to go there and be anything you want and then essentially fake it and then come back home with no consequences whatsoever; or if it's a social media culture and environment that not only allows people to be perfectly anonymous or even phony but often times encourages it. And in many, many other things. There's a great temptation for us to present ourselves as something different than who we are or something that is simply a fraud, and it's there. And one of the reasons it's there is because so often we simply don't appreciate, we do not appreciate the gift that God has made us. We don't appreciate who God has created us to be and so we fall to these temptation to somehow be something else rather than our authentic deepest selves. And the truth is that we actually find our-self most deeply and we are the best that we possibly can be when we recognize that and live it in humility.
Our readings today give us a kind of a light into that reality. The Widow's Mite Gospel reading that we have from Mark, obviously it's a lesson in generosity. It's a lesson on being all in for Christ, which we all need to hear and heed very, very frequently. Because the temptation to hold back is very great and as Jesus makes the example in comparing the poor widows gift to the wealthy who are giving from their excess He's obviously making that comparison. And we’ve got one here who was very, very poor and the Widow is the absolute lowest in the social, in the economic structure in the ancient world and she is all in. She is all in and the others are not. They’re holding back and yet they're making a show of it. They are making a show of their external religiosity and all those sorts of things and that temptation to show is very very great. Last night I had Mass with the about 45 of our confirmation students on Retreat. Mind you they are sophomores in high school, okay they're sophomores in high school and I asked them, I just said, you know what? Have any of you ever seen a situation? I didn't ask them to call themselves out but have you ever seen a situation in which people have presented themselves as something that they are not but they do something for show? Every single hand went up. Every single hand went up and I suspect if I asked the same question here the same thing would happen because it happens so frequently. And so we've got this image of doing it from the heart and doing it for show and we have the picture of the wealthy versus the poor and the generosity that's measured by that. 
But how did it get there in the first place? How did it get there in the first place? And I suspect the reason that the Widow is all in is precisely because she knew and understood exactly who she was in the eyes of God. I think she probably understood absolutely, unequivocally that she would have been among the poorest people in that community. There's also absolutely no evidence within the scripture that she would have walked up and made her gift and given herself with any sense of shame, any sense if I'm any less than anybody else. All she did is respond with what she had and gave it all. It was all in for Jesus, was all in for God and therein lies the difference. There lies the difference between the Widow and the others. The others are going halfway at best, the others for some reason are holding back from God, they're holding back from God. And our Old Testament reading we have another image, we got another image of the Widow. We have an another image of the Widow which is not quite the same as what we see in the in the gospel of Mark. The Widow of Zarephath in the engagement with Elijah again it's in a situation where she's on the low rung of the economic ladder and what would be in the modern- day version a horrific, horrific recession or depression. A massive famine, major droughts and she is in this situation in which she is down to her last stuff, she's down to the last and that Elijah says bring me something. And she's very practical, she's quite concerned, it's also very practical. She says this is it, this is all I've got left, my son and I are going to eat one more time then we're going to die. Then we are going to die. She's eminently practical and she's obviously afraid. She's obviously afraid. What does Elijah do? Elijah coaxes the fear out of her and says you know what, if you are generous with what you have, if you do this, God will provide. God will provide. Elijah teachers her to overcome her fear, overcome her fear of not having enough, to overcome her fear of the current situation and to trust in the Lord's goodness and Providence. And therein lies the difference, there in lies the difference, I think between those who were all in and those who hold back. Do we really trust? Do we really trust God has our best interest in mind? Do we really trust that God will completely provide? And there's all sorts of reasons that we tend to hold back, that we tend to hold back from God.
One of them is that fear, that fear that we just don't have enough, we don't have anything worth giving that’s all over the place and it's got to be smashed. It simply has to be smashed. We need to take the attitude of the poor Widow. Maybe by the world standards we don't have much, but whatever we have we will give in service and glory to God whatever it happens to be. We will take it and we will be all in. Sadly though I think they're messages if they go all over the place in the culture in which we live in which we are told, what you have isn't good enough. What you have isn't enough. It's not, it's not good, it's not going to work whatever it is and so we listen to those messages. And we have a message from the enemy that says it not enough. It's not worth it, don't bother. Don't bother. That is not the voice of God, it never has been and it never will be. The Widow had basically nothing as the world defines it and yet Jesus exalts her. Jesus exalts her and she is able to do that because she recognizes who she authentically is, she's not listening to a message that says you have to present your self as something different than who you are. No she doesn't listen to that at all. She simply presents herself as she is, with what she has, in a complete Spirit of honesty and forthrightness. And if we do that, if we respond and act in that pattern we can do glorious things for God. Know the world doesn't have to hear our confession, the world does not have to hear a confession. We do have to acknowledge our own faults and failings and weaknesses but we also have to be honest and humble enough to present ourselves as we are, as God has made us, as God is healed as God has shaped us. And be honest and trust. And trust that when we give ourselves completely and totally to the Lord that we are all in and He will completely and totally provide.  The temptations for us to be something different, to be someone else are huge. But what God needs from us first is a humility to know who we are, to recognize what we have, to trust Him and then be generous and be all in for Him.

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