+ J. M. J. +
Homily Outline for the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time, Year B
If there was ever a day in the lectionary for preaching on tithing, it’s today! But I bring you glad tidings—these passages certainly point towards money, but I want to walk a slightly different path with you! While it is true that as Catholics we give far less percentage-wise than most other Christians, on average, I feel like there is a more basic message here, something that comes several steps before we examine how much money any one of us should give away.
Notice the connection between the first reading and the Gospel: the widow of Zarephath (most likely a pagan), responds with simple kindness to Elijah in the midst of a terrible drought, brings him water, and then shares with him the very last bit of bread she has for her son and herself. Her open heart is then filled by abundance as God provides the three of them with food for a whole year. God’s generosity here is even more apparent than hers! Then, in the Gospel, we hear of the widow’s mite. That’s the traditional title for this passage, based on the King James Version’s translation of the name for this very small coin. Jesus praises this widow for having given from her necessity, perhaps even all she had that day. The wealthy people gave greater sums, but only from their surplus.
Put together, these two passages highlight the blessings that accompany generosity towards God and our neighbors—the way an open and generous heart is a prerequisite, a precondition, for receiving God’s grace and abundant blessings. If our hearts are closed up, we have walled the Lord out of our lives, however much His perfect love is at our side.
Make no mistake—this is not the prosperity Gospel as trumpeted by the likes of Joel Osteen, offering faith that will result in immediate and visible worldly success. Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow me,” and “If they persecute me, they will also persecute you.” Following the Lord faithfully and generously, giving of what we have been given…this will involve real sacrifices, real suffering, real difficulty. However, it also opens the door to the Lord’s manifold blessings, many of them hidden and quiet, crowned by the only perfect and lasting blessing, eternal life. Generosity does not guarantee worldly success, but a lack of generosity certainly closes the door in God’s face.
Jesus is the perfect embodiment and exemplar of such generosity. As our second reading alludes to, Jesus made the perfect and complete and total gift of self on the Cross for us, a gift we are called to enter into and participate in:
"But now once for all he has appeared at the end of the ages to take away sin by his sacrifice. Just as it is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgment, so also Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him."In Jesus Christ we encounter the necessary connection between generosity and sacrifice. Authentic generosity must involve a willingness to make real sacrifices: to give and thus lose things or time or effort. Many of us are parents—the love you give your children may or may not be returned. To love them well, you have to be ready for the possibility that at any given moment, your love for them may not be reciprocated; and so also in marriage and in authentic friendship.
In our celebration of the Mass, two very simple images of generosity and sacrifice are often present. First, always, our candles… the wax or oil is burned, destroyed, lost, and yet it becomes light and warmth, and with beeswax candles, even a fragrant aroma. Candles speak of the light of Christ shining in the darkness, but also of His sacrifice. Second, incense—each resinous grain of incense loses itself as it is placed on the charcoal and is transformed into a cloud of aromatic smoke. This smoke rises up as an image of prayer, the smoke symbolically envelops and purifies us, but it is also a reminder of sacrifice. The incense is destroyed, but in the process it uplifts and fills our church with fragrance.
This Sunday we celebrate Veterans’ Day, and we remember the sacrifice made by the men and women of our armed services. This kind of self-sacrifice, though, should not be thought of as the particular domain of soldiers in far-away wars, rather, it is the path of EVERY Christian.
During this Year of Faith, Bishop Sample has solemnly invited us to two very simple practices: to abstain from meat each Friday, and to pray one rosary each week for the New Evangelization. These are practical goals: for families, for children, for adults. They do indeed involve some inconvenience, some time, some effort and intention—in a word, sacrifice. This offering, this penance, though, opens the door of our hearts, if offered with love and right intention, it opens us to abundance and blessing that far surpasses our own resources. Every gift we have received has been given to us by God to be given away, not least our lives and time and possessions. As we contemplate a world so far from God, and as we recognize that God has called us to bring His truth into this world, let us begin with sacrifice, penance, generosity—opening the door to His superabundant power. Now we prepare to receive Christ’s perfect sacrifice from this altar, and we ask the Lord that we may become and imitate He whom we receive.
(The Bishop's Pastoral Letter on the New Evangelization and the Year of Faith, "We Wish to See Jesus.")
+ A. M. D. G. +
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