Gospel & Reflection for 32nd Sunday.
Mark 12:38-44
In his teaching Jesus said, ‘Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes, to be greeted obsequiously in the market squares, to take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets; these are the men who swallow the property of widows, while making a show of lengthy prayers. The more severe will be the sentence they receive.’
He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the treasury, and many of the rich put in a great deal. A poor widow came and put in two small coins, the equivalent of a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘I tell you solemnly, this poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed to the treasury; for they have all put in money they had over, but she from the little she had has put in everything she possessed, all she had to live on.’
Reflection
Friends, the name Brian Keenan was at one time very familiar to us. He lives a deserved private and peaceful existence now but for some years, his name and his plight captivated many across the world especially here in Ireland. Born and raised in Northern Ireland, he was kidnapped by Islamic terrorists in 1986 and was held hostage for four and half years by them in Beirut, being released in August of 1990. At the beginning of his captivity, he spent two months in isolation, before being moved to a cell shared with the British journalist John McCarthy. He was kept blindfolded throughout most of his ordeal and was chained hand and foot whenever he was taken out of his cell.
Writing about his suffering and ordeal sometime later, Keenan observed: ‘…if one kept to oneself, was rapt up in oneself, never thinking of one’s fellow hostages, or caring or sharing with them…that was a recipe for disaster. It drove one into oneself, and one became gloomy and self-preoccupied…. but it is through what we give, that we survive.’
Our readings this weekend present the example of two people, two widows, who are beautifully reckless in their generosity. Both could have held something back but instead they gave everything they had, placing all into God’s hands, in a tremendous act of self-giving and complete trust.
It is a strange and lovely thing that the people which the Old Testament and Christ pass down to history as the embodiment of generosity and trust, were these two women. Two people, socially and emotionally isolated, tower above their communities and everyone else with their trust in God’s providence, and God did not abandon them. The widow of Sidon and her son were never short of anything again, while the widow in the Temple came to the attention of the Son of God, who in the hustle and bustle of the Temple grounds, did not fail to notice and point out her beautiful nature and priority. In what they gave, they survived, and we speak of them still.
It is interesting to remember that very rarely did Jesus’ encounter hostility or resentment in people. More often than not, it was people feeling that they could not live up to or live out, the example and teaching that He presented, that made them walk away. Think of the rich young man who came to Jesus wanting to know how to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to give what he had to the poor and then follow Him. The young man walks away sad. But even our Lord’s own disciples promised Him much but rarely delivered. James and John promised that they could share in His suffering, yet when the time came, they ran and hid. Peter promised to lay down his life for Christ but denied Him instead and along with most of the others, cowered away.
Many, including the disciples, could not fully surrender to Christ initially. There was something that held them back, made them reluctant to make the final sacrifice, the final surrender, to give without counting the cost. In certain moments, they felt that they could not make the final act of complete faith; that they could not give fully and freely of themselves.
Friends, all too often and maybe all too easily, we can sever our connection to God by not trusting in His providence or presence. As in any relationship, we can sometimes find ourselves holding back, reluctant to make the final leap, giving completely of ourselves. However, if we only trust ourselves, we go nowhere but if we give of ourselves in someway to God, everything is possible.
As Brian Keenan observed and experienced, so too with faith, ‘It is through what we give that we survive.’ May we be beautifully reckless, like the women of our readings this weekend, in giving our all to God because He sees what we give and responds to us.
Fr. Richard