-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org>>>>>
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00 Sat and 6:00pm Sunday
Give it Up!
While we are celebrating the 32nd Sunday in ordinary time, we at St. Albert the Great parish are celebrating the solemnity of our patron, St. Albert. We will be reflecting, however, on the Scriptures for Sunday.
Jesus points out to his disciples the poor widow and her generosity to the temple treasury as an "object lesson" about something much more fundamental than tithing to the Sunday collection.
The Jesus secret! I have expressed my appreciation of this "object lesson" of Jesus as the "Jesus secret" because it is the central mystery of our Christian faith and it is the principal mechanism of Jesus' revelation to the world of the love of God and the Kingdom of God. I am speaking, of course, of the Paschal Mystery.
What the poor widow shows the disciples of Jesus is that being poor in this world's estimation and giving all of the littleness of one's life (poverty) for the sake of the mission of God is the path to holiness. In the Incarnation and most poignantly in his self offering on the cross, Jesus has not only revealed the wisdom of the kingdom but accomplished the salvation of the world. We, his disciples, are invited to employ the same mechanism (the cross and resurrection) in our lives in order to announce the kingdom of God and to share in the salvation won for us.
So, what is the poverty of our lives, specifically the area of life in which we believe we are insufficient or suffering from "not enough"? If we identify this area of "not enough" we will have put our finger on the place where we are vulnerable. Vulnerability is an uncomfortable and unattractive condition for us Americans of the 21st-century. By claiming in our spirituality this vulnerable aspect of our lives we can begin the connection with the kingdom of God: we are needy! We are, like the poor widow, in this vulnerable condition, called to give ourselves away, exposing ourselves completely as having nothing but trust in God alone. (That's called holiness) it's a secret...from the world.
Its a secret (in the world) because the world says that you can find happiness only through your strength/winning and by taking what you need for happiness even from God (remember Adam and Eve). That is the invitation to self-sufficiency and death.
How might your poverty, your vulnerability be the key to your salvation. Instead of hating our poverty, weakness or vulnerability - we can use it to offer ourselves to God. That's the Jesus Secret. That would be a plan for holiness and a source of salvation, freedom, and life.
2 comments:
I like the challenge from the Matador of getting my finger on the pulse of my "want" - and using that as an opportunity for a path to holiness. For a long time I have been able to identify the areas in which I am needy - I have always felt fairly objective in that way. But, it is only in the more recent years that I have learned how to "take heart" in identifying that neediness - because, if I allow it, it is there where I have the invitation to grow in my dependence on God and see more clearly that I have the invitation to turn my life over to Him.
While it is not one of the readings for this Sunday, the Matador's homily prep and my resulting thoughts remind me of another of Paul's writings (2 Cor 12:7-10), when Paul asks 3 times for God to remove the "thorn from his flesh." God's denies his request, and instead assures him that His grace is enough. As best we can tell in this Sunday's Gospel, apparently the widow was a wise one - and she already knew that. Rather than shrink from the fear of poverty, she put her poverty to good use - and increased her dependence on her God. What a good woman of faith.
No time to comment, but feel like anon 1 spoke what is in my heart!
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