32nd Sunday, Year B: Homily by Fr. Isaac Chima
Theme: Don’t be scared of giving your all to God and humanity
Readings: 1 Kings 17:10-16;
Heb. 9:24-28; Mk 12:38-44
Dear friends in Christ, the
readings of this Sunday highlight generosity, trust in God, and self-sacrifice
or self-giving, and they encourage us to always prioritize these virtues in our
relationships with God and man.
Today’s first reading has a
beautiful illustration of generosity and trust in God. There was famine in the
land, and the widow of Zarephath and her son had just one meal left in their
house, after which they would wait for death. But when the prophet Elijah came
to her and asked her to share that her last meal with him, giving her divine
assurance that her nearly spent supply of bread and oil would never run out,
she generously shared her meal with the prophet, trusting in God’s providence. The
reading concluded by telling us that God fulfilled His words from the mouth of
His prophet, and the widow and her son never ran out of food until the famine
was over.
The widow clearly had no idea
that God sent prophet Elijah to her to save her and her family from death. So, if
she had not been generous to prophet Elijah, she would have lost the
opportunity to save herself and her son from death. It was her generosity and
absolute trust in God’s word from the mouth of the prophet that brought God’s
blessing upon her and her son.
Dear friends, we have no idea how
many blessings, favours, and opportunities we miss anytime we close our arms to
those who come to us for help. If we really recognize the face of God in every person,
we will never miss any opportunity to share our meal with anyone who asks for
it. The Bible is filled with stories of people who received blessings they had
waited for many years simply by serving complete strangers who turned out to be
angels.
Thus, the first reading urges us
never to turn our backs on those who knock on our doors for help, even if what
they ask for is the last of what we have. Like the widow of Zarephath, we
should put our trust in God, believing that the God whose face we see in the
poor and the helpless, the God who said, “blessed is the hand that gives,” will
never allow our hands of charity to run dry. We will never lack if we put our
trust in God and share what we have with the needy.
Today’s gospel presented another
story of true generosity. It tells us that true generosity is not about giving away
what we don’t need but about giving our all to God and man; our presence must
be felt in what we give as an offering to God and as alms to the needy. We saw
the imprint of the widow in the two copper coins that she offered. She gave her
all, everything that she had to live on, just like the widow of Zarephath did;
she poured out her life to God. On the other hand, the other people gave from
the abundance of their wealth; let us say they gave out what they didn’t need. This
widow challenges us to allow our presence to be felt in what we offer to God
and to humanity. This would entail giving out not only what we don’t need, but also
what we seriously need.
The second reading showed us that Christ’s death on the Cross is the perfect example of self-giving to God and man. By pouring out His entire self on the cross, Christ liberated us once and for all from the devil and saved us from sin. He has left for us an example on how to give to God and man.
These days, pride is one of the
enemies of generosity. Like the scribes that were criticized by Christ for
their pride and hypocrisy in today’s gospel, many people simply give to others
out of pride and desire to receive compliments. That is why it is difficult for
such people to help the needy where there are no cameras to capture them and
post them on social media and on the pages of the newspaper. Jesus invites us
to shun pride and the craving for compliments when we give to the needy and
when we perform other actions for God and humanity.
May God bless your hands as
you lift them to help the needy today.
Have a blessed Sunday.
Fr. Isaac Chima
No comments:
Post a Comment