Christianity or Yahweh’s Sunday
1 Kings 17:10-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mk 12:35-45
We are all murderers, unless we become prophets and stop the murderers! Her statement says it all; it was true then, and still remains true today. Who can afford not to be outraged by it and still claim to be a Christian? The statement of the widow of Zarephath is quite depressing, yet very real for many in our societies today. She says to the prophet Elijah, “just now I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shall die.” How many die daily of starvation in our neighborhoods because we are unwilling to share from our own abundance? Doesn’t our greed and selfishness turn us into murderers and accomplices of murderers? These are the widows of today – all those who die of starvation!
“Widowhood” in Israel and today is a sign of economic bankruptcy and social alienation, no thanks to the society of the time that considered women as sub-humans and the society of today that seeks to exterminate the poor, taken them to be disposable garbage bags! Today, capitalism has turned human beings into tools to be used and disposed of – modern day widowhood. Just visit our restaurants and food banks, even wasted and leftover foods have laws protecting them from being eaten by those starving, they must be thrashed, only scavengers have rights to them in the trash cans and refuse dumps! Seriously, are there still human beings in the image and likeness of God walking down our streets?
This Sunday is Yahweh’s or Christian Sunday. It is Yahweh’s Sunday, if you behave like Yahweh or Christian Sunday, if you behave like Christ. Elijah teaches us how to behave like Yahweh, because his name means “my-God-is-Yahweh” or “my-God-is-alive” and he behaves like Yahweh because his presence brings life and hope of life. A concrete example is the moment Elijah entered the house of the widow of Zarephath. The death she anticipated after eating her last meal, which she was preparing, turns into a guarantee of inexhaustible food bank. This is the message of Elijah to her: “For the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’”
Yahweh’s Sunday speaks of God as the source of life, and hope of life. It is only the presence and visit of God that guarantees life and eliminates death. Yahweh comes to us when life is threatened, but he comes to us in human form, in prophetic human beings like Elijah, to prove to us that Our God is alive and he is life itself.
Yahweh’s Sunday is a demonstration of faith, practical faith, in the existence and intervention of God, if we have faith and remain faithful to God in the darkest and starkest of times! It doesn’t matter whether you are a Hebrew like Elijah or a stranger like the widow of Zarephath – all that matters is your faith and faithfulness to God. As a matter of fact, Yahweh’s Sunday is everybody’s Sunday, because every living being is alive because of God!
This Sunday is Christian Sunday because Jesus steps up to insure the life of a generous widow – she gave all she had to live on. The guarantee of life we see in Yahweh continues in Jesus Christ. The rich trust in their money and make a show of it in God’s house, as if to show compassion to God by giving him a little portion of it. But a widow who realizes that life is God and God alone guarantees life, returns all she has back to God – her widow’s mite.
Christian Sunday is generosity Sunday, giving all back to God, through our neighbors. How beautifully generous is the widow of Zarephath, without knowing who Elijah was, she enthusiastically accepts to share what she thought her last meal with Elijah, on request? One sees the same generosity in the widow’s mite, not sure of the source of her next meal, she gives up all in offering to God.
Christianity Sunday is the commitment to absolute generosity, in order to save every life! Generosity is that virtue that makes God come alive and become visible in our inter-human relationships. Generosity makes Christianity a practical religion, because it saves lives from the tragedy of starvation and loneliness. In fact, human generosity is people’s answered prayers for help and support from God.
If God sends the prophet Elijah to the widow of Zarephath to save her from starvation and death, and Jesus replenishes the widow of today’s gospel, Christianity Sunday is God’s summon on us to step out of our comfort zones to be Elijahs and Jesuses to our neighbors. The very absolute trust that characterizes the widow of the gospel displays her dependence on God, in contradistinction to the dependence of the rich on money and exploitation of today’s “widows”. “Life” comes from our relationship with God and not from wealth.
Turning our faith in God into concrete actions of taking care of our neighbors is the point of today’s readings. There cannot be Christianity and Christians, when there are no corresponding concrete actions in imitation of Christ. Our second reading epitomizes the concrete generosity of Jesus Christ in his death for the forgiveness of sins. It is a generosity that merits him heaven and the authority to admit those who imitate him into heaven.
Since it is true, according to our second reading, that “it is appointed that human beings die once,
and after this the judgment”, it will be a catastrophic tragedy to miss the resurrection from the dead, because our second reading says, “Christ . . will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him”. If you want to resurrect from the dead, your generous dying for others is your guarantee!
Assignment for the Week :
Could you seek out a needy person/widow in your neighborhood/family and show him/her that God exists through your act of charity?