Where is your Investment? Turning Our Faith into Relationship with God
1 Kings 17:10-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
Progressively, the decay in the Nigeria polity continues. Every single day, since the Independence of Nigeria in 1960, the quality of life and services keep dwindling. With this dwindling comes the numbers of those Nigerians being baptized and the multiplication of edifices called churches. The more church structures built, the more decadence in the Nigerian society. This calls for a rethink of what roles sacraments and structures play in the lives of Nigerians and Christians all around the world. This Sunday, a story seems to capture the problem at stake.
A woman once went to church in the company of her husband and they sat next to each other in the church. At some point during church worship, the pastor asked all widows to stand up for special prayer and blessing. This lady, although sitting next to her husband, stood up. Her husband tapped her and said, “darling, it is widows that the pastor asked to stand up.” His wife shrugged off his hand and remained standing. A second time, the husband was more explicit: “women whose husbands are dead are those requested to stand up,” he said to his wife. Then, she turned to him and asked him: “are you alive?”
There are many widows in our towns and neighborhoods, but there are very few friends of God around. There are many philanthropists in our societies, but very few in any relationships with God. To have a husband is not enough not to be a widow, your spouse has “to be alive” to be counted as such. To be baptized a Christian is no guarantee of relationship with God, living out the Christian life is the proof of the pudding. What we do reveals who we are: actions speak louder than words, we often say. “Relationship” with God also obliterates widowhood in reality, God is the true “husband” of widows. What are our readings saying in this regard?
The statement of the widow of Zarephath is quite depressing, yet very real for many in our societies today. She said that “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.” On account of the famine that ravaged the country and countryside and the absence of a husband or the reality of widowhood, a death sentence, in the thinking of the widow of Zarephath, had be passed on her and her child: “when we have eaten it, we shall die,” she said! How many die daily of starvation in our neighborhoods because we are unwilling to share from our own abundance? These are the widows of today! “Widowhood” in Israel is a sign of economic bankruptcy and social alienation, no thanks to the society of the time that considered women as sub-humans! Today, capitalism has turned human beings into tools to be used and disposed of – modern day widowhood.
Interestingly, it is the moment the widow thought that all was over with that God steps in to reveal himself to her as the owner and giver of life. Indeed, God is not conditioned by human biases and prejudices against other human beings. In fact, the very name of the prophet sent to the widow of our first reading and her child says it all: Elijah, meaning my-God-is-alive! The execution of the death sentence the widow thought had arrived, was reverted because God visited her and her child through prophet Elijah and gave them the word of hope and assurance – “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.’” More interestingly, it was God who went in search of this widow, in a country that was not even numbered among the countries of Israel, God searches out a pagan widow for redemption from starvation! How awesome God is!
Another widow makes it to the center stage in our gospel today. The position Jesus chooses to sit in the synagogue is ironic – he sits opposite the treasury, that is, in clear view of where money/collection box is placed. Jesus was not idling away, but actively monitoring how much people deposited into the treasury. The gospel tells us of two groups of people who deposited money into the treasury, rich people and a poor widow. Curiously, this widow and the rich persons of today’s gospel have a double relationship: they are members of the same society and the same /synagogue/church. In the community, the rich swallow the wealth of widows (according to our gospel), and in the church, the rich give from their abundance and the widow gives what she had to live on – her very life!
While there is a social death sentence meted out on widows – the theft of their wealth by the rich – their surrender to God of the very leftover from the exploitation of the rich ear-marks them for recognition and praise by Jesus. This faithful day, Jesus comes to visit the synagogue and notices the faith of the widow and gives her back her life: “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.” It is NOT wealth that God wants, but the human person – relationship with each one of us!
If God sends the prophet Elijah to the widow of Zarephath to save her from starvation and death, what is Jesus saving the widow of today’s gospel from? Jesus saves her from judgment of condemnation and offers her life, instead of the judgment meted out to the rich – “They will receive a very severe condemnation.” Instead of condemnation, the widow receives the approval of God. The very absolute trust which the widow of the gospel displays in her dependence on God, in contradistinction to the dependence of the rich on money and exploitation of widows, is the reason for the approbation she gets from Jesus. “Life” comes from our relationship with God and not from wealth. Turning our faith in God into relationship with God through what we do is the point of today’s readings.
Surely, God loves rich people, but only the rich who are detached from their wealth and attached to God; the rich whose source of money is clean and free of extortion. It is not widowhood either that attracts God to widows, but the faith and confidence of widows in God. The rich, poor and oppressed are all rich in faith and acceptable to God, if they attach themselves to him. Our second reading makes this abundantly clear when it says: “Christ, offered [himself] once to take away the sins of many.” “Attachment” to God is the offering up of one’s life to God. Jesus offered his life to take away the sins of humanity, just as the widow of today’s gospel offered her life to God by giving all she had to live on. From this point of view – offering one’s life like Christ’s – “widowhood” is the state of total surrender to God, and the sacrifice of all earthly pleasures, power and glory in order to live for God alone.
By extension, each one of us is either a widow or a rich person. When my gifts and talents prevent me from offering my life in total surrender and service to God, then I am like the rich person of today’s gospel. But when I use every talent and possession I have for the glory of God, I am also a widow, someone who loves God unconditionally and have surrendered all to God. Above all else, I am like Christ whose life of sacrifice to take away my sins gives me back life eternal with God. Yes, the second coming of Christ, which we all await in hope, will be for God to offer us an eternal relationship with him, which is eternal life.
The question is, are you ready to be the Elijah God uses today to bring life and hope to the hopeless of our times? You may imagine yourself insignificant in the scheme of things, not least, that you are not a prophet to perform miracles. A cup of water or the smallest money you give to the other goes a long way to salvaging a bad situation. Kind words work miracles in the lives of those lonely and broken-hearted. You can be the voice of the voiceless drawing attention to the plights of the poor in your neighborhood, instead of being indifferent. You very action or inaction makes a huge difference in the lives of others.
Assignment for the week:
Instead of giving what you have, could you give of yourself – your time or personal service – to help someone in need this week?