Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

32ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (November 11, 2006)

Readings 1 Kg 17: 10-16 Ps 146: 7, 8-9, 9-10 Heb 9: 24-28 Mk 12: 38-44

Suggested Emphasis

Trust in God leads to generosity to others.

Salesian Perspective

In the first reading today and in the Gospel reading we meet two widows who are very similar. Both put their trust in God rather than in things.

In turn, both are rewarded and recognized for their trust, for their faith, in God.

The first widow is a foreigner to the Hebrews. She is from Zarephath, a coastal city on the Mediterranean. Elijah traveled through this land during a famine. As in all famines, the rich complain and the poor starve. The woman was poor. When Elijah met up with her, she was putting her last scraps together before she and her son would die. Imagine a stranger going up to this woman and asking for food in the name of the Lord. And imagine this woman putting her faith in God and feeding the prophet. Putting her total trust in God, she received enough to eat for a full year.

The second widow was the one of the Gospel reading who put two small coins into the Temple treasury. Jesus said that her donation, although it seemed insignificant, was tremendous because she gave all that she had. Her donation was an act of putting her faith in God to care for her.

What these two widows did is extremely difficult for all of us. No matter how great our faith is, it is profoundly difficult to put our total trust in God. There is something within us all that looks for solutions to our problems outside of the realm of faith. A great fallacy of our age is that money can solve our problems. It is the job of advertisers to convince us that we can buy happiness. Paradoxically, the happiest of those blessed with material wealth and riches are those who freely share their success with others.

The radical message of today's readings is that we must place our confidence in God rather than in our material possessions. This is difficult for us to do because it demands our practicing the forgotten virtue of humility. Only a humble person who recognizes his or her profound need for God is certain that the presence of God in his or her life is fundamental to happiness.

Perhaps, some day, we will have the profound faith to trust in God as these two widows trusted in God. But, then again, that is the fundamental reason why we gather together to worship, to pray and to celebrate the Sacraments: while we realize that our faith can always be deepened, we also acknowledge that we cannot do that alone.

We need God.

We need one another.

Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS, is the Executive Director of the De Sales Spirituality Center.