Pro-life
Preaching Hints
November 8 - 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 Kgs 17:10-16
Heb 9:24-28
Mk 12:38-44 or 12:41-44
Today’s readings bring us a “tale of two widows,” both of
whom gave when they had every human reason not to. The widow in
the first reading prepared something for Elijah although she
didn’t have enough for herself and her son. The widow in the
Gospel passage gave all her savings.
The Lord’s prophet reassured the first widow; the Lord
himself praised the second.
We, the Church, are not widowed. The Bridegroom is with us,
and it is from him that we draw the courage to be generous – not
just with food and money, but with our witness to the Gospel,
and with our taking of risks for building a world of justice and
a culture of life. Some feel that they have enough “business to
mind” with their own lives, and therefore don’t want to get
involved in the lives of others who, for example, are facing the
temptation to abort a child. “I have enough problems of my own”
is the common temptation. It seems that we barely have enough
energy and attention to give our own problems, let alone those
of others.
Yet this is precisely where the lesson of the widow’s mite
comes in. It applies more to this than to how much money we give
away. The human heart expands when it touches God, and it
expands to take in the needs, the “business,” of every
vulnerable human being. We no longer measure our giving by how
much we have; we measure it by how much the other needs. Then,
like the miracle that surprised the widow whom Elijah visited,
we find our capacity for love and concern is greater than we
imagined.
We also carefully measure our risk, and are tempted to say that
we’ve quickly reached the limit of how much we are willing to
risk. But the demands of justice, and of the protection of life,
require that we measure our risk not against how many other
things we may lose, but against what the victim of injustice
stands to lose. In fighting for the unborn, we are defending
those who are losing their very lives – and therefore all the
goods and rights they might possess in life. What we risk losing
for defending them is little to nothing in comparison. The
lesson of the widow’s mite applies again. Indeed, the tale of
the two widows is simply a reflection of the fundamental
teaching, “Greater love than this no one has, than to lay down
his life for his friends.”
Back
|
