Readings for November 10th:
- 1 Kings 17:10–16
- Psalm 146:7, 8–9, 9–10
- Hebrews 9:24–28
- Mark 12:38–44
What this week’s readings say to me:
This week’s readings call us to:
- Have hope, and be unafraid.
- Share what you have.
- Trust that when you give to God or give to others in God’s name, God will give back far more. You will receive more than what you gave.
- Do your part, and when you do, give your best.
- Be welcoming.
- Be introspective.
- Broaden your vision, and look beneath the surface of what’s around you.
- Follow those who follow strive to live the practices described above.
- Remember that only Christ — God incarnate — can live them perfectly.
- Remember that Christ can help us do the same on the other side of death.
What I’m saying (to the readings and beyond) this week:
When I think of the messages from this week’s readings and the ways I just presented them, they seem wise. These messages read as reasonable lessons to live by.
But this week’s readings include uncomfortable, even disturbing details. I find myself wrestling with God about these details and the message their inclusion sends.
In the first reading, I notice Elijah asks a woman for the last bit of food she has. She doesn’t seem to be able to get the raw materials to make more meals once these materials are gone. She figures that she and her son will die once they’ve eaten all they have left.
Now I understand that the lesson is that they can give all they have left to Elijah. God will see their generosity and faith and will respond to it by providing for them. The same goes for the woman in the gospel passage who puts all the money she has into the treasury.
Maybe another teaching of these readings is that God is generous, even when people are less so. God is generous even when people forget God.
Maybe a third teaching is not to give for appearances’ sake only. Serve causes that are just by doing more than what is comfortable or convenient.
But I hesitate to suggest that God wants people to leave themselves none of the necessities for life. I do more than hesitate when I read the first reading and the gospel passage. If I’m honest, the examples these two readings set make me angry. These readings present a God who asks everything of God’s people.
And I suppose God does, giving everything back that the people can imagine and more. Christ did die for us. He died so that I, you, and whoever the ubiquitous “they” are could live forever with Him.
I don’t feel the need to pretend. Giving everything to God and in God’s name is a big ask. I can imagine the widows in both the Old Testament passage and Gospel passages experiencing anger before they gave. If not anger, they might have felt anxiety and doubt. They might have questioned whether they were acting with wisdom. As I imagine them wrestling with these emotions and then acting in spite of them, I’m reminded of a famous quote:
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
I think a modified version is true as well. Faith is not the absence of doubt or fear but acting in spite of the doubt and fear.
I think it’s valuable not to rush past the parts of these passages that trigger uncomfortable feelings. I believe it’s important to reflect on the “giv[ing] until it hurts.” It can be helpful not to skip to the parts in the passages that describe God giving in return. This can be helpful because we can’t fast-forward past the challenges in our own lives. But we can acknowledge them for what they are. And we can trust that God is with us as we navigate them.
Outside of these passages, we don’t know what the giving back is going to look like. Who will give us what we need? We don’t know what we’re going to go through before we receive or when the receiving is going to come.
I take comfort that most faith communities wouldn’t expect members to give until they had literally nothing left. Some ask this only when the members must choose between loyalty to a faith community and loyalty to another community. I’m not going to pretend like I’m comfortable with faith communities asking their members to make this choice. I’m also not going to pretend I’m comfortable with God asking people to make this choice.
I believe in a God who is personal and is the source of everything, including who each of us is. How can I betray the source of who I am, who each of us is?
Here’s a glimpse behind the curtain of this blog in case I haven’t made something clear before. I write most posts over the course of a week. After writing the previous paragraph, I went on about my day. Then, I remembered a verse. It says Jesus came so we could “have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). After he remembered this verse, I remembered how the passage from Hebrews 4 November 10th ends. It says:
Just as it is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgment, so also Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.
Hebrews 9:28
Calling to mind these verses remind me that God doesn’t want suffering. God desires to save. It’s injustice that creates suffering, and sometimes standing against injustice means a person acting with justice suffers. Jen Frazer, OSB reflects on this perspective.
What someone else is sharing about this week’s readings:
In the end what meaning should we take away from these readings? It is the very generosity of our two widows (in the first reading and in the Gospel) that highlights their social oppression. Even if the sacrifice is unjust, God who knows our hearts honors that sacrifice as the act of love that it is. God is on the side of the oppressed because they are in need of God’s protection.
Jen Frazer, OSB, in her reflection on the Mass readings for November 10th
This week’s prayer:
May I give for no other reasons than for love of God and neighbor. Help me to trust in Your presence wherever there is also injustice. Help me to experience that all things work “for good of those who love God” (Rom. 8:28). Amen.
Work cited (but Not Linked to)
The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.
Sitting with the Sacred 