REFLECTIONS TODAY
The two accounts involving two widows in our First Reading and the Gospel show us that if we trust in God and are generous with even the little that we have, God will be pleased with us and will not allow us to go without. For sure, in the First Reading, the widow of Zarephath shows concern at first for her lack of resources and thus her hesitation to provide what Elijah has asked for. But she does not allow this “natural” anxiety to prevail but trusts in the promise of the prophet and, true enough, after that, she does not die with her son; God continues to provide for their needs.
The widow in the Gospel, on the other hand, shows unconditional generosity. Or, at least, we are not told that she is vacillating whether to give everything she has, or to even give in the first place, fully aware that, as we are told, what she will give is all that she has to live on. On the other hand, there are a number of rich people who also give to the treasury, much more in terms of quantity than what the widow gives, but Jesus declares the widow’s offering (mite) more valuable because it is not out of her surplus, as in the case of the rich ones, but everything that she has to live on.
What was in the mind of the widow, we would ask, even as she realized that after giving all, she would probably go hungry and even die? In ordinary situations, no one in her right mind, or very rarely anyone, would do as she did, but she did the unthinkable. Without generalizing or stereotyping too much, it is often said that poor(er) people are more generous than the rich. Perhaps the rich are more business-minded? That what they give away constitutes a loss or reduction in what they have? Whereas the poor are not afraid to lose anything as they are already poor in the first place. But do all the poor people think this way? Probably no. And so the widow in our story is a kind of an ideal believer, one who personifies what Jesus refers to as the poor (economically) but also poor spiritually. That is, they are people who see all that they have as God’s gift, not their own, even if they actually work for them. And so they can be so generous to the point of giving away all that they have to live on. But this form of poverty and generosity is still a far ideal for most of us.
Let us pray, then, that we imitate the attitude and disposition of the widow in the Gospel: able to let go of everything we have and offer it to God, knowing that God, who is the author of everything, will never abandon us. Amen.
First Reading • 1 Kgs 17:10-16
In those days, Elijah the prophet went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the entrance of the city, a widow was gathering sticks there; he called out to her, “Please bring me a small cupful of water to drink.” She left to get it, and he called out after her, “Please bring along a bit of bread.” She answered, “As the Lord, your God, lives, I have nothing baked; there is only a handful of flour in my jar and a little oil in my jug. 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.” Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid. Go and do as you propose. But first make me a little cake and bring it to me.
Then you can prepare something for yourself and your son. 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.’ ” She left and did as Elijah had said. She was able to eat for a year, and he and her son as well; The jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, as the Lord had foretold through Elijah.
Source: “366 Days with the Lord 2024,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.