HOMILY OF 32ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: YEAR B
HOMILY OF 32ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: YEAR B
HOMILY THEME: THE RICHES OF POVERTY
BY: Fr Paul Karabari
1 Kg 17:10-16, Heb 9 : 24 – 28, Mk 12:38-44
“This poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.”
Both the First Reading and Gospel of today (1 Kings 17:10-16, Mark 12:38-44) dwell on the generosity of poor widows. We all refer to the Gospel passage as the “widow’s mite.” We have the sermons, “The poor widow is an example of generosity. You should be generous like her.” It is possible that we are so familiar with this story that we no longer hear or even look for another meaning. So we expect and settle for the usual interpretations. We are not surprised when we use it to criticize the rich for not giving more. And it holds before us the fact that there is an unequal and often unfair distribution of the world’s resources reminding us that the majority of the world lives without enough, without enough money, food, shelter, education, healthcare.
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All of that is valid. There is truth in those interpretations. But there is also something else going on in this story. This gospel is not simply about the treasury of money. It is, rather, about the riches of poverty. Hafiz, the great Sufi poet of the fourteenth century, offered this prayer:
“God, grant me the riches of poverty for in such largesse lies my power and glory.”
The riches of poverty. Most of us, I suppose, have not seen or experienced the riches of poverty very often. Instead, we tend to view poverty as a problem to be fixed and not as a source of power and glory. Poverty is often a problem to be eliminated and solved but not in today’s gospel. The poverty of the poor widow is not a problem to be fixed but rather a virtue to be interiorized. The poor widow becomes our teacher, and we are her students.
She embodies the virtue of spiritual poverty. She has no need for the money of the rich, the long robes of the scribes, or marketplace respect. She has no need for the best seat in the house or even the appearance of holiness. The absence of the widow’s need to have becomes her need not to have. So she does what makes no sense. She gives her last two coins. “She out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” For what else does a poor widow have to give? She has no abundance, only the riches of poverty
The riches of poverty come not from acquiring but from letting go. All authentic spirituality is about letting go: letting go of comparison, competition, expectation, judgment; letting go of status, reputation, and appearances; letting go of the need for power, to control, to succeed, to win, to be right; letting go of our need for approval and perfectionism; letting go of all the illusions we create or buy in order to make ourselves feel better. Ultimately, it means letting go of ourselves and the ones we love most.
Spiritual poverty begins with letting go, and it always reveals the fragility of life. It takes us to the border between life and death where there are no guarantees; only hope, where there are no answers; only faith, and where there is no security; only love. This is where the poor widow lives. This is where God lives. And they live in union as one. In the face of the poor widow; the face of spiritual poverty, the Christ sees and recognizes Himself.
The abundance is not in the goods, it is in the ability to let go of the goods. The widow of Zarephath got to know that. And while the widow in the Gospel wouldn’t act in anticipation to be announced as the winner of a generosity campaign, God had already taken note of her hidden act of letting go of everything she had to live on. We must learn to find abundance in our little. Here, in our young parish today, we have our annual harvest rituals, and we pray for a proper and enriched understanding of giving. GOD IS STILL ON THE THRONE. May God bless you and your household always through Christ our Lord Amen.
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