32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading: 1 Kings 17: 10-16. A poor widow is ready to give all she has to feed a stranger.

Second Reading: Hebrews 9: 24-28. Jesus Christ offered himself to take away our sins and he will return to reward those who wait for him.

Gospel: Mark 12: 38-44. Jesus praises the poor woman who gives generously in spite  of her poverty.

Points for Reflection-- From Fr Carlo Tei

1. Today’s First Reading and Gospel present two widows as examples of faith and generosity.

• The widow of the First Reading is not afraid of jeopardizing her last chances of surviving, in order to meet the needs of Elijah; therefore, a handful of meal and a little oil are the sign of an unlimited generosity.

• In the Gospel episode the two small coins that the widow puts into the treasury are regarded by Jesus as having much more value than the great deal of money offered by the rich.

2. Jesus values our generosity not by the amount of our offerings, but by our commitment. Jesus’ words, attributing the value of a gift to the disposition of the giver, are expressive of that common sense which is witnessed by wise persons of all religions and times. For Jesus, however, it is not a simple affirmation of a principle; his way of judging is witnessed by all the happenings of his life. He is the One who offered himself for us in his life and in his death.

3. And by so doing, Jesus not only became our Saviour, but also revealed to us who God is. God is not One who gives us something out of the abundance of his richness, but He is One whose nature is to give Himself. Jesus reveals God to us as the Self-giver. “God so loved the world as to give his only Son.” To save us, that is, to lead us back to God, Jesus had only one path to walk: the giving of himself, the total commitment of himself to God and to us.

4. This is the way, which is also indicated to us by today’s Gospel. We cannot be reconciled with God; we cannot share in Christ’s salvation unless we, too, like Jesus and like the two widows of today’s Scripture Readings, make the giving of ourselves to God and to our brothers and sisters the programme of our daily lives. Our salvation does not depend on the good deeds we perform or the amount of material help we give to others, as much as on our conviction that everything we are and have does not belong to us, but to God and to others, and, out of this conviction, we share our lives (our time, our energy, our happiness, our wealth) with others. May the Spirit of the Lord guide us and the Eucharistic Body of Jesus give us the strength we need to give ourselves to others.