The Book of Kings, from which our First Reading is taken (1 Kings 17:10‑16), tells of the adventures of the prophet Elijah. Earlier in the chapter, Elijah foretells the coming of a drought that will descend upon his agricultural nation. We hear that he is sent by God into a foreign nation where God tells him he will meet a widow. Simultaneously, this widow receives a message, it is not clear how, that she is to give Elijah food when he arrives. At first, it sounds as if Elijah is taking advantage of a poor widow. Asking for the last of her water. Asking for the last of her food. But God is setting the stage for a prophetic revelation of God’s care using the widow, her son and Elijah himself. Remember, this all takes place in a foreign land that is looked down upon by the people of Israel.
Elijah plays his part, the widow plays hers, and most importantly, God plays His part. Elijah finds the widow and asks her for water and food. There is poverty and the widow, with her son, planning to finish their meager food supply and then die of starvation. There is Mosaic Law that tells the people to take especially good care of the widows and orphans. Yet Elijah makes a strong demand that the widow must take care of him first.
Nonetheless, she does, in faith, what she has been instructed to do. In return, God takes care of her needs after she makes that move of faith by responding to the prophet’s request. The story has a happy ending: The flour and oil do not run out. The rain comes and all is well. Not quite. What we do not hear in today’s reading, but what follows, is the subsequent illness of the widow’s son. The widow blames Elijah for being there as a judgment upon her. Elijah takes the son to his own room and restores him to health after crying out to God. The widow, upon receiving her son back, announces that she now knows Elijah is indeed a prophet of the God of Israel. That, as the old radio show used to say, is the rest of the story.
There are two sections to the reading in today’s Gospel (Mark 12:38‑44). The first is an indictment about the self-important strutting and religious practices of the scribes. Jesus is warning His disciples not to come close to following these traditions when they are sent to announce the good news.
The second section sets another widow as the main character. Jesus and His disciples are people-watching at the Temple. The Jews entering the Temple are putting money into the poor box as alms. A poor widow comes in. The widow donates her two little coins. This observation sets the stage for another lesson from Jesus. She has little and donates all that she has. The others gave a relatively small amount of money, of which they had plenty.
When we enter the holy building of our church, we do not drop our little coins in the treasury. We drop our fingers into the basin of water in which we were first welcomed into the Church. We drop some water onto ourselves in the Sign of the Cross as a reminder that Jesus has dropped into our poverty and made it a treasure. We enter the holy space, not as aliens, like Elijah did, but as members of a faith community, the community of our parish, to remember the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
I am not sure why the widow was going to the Temple. Perhaps she did so to regain a sense of being in the community of the People of God, the Jewish nation. I often wonder why people come to bless themselves as they enter and participate in the Holy Eucharistic Liturgy. Perhaps some attend out of fear. Perhaps some come to ask for something special, or to convince God that they are trying to be good.
The big question always is, “Why be good if God loves us whether we are good or not?” We do good things, not out of fear nor a desire to manipulate God’s love, we do good, because that is who we are! We do not drop our real selves into the Holy Water font and pick them up on the way out. The widow put in the little she had and went in. In the same way, Jesus drops all that He is into our lives. We leave the church, because that is who we are: The Sent, The Missioned, The Massed, The Re-membered, The Blessed.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!