The Times
We Only Have Pennies
Today we are having a communion service. Father had a death in his family and no other priests were available on short notice. We pray for an increase in priest and religious. Priest and religious who are examples of faith, hope and love. Men and women who in selfless generosity give all to God.
In the readings we hear the stories of two widows. They are stories of faith, love, and
hope. These are also stories of generosity .Before we get to those stories, I want to tell you another story.
Faith, hope, and love are remarkable. They aren't things that can exist in solitude. You have to have something or someone to have faith in or to hope for. Love requires that there is one who loves and a beloved.
A friend of mine called me, upset. Someone he cares about
is sick. She was diagnosed with myeloma, a blood cancer. It was devastating
news.
Most of us have experienced some kind of devastating
news. When you get that news, it’s like the world just stomped on you. It
drives everything out of you.
Currently, she is undergoing her first round of
chemotherapy. She cries. He tries to be strong; but he hurts. So he called me
and I prayed with them. I prayed for them to have faith and hope. I prayed
they realize God’s love. I told them to look past the worry and anxiety and see
the little miracles and blessings a loving God has put in their life.
Because I know, We truly find God when we are at our
poorest, when we have nothing else.
We learn this in the teachings; Elijah comes to the house
of a widow, a woman with nothing. A Gentile woman gathering sticks for the fire
to cook the last meal her and her son would ever eat. A last meal with all the
food they had.
Elijah said “Do not be afraid.” Go and do what you have
to do, but first make me a little cake. The woman did, she gave all she had.
This was an act of faith, hope, and love made with generosity.
God blessed her with a miracle. She did not run out of
flour or oil. They had food all during the famine. This was a pagan woman not
someone expecting to be blessed by God.
The true blessing was the presence of God. Elijah brought
faith, hope, and love in God and shared it with that poor widow. She was then
blessed with the same. God’s generosity insured they did not go hungry. Elijah’s
generosity was sharing God’s favor. The widow’s generosity was that act of
sharing all she had.
In the gospel, Jesus recognizes the poor widow at the
temple who gives two small coins to the treasury. He was not praising her; he
lamented for her. Those coins were her livelihood and sustenance. She gave all
she had to God.
This was an act of faith, hope, and love made with generosity.
Jesus blessed the woman, not the scribes and lawyers. She
was a widow someone devoured by society, not someone expecting to be blessed.
The true
blessing was the presence of God. Maybe this widow followed Jesus and was in
the crowd when he taught the beatitudes. She had heard the teachings:
·
Blessed
are the poor - theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
·
Blessed
are the meek - they will inherit the land.
·
Blessed
are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness - they will be satisfied.
·
Blessed
are the merciful - they will be shown mercy.
·
Blessed
are the clean of heart - for they will see God.
She was given faith, hope, and love by these words. She
was giving to God in the generosity that God’s promise was giving to her.
In those times, widows had little money and less power.
They would have been thought of as outside of society. They had no one to speak
for them and no one to provide for them. They were voiceless, poor, and weak.
These poor widows may not have had society on their side, but there is no doubt
that God was there.
A wealthy person could have been Elijah’s benefactor. God
was with him. God sent his angels to protected Elijah. God sent Elijah to
someone who had nothing, a widow who gave all she had.
Jesus told is disciple that the woman gave more that all
those who gave from their surplus. The widow gave all she had and pleased God.
The passage from Hebrews gives us the same message. Jesus
Christ gave all he had. He gave his life.
This was an act of faith, hope, and love made with generosity.
Jesus Christ gave all he had and we were blessed. The sinners,
those who reject God, those of little faith, those who lost hope, those who
have trouble loving are not the ones you’d expect to be blessed.
The true blessing is that Jesus Christ is God; Jesus
Christ is Our Lord and savior. The most
important part of these teachings, Jesus gave all he had for everyone, the
many, all of us.
Can I say - I do the same for God, I give all I have? I
don’t care how little or how much I have; most of the time, I give from my
surplus. I try to give all that I have but most of the time I can’t.
Yet there are the
times when we only have pennies and God is there with us. God sees us
at our poorest, when we are in need or suffering. God sees us when we are
challenged by the predicaments of life; the times we need God more than
anything.
Those are the times when we can look at the blessings of
faith, hope, and love. This is the blessing that allow us to give all that we
are to God. We are blessed even in ways that we don’t realize at the time.
When we get devastating news and it drives everything out
of us. These are the times we are at our poorest and weakest. It is at times
like this; God's way and his glory are found. God always draws near to us. It
is when we are in poverty that we find the richness and strength of God’s
presence.
My friends called me. I prayed for them to have faith,
hope, and love. Blessings found when we realize the presence of God. This is
healing.
Scripture
tells us that the tiniest amount of faith moves mountains. Love gives strength.
With hope, we cannot be discouraged. With faith, hope and love our flour will
not vanish; our oil will not diminish.
Praise the
Lord, my soul for in the times we
only have pennies by God’s
extreme generosity He blesses us with faith, hope, and love. Things that we
cannot have in solitude but through God’s extreme generosity, we have Christ.
Amen.
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