Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons: 8 November 2015

Giovanni Lanfranco

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time November 8th 2015

We have two wonderful images of people right at the edges of their society in our readings, first there is the widow gathering sticks, to heat the kitchen fire so that she and her son can eat bread. They are poor and very near to starvation, her words; 'then we shall die' send shivers down my spine because it is the statement of absolute no hope, these two are right at the end, well over the margins of subsistence. Where is the community of God's people to help them? They seem abandoned neglected outcast. It is no wonder she was frightened of Elijah's demand that she give him some bread to eat.

And yet at this moment of despair, God hears her prayer, sees her need and answers it through his servant Elijah. Instead of want she now has plenty, instead of anxiety assurance of support, instead of death, life. Like the jar of meal and jug of oil, she and her son are replenished. This is the work of the 'Lord who upholds the widow and orphan', 'who keeps faith for ever'.

The second image is again a poor widow who places two small coins in the treasury, we know from a remark of Jesus that this is actually all she has to live on. Here, in this poor widow faith in the Lord shines through her generosity, by giving all she has God blesses her. We are not told if she gained something, that is left to our thoughts and imaginations, but in that gesture the words of the psalm echo, it is the 'Lord who raises up those who are bowed down. It is the Lord who loves the just'.

What do we make of these two widows, can we identify with them? I doubt we can relate to their poverty and life at the edge, but we see photographs and hear stories of the many in world for whom this is all too normal. They perhaps stand as our conscience reminding us that like Elijah and of course Jesus we recognize the generosity and raw love of God in these little ones but also do something for them now!

Then of course we might suddenly sit up and hear what he says about the scribes full of false piety, greedy for power and position at the expense of the real poor. Is that us? Let us pray we become like Elijah!

Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Great Britain.