Thirty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: 1 Kings 17:10-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44

Beware…

One of the most common needs of human beings today is the need for identity. It takes various forms like need for recognition, appreciation, acknowledgement, or in simple terms, “look at Me.” We want the people to look at us, hold us high and pump our ego as high as possible so that we are always on the top. And to gain this ‘ego altitude’ we try various means, dress up, speak louder, self-praise (blowing one’s own trumpet makes a lot of sense here!), avoid the company of those not ‘equal’ to our status and so on. A similar issue is dealt with in today’s Gospel where Jesus tells his followers to be aware of it. “Beware,” he says, of the people who walk around in fancy clothes, who demand respect, who think they are the ones who make the sun rise (!). All this happens when one fails to put God first. When we put God first, we do not need to crave for identity, we do not need to appeal to peoples’ recognition, and we do not need to boost our ego, for God is our focus and identity.

The first reading of the day from the first book of Kings and the second part of today’s Gospel speak about the complete and utter trust in God. The Sidonian widow was gathering sticks to cook the last meal out of the little flour that was left due to the famine in her land. When the Prophet Elijah asks her to give him some food, though initially she shows her inability to do so, gives him what he needs and there follows the miracle. The miracle does demand an act of faith from the person concerned, in fact a leap of faith. The donation of the poor widow in the temple has the same connotation to the first reading, as she gave everything she owned to God. She emptied her possessions completely, she gave away those two small coins and put herself completely at the mercy of God.

I feel we have a great message today, a message that tells us to put our trust in God, complete trust. We are invited to depend on God and once we begin to depend on God, we do not need to worry about our identity. After all it is God who needs to identify us, and people will follow. If we fail to depend on God then all our efforts to gain identity will fail. It is always two way traffic to the grace of God, God’s grace is flowing and we only need to open our hearts and minds to receive it. God’s grace flows in only when we are open to it. God’s gift only bears fruit when we receive and open it, God’s identity only becomes ours when keep God first and we will become truly human when we do a leap of faith as that of the poor widows in the readings today. So dear friends, let us be open to receive the rain of grace so that we may be filled with God and God’s identity.