Join us today as we celebrate Holy Communion for the thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time, 11/7/21. To follow along at home, click here and print the Holy Communion Program. Video and text of today’s homily below.
If you would like to have prayers offered for you, a loved one, a friend, for someone who is suffering, ill or who has departed, please email Archdeacon Mitch at mitch@heritageartsinc.com and we will pray for you.
You’ll notice a new painting on the wall behind the altar and some new stained glass. If you’d like to assist in the beautification of St. Barachiel Chapel, please click here to make a donation.
Homily for the Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sunday, 11/7/21
Readings: 1 Kgs 17:10-16, Ps 146:7, 8-9, 9-10, Heb 9:24-28, Mk 12:38-44
Friends, the greater the investment the greater the reward. We all know this. It’s obvious. If you invest five bucks in lemons, sugar and paper cups you can make ten bucks selling lemonade at lemonade stand. But if you have five million bucks, you could invest in a business venture that nets you ten million. You are fully aware, when you make an investment, that returns aren’t guaranteed. But, if you work hard, use good judgement, and play your cards right, they are very likely.
Gifts, on the other hand, are entirely different. A sincere gift has no strings attached. When you give a gift, you expect no return. The similarity between a gift and an investment is that in either case your purse or wallet gets lighter. And the difference is in here – in your heart – and it’s significant.
How often are gifts and donations actually investments? We can’t know what’s in the hearts of others, but for some people and for many businesses certainly, donations are aren’t gifts but investments. They are attempts to gain influence, to impress others, to appear generous, and to build goodwill in the community. These gifts are essentially a form of advertising that leads to increased sales. The example that leaps to mind is the mobster John Gotti, who was famous for his good works. He wanted witnesses to his crimes to focus on his good works and look the other way when the police came knocking.
The scribes and pharisees in today’s readings make a different kind of investment. Instead of money, they invest their time doing God’s work, preaching, preserving scripture, and so forth, and they expect a return on their investment – nice robes, good food, prestige and praise. And it works, doesn’t it? Sure it does. But Jesus says their ultimate reward will be God’s condemnation. Kind of like John Gotti. It worked for him in the short term too, but he died in prison and his ultimate reward? Well, that’s in God’s hands.
Today, in our readings, we see two widows, both giving up their last two cents for the servants of God. The widow of Zarephath gives her last penny’s worth of flour and last penny’s worth of oil to make a cake for Elijah. The widow from the Mark reading gives her last two cents to support to the work of the temple, it’s priests and scribes and so on.
And what’s so miraculous, beautiful, and full of grace is that their gifts are transformed into investments by God. The widow of Zarephath receives enough flour to keep her family fed for a whole year! And when her son dies, God, through Elijah, brings him back to life. But in order for that to happen, their gifts had to be pure and unselfish. They made no bargains. Neither said, “look, I’m giving you my last two cent’s worth here, there had better be a return on my investment soon or I’m going to starve.”
Let us, brothers and sisters, be like those two poor widows. Let us give God all our faith and all of our trust without hope of gain. Let’s not say, “Look, I’m giving you all my faith, but there better be an ultimate reward coming.” Let’s not donate from our surplus, but from our poverty. That, I suggest, is what the gospel means when it says “blessed are the poor in spirit.”