32nd Sunday Year B - Ho,ily 5

Homily 5 - 2021

I have been thinking about the contrast between the scribes and the poor widow. I have been wondering how they might have felt about life — not about the physical or economic details so much as about the experience of their lives from the inside. How did they feel about themselves?

The scribes seemed to be in competition to be admired and to be noticed; each hoping to be honoured more than his peers. Sadly, their needs seem have been so deep that they were prepared to exploit the poor and powerless, and even to use God in a show of lengthy prayers.

The widow was into none of that. Heartlessly persuaded by scribes and others, she was virtually conned into supporting the temple system, the buildings along with the personnel, mainly priests and Levites, as an unquestioned expression of her dedication to God. She gave, as Jesus remarked, “all she possessed” — not unlike Jesus himself who would soon give his life for the world’s redemption

The scribes as a group unconsciously revealed themselves as quite insecure, thirsty, as they were, for even phoney popularity and honour, consumed in a desperate effort to feel OK about themselves. To bolster some sense of self-esteem, they were prepared even to use God. The widow, on the other hand, seemed content with who she was. She was free enough to give away “everything”, ultimately, to God.

I ask myself who, scribe or widow, might have slept more soundly at night? Which of them could calmly live life without a futile worry about relative honour or prestige?

Jesus commented in relation to the scribes, “The more severe will be the sentence they receive”. “Sentence” from whom, I wonder. When people do not have the real thing, when they cannot gently love themselves, they desperately reach out for substitutes. And substitutes, precisely because they are substitutes, never satisfy. Just observe an alcoholic, or a compulsive gambler, or simply those submerged in our consumerist culture!

The widow, on the other hand, is a classic instance of Jesus’ observation, “Blessed are you who are poor. Yours is the Kingdom of God”.

We have a wonderful tradition in our Church during November to pray for the faithful departed.
If one of the scribes, craving for prestige, and the poor, powerless widow were with us today, my guess is that it would be the widow, at peace with herself, who would be the one drawing quiet comfort from her sense of belonging to, and faithfully caring about, “the faithful departed”.

We can learn from the widow with her obvious inner freedom. With it, we can develop a comforting, tender conviction about the “communion of saints”. We can feel close to our departed brothers and sisters, responsibly caring for them. We love them.

We trust that they love us.