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God provides for His people

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), I Kings 17:10-16.

Chapters 17 and 18 of the First Book of Kings are concerned with the struggles of the prophet Elijah with King Ahab. Ahab ruled the northern kingdom in the ninth century B.C. In his 22-year reign, Ahab "did evil in the sight of the Lord more than any of his predecessors" (I Kings 16:30). His greatest iniquity was his devotion to Baal, the Canaanite god of fertility. Not only did Ahab and his family worship Baal, but he imposed the worship of Baal on the people at large.

In response to Ahab's wickedness, God sends Elijah the prophet to the king to tell him that there would be drought in the land until God decided otherwise. The fertility that Baal was supposed to provide would not be forthcoming.

As the drought begins to make itself felt, God provides ravens to bring food to Elijah and a stream to provide water for an initial period, but then the source of the water dries up, and God sends Elijah north to Zarephath, near Sidon where he will be taken care of.

This is where this Sunday's reading begins. Elijah finds the person whom God had designated to take care of him, a widow with a young son. When Elijah asks her for food and water, she lets him know that she is suffering from the drought like everybody else. She only has enough to survive on for a short time. Elijah tells her not to be afraid but to do as he says. She does, and her meager supply of flour and oil proved to be enough to feed Elijah and the widow and her son for a whole year.

In this context of Elijah and the widow and her son, God does what Baal was supposed to do: provide for His people. He preserves His prophet from harm and includes the weak, poor, powerless widow and her son in His loving care.

In its original context, this brief story is a narrative of power and of faith. By the power of God's word through Elijah, the fertility of the earth dries up. In response to the faith and trust of Elijah, not only he but also those who care for him are taken care of. This whole section of the history of God's people is intended to lead the readers into deeper faith and confidence in God's power. The pagan gods will not prevail. The word of the Lord will both punish His enemies and protect His friends.

In the Gospel reading, (Mark 12:38-44) we hear about another widow. This time it is a widow who puts two small coins into the temple treasury and who is praised by Jesus for her generosity. "She, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood."

The juxtaposition of these two readings seem to suggest that there are two themes that the Lectionary intends to bring to our attention. The first is God's concern for the weak and the powerless. In the midst of the drought, God provides for the widow of Zarephath and her son. She is poor, unimportant, without resources. But she nonetheless attracts the care and the attention of God. So does the widow of the Gospel who wins the praise and the attention of the Lord himself. You don't have to be important in the world's categories to be important in the sight of God.

The second theme is the theme of generosity. Both widows were poor. Neither one had much to give. But they gave of what they had. The Old Testament widow shared her flour and oil with the prophet. The New Testament widow gave her all to help provide for the upkeep of God's house.

The quantity of their giving was not its most significant element. What mattered was their reverence for God's prophet and God's house which they expressed by freely sharing the little bit that they had at their disposal.

Obviously these readings call on us to be generous. We are all called to look out for the prophets of the Lord. We are all called to help provide for the praise of God in His church.

And what counts is not so much the quantity of what we give, but the portion of our own being that accompanies our gift. Generosity is not measured by the amount that we give, but by the amount that is left for ourselves after we have given.

And we are also called to be grateful for the care and attention that God lavishes on us. It is not for our personal importance that God pays attention to us, not because of our individual virtuousness. God pays attention to us because He loves us. In God's sight we are all poor, all dependent, all limited. But those are precisely the kind of people that God loves most.

For reflection and discussion

How have I been helped by someone apparently without resources?

What resources do I have to offer to others?