Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Happy Sunday Brothers and Sisters,

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus is moved by this poor widow who gave 2 coins out of her deficit, as this was her gift of self to the temple, to the Lord. This Gospel paired with the first reading from 1 Kings helps emphasize Jesus’ message of stewardship and the total gift of self. As in the first reading, Elijah asks a lot of this widow, who barely has enough to provide for herself and her son, but then reassures her that God’s generosity cannot be outdone.

It is important to know that God’s reason for asking, sometimes difficult, things of us is not because He wants to take good things away from us; on the contrary, He wants to give us even better than we can imagine. At times, all we know and focus on are gifts that we currently have. We hold on to them so tightly that God can’t give us more of what He really wants us to have. And in all actuality, what He asks of us is worth far less than the gifts He desires to give us. But we do not have to be concerned with not having much to give God. God will take the little we have to offer because all He really wants is you. If you only have two coins to give, God cannot imagine a more beautiful gift to receive from you.

God being our Father, our Creator, knows us through and through. He knows how He frees us by asking us to release back to Him the grip and attention we have on the things that we often cling so tightly to. We were created for relationship, we are meant to give of ourselves. Living solely for oneself and only helping/giving out of excess can feel empty because we were created for more than making sure we are comfortable. We were made by Love, for love, and to love. And what better definition of love is there than willing the good of the other? Which includes willing the good of the Church and willing the good of our brothers and sisters. Therefore let us live as God created us by trying to ‘will the good of the other’ by giving fully of ourselves, our time, treasures, and talents, because through asking us of these, God is offering us the ability to love fully.

Dominique Brutus, Drexel FOCUS Missionary