June 9, 2013

Bulletin June 9, 2013 10^th Sun Ordin C

1 Kings 17:17-24; Galatians 1:11-19; Luke 7:11-17

The examples in the readings today really help me in my journey to the Lord in a different sense:  they tell me how important I am to the Lord and how it is important for me to ask the Lord for what I need to BE Him.   This might sound a little unusual in its interpretation but it is necessary for one wishing to advance in the spiritual life:  each person is important to the Lord.

The first reading from Kings and the Gospel from Luke both use the example of the plight of a widow; one son’s had just stopped breathing and the other’s son had died.  In their world, even more so than our world, a widow losing her only son would have almost seemed like a death sentence for them too. In their culture women had very little rights; they relied on men for nearly everything.  The man provided for all the needs of the household and also protected the family.  So if the husband died, the woman was alone in a male-dominated society.  She would have to totally support herself unless someone reached out to help her.  So often it was the son who would care for her and if the son had died she was ‘left out in the cold’; there were no jobs or positions open for her, she had to depend on ‘begging’ on the streets.   The Dictionary of the Bible describes this in more detail:  “In ancient society the independent woman did not exist; she was a member of a family and dependent either upon her father or upon her husband.  The position of a widow could therefore be difficult. She wore clothing to designate her condition.  She could not inherit from her husband, and in the early period she was a part of the inheritance of the eldest son…The woman who had no man to defend her rights was an obvious victim for the exactors of a creditor and for any type of oppression. The widow had no defender at law and was therefore at the mercy of dishonest judges.”  It’s no wonder that the Acts of the Apostles stresses how the early Church concentrated its efforts on helping the widow.

For each of these women their faith was at its limits; they were alone.  What did they feel like?  In the first reading there was a famine in the land and drought.  Ravens brought food twice a day to Elijah.  God sent him to a widow to care for him, and now sickness has claimed the life of the widow’s son.  The widow acknowledges her guilt, but still wonders why this would mean that her son should die too.  She associates sin with death; since the son died, she must have sinned.  In a beautiful intense prayer scene, Elijah knows that God has the power to nourish life, but also restore it; all that is required is trust and faith.  She gave her son to Elijah. 

For the widow of Naim facing the tragic ramifications of her son’s death, Jesus was “moved with pity”.  “Do not weep” means that Jesus is going to act. He touches the ‘casket’ and ‘commands’ that the man arise; an incredible act of love and generosity.

Now the important reflection is that the act of Elijah and the act of Jesus changed the life of the widows but also of the two sons.  And it changed the life of everyone whose life would interact with them:  everyone who loved them, everyone who depended on them, everyone with whom they would come in contact with in the future.  As John Dunne, “No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”   This tells me about the life of my faith in God and where I am in God’s plan:  He needs me to be Him.  So what do I need from God to be Him today and each day?  I need to ask; Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 7:7), “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks; finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened… [And the beautiful explanation]... Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread or a snake when he asks for a fish?  If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him.”

Fr. Anthony Kadavil in Teaching and Preaching Resources expresses the need to ask God well:  “You see when we sincerely and faithfully ask God for good things for ourselves, we are not the only ones to receive the benefits of God’s blessings.  Others receive them too.  For example, when we have a joyful and hopeful spirit, we can help lift the spirits of others.  And when we have a decent, steady job, we can be financially generous with others.  And when we have good health, we can do more for those who can’t do for themselves.  And when our relationships of every kind are strong and healthy, we can give real hope to those whose relationships are struggling.  And when we experience God’s forgiveness, we can more easily extend that same sort of radical forgiveness to others.  In other words, when we are able to live the transformed kind of life that Jesus died to make possible, the world around us becomes transformed too.  When we are at our best, we have the best to offer others---or more accurately, God can provide others with good things through us.”  So asking for things, attitudes, and dispositions etc. for me is not selfish, it is a faithful act.  This is what Paul is sharing in the second reading:  look what God can do through me and each person if we allow Him to enter, love and direct us.  Why else was I created at this time and in this place?  So I must be bold and ask God for all the good things not just for others but for myself too.  And I reflect on:

·       Compassion moved Jesus; am I a compassionate person each day?  Do I reflect on how I can be more aware and more compassionate?

·        When I look back at my life and reflect on the times when I felt all was lost, I received the help I needed despite the desperate circumstances.  Where did that help come from?  Was I grateful to God?  Were there added lessons from God to me?

·       What women of great faith do I know and how have they touched me and brought me to this point in my life?

·       What moves me to pity?

Sacred Space tells me, “Paul was transformed not by intellectual or moral thought but by his encounter with the risen Jesus.  How do I know the risen Lord in my life?  How do others know Him through me?”