Homily, November 10, 2024
From The Pastor
Flowing from the gospel of last Sunday that calls us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, how do we give God our all? What might that even look like? In a monetary, consumer, media, superficial driven culture, how do we learn to direct our lives fully to the life of Christ? To support this insight, ponder how we may more fully realize all God has given to us in the Lord Jesus.
Today’s readings offer living examples of what surrendering our lives to God may look like. The faith and trust of the widow of Zarephath is stunning. Her life is in the crisis of a three-year drought. She is poor, alone without a husband or other forms of support. She appears resigned to death with her son after a final meal of bread and water.
The Prophet Elijah appears. It is not made clear, but she must recognize him as a man of God. Elijah is Jewish believing in Yahweh as the one true God. The woman is a Gentile of unknown religion. God has sent Elijah purposely to this woman and her son. Elijah is unfazed by the circumstance. He simply goes about his business as directed by God. He is in the custom of knowing and trusting God whole heartedly. Why does the woman even give this man a second thought? Maybe it is the weight of fear in her crisis. Maybe it is her only hope to trust the Prophet who promises the flour and oil will not run out. She surrenders all to the man of God and is not left in want.
The widow in the gospel is the same, but in a different frame. She knows God and deeply believes and loves God with all she has. She is not in crisis. She appears to be acting freely and with willful desire when she offers her last two cents to God. Her faith, love, and trust in God is complete. Her place in the Kingdom of God is assured at the word of Jesus who affirms loving devotion.
These are two images of what it looks like to give God our all. Most, if any of us, have not encountered the experience or response of these two women. What might this kind of trust look like in your life? In the reasonable security and stability most of us enjoy, how might we come to trust with such an ardent faith that acts with total and willing surrender?
The second reading offers us the opportunity to consider the trust and complete surrender of the Lord Jesus. How can we realize more fully all God gives us in the person of Jesus? The gift God offers through the Incarnate Son is a pure act of Divine love. Human perception and understanding cannot fathom the measure and capacity of this kind of love. It is a love that can only be perceived through faith; a living faith confirmed through felt experience of personal encounters. The redemptive work of God through the Lord Jesus is an act of love that can only be satisfied and fulfilled by God. It is a sacrifice so perfect it never needs to be repeated. Jesus offers his own blood, his own life, once for all. Emphasis on all. Inclusively, every human being who ever existed or will ever exist is offered the gift of redemption through the Lord Jesus.
To give our all to the mystery of this loving sacrifice we are called to become mindfully conscious and heartfully attentive to the person and the life of Christ. With conscious attention and heartfelt faith, we are to ponder who Christ is as the God of our faith. We must ponder deeply what he does, why he does it, and what the effect his life has on us. The obvious: Jesus is the Son of the Divine God, he died out of love to save us from sin and death, that we may share the union of Divine love in the glory of heaven. Just a string of words we have all heard before? Hardly. Why do we so ardently believe in Jesus, hope in him, and long for what he promises? Because God has sown this longing in our hearts. We are more than animated physical bodies. We are spiritual beings in whom the Lord Jesus dwells in the power of his Spirit.
Our response? Allowing, forming, practicing gratitude as a primary and consistent stance of self-identity. Your life is God’s gift; a gift God dearly loves to offer you, and from which God takes great delight. This is not only life here, but with the promise of life hereafter in perfect union with God in heaven. Can you believe this in an actively mindful and heartfelt way? Can you trust this in good times and in bad, through thick and thin, in the best or the worst days?
To know yourself in a stance of gratitude will deeply enrich your knowledge and awareness of God. You will not only learn to love yourself, but you will also grow in faith and trust in those around you. You will begin to see God in others and be moved to reach out beyond yourself toward the needs of others.
Living in gratitude for the gift of God given in Christ will draw you to works of justice, tolerance, and charity toward others. You will be more accepting of others no matter who they are. This is a lifetime journey, but you will be on your way to loving God with your whole self.
Father John Esper
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