HAS OFFERED HER WHOLE LIVELIHOOD

Rev 14,1-3.4b-5; Ps 23; Lk 21,1-4
26 NOVEMBER

Whoever wants to serve and love the Lord must live his life as a perennial, uninterrupted creation of his Lord. Without this faith in the God who creates our life, we cannot walk with him. Who walks must only think of walking. If he thinks of anything else he does not walk, he stops, while God never stops. This truth is the rule of following Jesus. Following Christ is going after Christ. If you go after Him, you cannot think of anything else but walking. Everything disappears, only the path remains. The disciple is asked to walk. Everything else will be done by the Heavenly Father.

The Lord asked Moses to walk. If the people walk and as long as they walk, they can neither plough nor sow nor gather. Who will give them bread to satisfy their hunger? The Lord thinks of this. He makes water flow from the hard stone, from the rock. He makes bread come down from the sky every night. Elijah must walk with the Lord. First he is fed by a crow. Then by a poor, indeed very poor widow, in Sarepta in Sidone. Jesus calls men to follow him. They walk with Christ, behind Him. The Father provides for their nourishment. Even when Jesus sends his missionaries, they go, but entrusted to the providence of the Father, who every day will create for them what is necessary for their sustenance.

Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep (Mt 10,5-10).

As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “(Lord,) let me go first and bury my father.” But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” (To him) Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plough and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God” (Lk 9,57-62).

This is the difference between the poor widow and all the others. The widow lets herself be created every day by her Lord. The gift she gave to her God bears witness to this. She gave him everything, without holding back anything for herself. She lives for her God and from Him. The after for her is the true creation of her Lord. On the other hand, others hold their lives firmly in their hands. They give to the Lord, but of their superfluity. They have to look after themselves and therefore they must always do the calculations well. But if we calculate with God, he too calculates with us. We are the ones who lose, certainly not him. We lose his Providence. We remain deprived of his every gift. We will be poor forever.

When he looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. He said, “I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.”

Whoever in the faith lets himself be created every moment by his God, he lacks nothing. Instead, who holds his life tight in his hands will always miss everything. God might not help him, because he does nothing and has done nothing to be helped by his Lord. Faith understood as obedience to the word of the Lord always asks us to give everything we have or possess to go where the Word sends, to do what the Word asks. The poor widow thus becomes a model of the true disciple of Jesus. One leaves what he possesses, to entrust himself entirely to the divine providence creator of our future.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, make us true disciples, always obedient to the Word.