When the Lord Sends Rain Upon the Earth
8 November, 2009Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 Kings 17:10-16
Ps. 146:7-10
Heb. 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44
Imagine the heavy heart of this widow when she hears Elijah's call. Her plan is to eat what little she has with her son, then wait for death to come for both of them. Imagine the dark swirl of thoughts in her mind when she hears the prophet's voice: "Bring me a little water, that I may drink."
Why does she comply? Is she moved by compassion? Does she have some hint of the prophet's importance? Or does her status in society compel her to defer?
At any rate, this small step opens the door—to a test, and to a blessing. Though all seems bleak in her household, she extends what hospitality she can. She takes the prophet at his word, and she finds her needs provided for. When she thought all was lost, she finds she has just enough to make it through.
In the end, does she dare hope for brighter and richer days, when "the Lord sends rain upon the earth?" (1 Kgs. 17:14)
Jesus doesn't tell us the thoughts of the widow in his parable, either. Is she, too, giving all she has that she may go home to die? Does she hope for days of bounty to come, or does she long to offer up her life along with her pennies, and bid pain and poverty goodbye? It is not a token sacrifice that she makes, but she gives all she has, her whole self, to the Lord.
Like these poor widows, Christ has offered himself completely, his life trusted fully to the father's hands, expressed so perfectly in his last words on the Cross "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" (Lk. 23:46)—itself an echo of that great Davidic song of hope in the Lord, Psalm 31. So are our sufferings a share in that one great suffering—not repeated for our defeat and humiliation, but as a path towards our final victory.
It is a lesson in sacrifice, a lesson of trust. Even when my jar of meal seems awfully lean, I've found I've just enough to pass through the darkest days. But what do I dare hope for, in the days when the Lord sends rain to water the parched land again?