God of the Little
Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 Kings 17:10–16 / Psalm 146:1b / Hebrews 9:24–28 / Mark 12:38–44 [41–44] I
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Reflecting on the Word
By Dr. Karla J. Bellinger
Last April, I was growing tomatoes from seed. Some of the Chef’s Orange seedlings were only three inches high while others were overtopping them at six inches. I said to them, “Come on, you can grow! Just because you are littler, doesn’t mean that you can’t bear fruit.” Now in November, as I pull out the eight-foot plants that are done producing for the season, I cannot tell which were the little ones. They all produced sweet and juicy orange tomatoes. They blessed my table. Now they are done for the year. I am pleased with them.
Widows were those “little ones” in Israel. They were at the bottom of the social ladder, for a woman’s value was derived from her husband. A widow had no husband and thus no worth. They were the little tomatoes in the garden.
The widow in the book of Kings is ready to die in the great drought. Yet Elijah assures her that even in her littleness, God will provide for her. Her jars of flour and oil never run out. She has food for a year! The psalmist says, “The Lord gives food to the hungry.”
Jesus is not impressed by the overtopping “bigness” of the scribes and the Pharisees. They have seats of honor. They are applauded for their spirituality. They pray long prayers to impress an audience. He’s just as unmoved by the rich, who put large sums of money—
from their excess—into the treasury. They will shrivel on the vine. It is the widow whom Jesus celebrates in her littleness. She has given all that she has. She may not make the news. She may not make the history books. When harvest time comes and all of them are done, it won’t matter how small she was. She has borne sweet and succulent fruit. God is pleased with her.
Consider/Discuss
- Littleness and abundance—what makes it so hard to be willing to be small? What impresses us? What drives us to want to look important?
- The widow’s mite—what is that in our lives? What do we have to give that seems little, but is everything?
Living and Praying with the Word
Jesus, when we are done with life, we would like for you to be pleased with us. As we move toward the end of the church year, you focus our minds on the harvest time. You ask us to look at the fruitfulness of our lives. We know that the end is coming. Forgive us those little things that we have ignored, or we let go of, or we did not feel were important. Today, this day, fill our jars with the grace of your presence so that even our small generosities never run out.