God of the Little

Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

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.

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