Homily for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Trust In God’s Providence 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

November 10, 2024

In biblical times, widows were very vulnerable figures especially those who had no support and assistance from nuclear or extended family. At that time, there was no welfare assistance, no social security, no medicare or medicaid to support those who lost their means of livelihood. Because women were not breadwinners, they were the most threatened in society. They were habitually exploited by the wealthy and the powerful. This is the reason why the prophets of the Old Testament talk so much about widows and orphans, about God’s love for them and the importance of caring for them.

Our first reading (1 Kings 17:10-16) for today is the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. What led to their encounter? Fed up by the idolatry of King Ahab, Elijah, the great prophet of Israel confronted King Ahab and then pronounced that a great drought will descend upon the land. Now, don’t read this to mean that God is erratic, and his punishment arbitrary. Don’t see this to mean that when God is offended and is in a bad mood, he recklessly spews out punishment. No! The spiritual physics and the basic spiritual formula in full display here is this: connection to God always leads to life. Connection to God is like planting your tree beside a perennial river. Such a tree will always have enough water and nourishment. But when we detach from God, we suffer serious drought and lifelessness. Not because God is punishing us, but because our detachment from him, our refusal to be loved by God is itself a punishment which we have brought upon ourselves. Jesus, the very incarnation of the God of Israel himself says, “Cut off from me and you will do nothing” (John 15:5). This is what happened because of the idolatry of King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel. 

Now the prophecy of Elijah has come to pass. The effect of the drought is biting hard; water is drying, and nothing is growing. Like everyone else in Israel, Elijah himself falls victim to the drought. He is basically helpless. If nothing is done, Elijah will starve and die. Eventually he hears a message from the Lord, “Arise, go to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow there to feed you” (I Kings 17:9). This is quite strange. The man of God has been asked to seek refuge outside of the territory of Israel. As an immigrant myself, I can tell you that leaving one’s country is not easy. When I came to the USA, specifically to Memphis, Tennessee in 2007, it was very difficult for me. My parish is located on a dead end street. There was basically nothing going on during the weekdays. We didn’t have a cook and I cannot cook. The pastor of the parish is hardly around. Another priest that should have kept me company died two days before my arrival. I did not know anyone. I could not go out because I did not have my driving license yet. To sum it up, I was profoundly lonely. More to it, my greatest phobia is roaches and the rectory had giant roaches that terrorized me at night. It is never an easy venture to leave one’s comfort zone. So, Elijah was summoned by God to leave his nation, Israel and to head to this foreign land for survival. Furthermore, he was called to visit, not a rich person, but an impoverished widow. In the society of his time, women were seen as second class citizens, and a widow was someone without financial and emotional support. She was someone at the bottom of the social ladder. Check this out! Here is Elijah. He is in trouble. He is running out of food and water. Physical death is staring him in the face. And what is God’s solution to his many troubles? Leave your country, go to a foreign land you know nothing about, and when you get there, visit a widow and she will take care of you. I tell you, this is hard. But what’s God up to here? He is summoning Elijah and all of us out of our comfort zones. He is inviting us to trust in his providence. He is asking us to trust not our own instincts, not our own projects and plans, but his project and plan for us. When you are in a dire situation, when the rough wind of life is blowing and tossing you around, when life is extremely harsh and unfair to you, be attentive to the people that God is sending to you. You know, often in the Bible, the great figures of our salvation history are called out of their comfort zone. Our father Abraham was summoned to leave his homeland to a foreign land God promised to show him. Moses was called out of Egypt into the desert. I tell you, it is a summon to trust in God’s providence and not in our own plan and projects. To those who are suffering right now, who are going through a rough time, a time of drought, I invite you to do something counterintuitive— trust in the Lord’s providence. And be alert to the people that God sends to you.

Eventually Elijah arrives in Zarephath and meets the widow in her town. Like everyone else, this widow is also impacted by the effects of the famine. Don’t forget, we are talking about ancient times when there were no government programs to help the poor. And if a woman is a widow, and is running out of food and water, she is basically in pretty desperate condition. This is the shape she is in when prophet Elijah, trusting in God’s commands, comes to her and says, “please bring me a small cupful of water to drink.” After Elijah asks for water, he intensifies his request. Like Oliver Twist, he asks for more. When the widow protests that what she has is just one meal for her and her son before they die, Elijah asks her to make him a cake. At the very bottom of her life, when she has nothing, she is still invited to give and give. I can imagine Elijah saying to himself, “Is this the woman to whom I have been sent to solve my problem of starvation?” Nevertheless he trusts. 

As Elijah promised, “The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry.” The widow of Zarephath was able to eat for a year with her son because she gave away the very little she had and then found her resources multiplied. She now has enough food to sustain her, her son and the prophet. Why did it work? Because in the moment of truth, these two desperate people trusted in the Lord. With the help of Elijah, the widow of Zarephath stumbled upon what St. Pope John Paul II called the law of the gift: “Your being increases in the measure that you give it away.” The natural instinct in us says, “Accumulate things as much as you want.” “Grab and grab and never share.” “Hold on to them until you have a lot.” “If people want the same thing you want, keep them at bay.” “Keep those possessions, and it will make you happy.” But that view negates the basic sense of the universe, because the creator of the universe is love. Speaking of God, John says that God is love. Love is not something that God does from time to time. It is not one of God’s attributes. It is what God is through and through. Love is the hidden truth of all things. And the way it works is that the more you give of your life, the more the divine grace increases in you. This story is the secret of all the saints. Saints are different. They have different personality, backgrounds, but they all understood the law of the gift. And that’s why they all became sources of life and life-givers. 

If there is anyone out there who is presently experiencing any form of drought, what is God summoning you to do? If the sources of life have dried up, how do you open up those sources? The natural instinct is to conserve, to be stingy, to refuse to share, to cling tightly. But to open up the sources, you have to give even the little that you have. And then you will find it increase in you thirty, sixty and one hundred fold, as Jesus puts it. The spiritual lesson now is this, when you find yourself in a time of drought and famine, when the sources of life seem to have dried up, trust in the Lord. Trust in his providence. Don’t give up. Listen to what is happening around you, be attentive to the people you meet for they may have been sent by God. More to it, give in love even the little that you have. And you are going to find that the resources don’t dry up. In fact, they multiply. 

May God bless you with his peace.