DARE NOT TO CARE FOR ONESELF

The first and Gospel readings of today show God’s preferential option for widows, the poor and oppressed in the society. In the present world, the widows are very less, especially in the Christian circle. But in ancient Israel and during the time of Jesus the widows are the poor people. The husband being the breadwinner in the Jewish society, the wife is home maker but she becomes helpless when her husband dies. The levirate law allows the widows to remarry if the husband dies childless. But for the woman who loses her husband after begetting children the life becomes a challenge. Often, the widows are suspected of committing adultery. This speculation makes the widows’ life very terrible. At every moment she should be at watch about man who comes in contact with her; he may be her brother, relative, vendor… the presence of man in her home leads to suspicion. In this context, Jesus curses the scribes who pass judgment on widows with mere perceptions and assumptions. In many cases, false allegations are laid on widows as they have no one to defend their case.     Even if the case is true, the scribes have mercy for widows in their judgment. They extract as much money as possible from them. Jesus pronounces condemnations for this merciless act. The scribes act in this way because their judgments do not proceed from interior reflection and from the perspective of God. Their prayer less and unreflective life have made them to limit their analysis to mere human perception. Outside they showcase their prayer life but inside they are not same. “Every tree is known by its fruit” (Lk 6:44). The fruits of scribes show that their fruits do not proceed from their deep interior spiritual life. There is a dichotomy between their prayer life and judgment. The love of God only will effect one’s love for neighbour. It can neither be vice versa, nor one without the other. The two are inseparable. Last Sunday we reflected on these two greatest commandments! Therefore, it is no surprise that the judgments of scribes are merciless.

The second part of the Gospel shows that the judgments of widows are merciful and contrary to the scribes’ judgments. The offering of poor widow is considered greater than other offerings made by the rich and the wealthy. Jesus does not condemn or negate the goodness of others who made their offerings. He only exalts the offering of the poor widow. The offering of widow proceeds from her deep interior spiritual life. Her complete trust in the Lord and her duty-bound consciousness is seen in her offering. She preferred God over her comfort. She fulfilled her duty toward God over her excuse to care for oneself. The others shared their riches in their offering. But this poor widow dared not to care for herself and placed God as the first priority in her life. The same attitude is seen even in pagan widow, the widow of Zarephath, who willingly offered what she had with Prophet Elijah. In the state of widowhood they are very attentive and sympathetic toward the needy, because their helpless life has shown them that it is terrible to be alone, lonely and poor. They know what it means to live without any moral or material support. Only the poor can know the real distress of the other poor person. The rich also can understand the condition of the poor if only s/he become poor in front God in prayer. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3). A man who becomes poor and enters into a deep communion with God in prayer would realize the state of the poor. Mother Teresa of Calcutta is an apt example or this. Her deep reflective life and constant dialogue with the Lord in prayer helped her to discern her vocation as service toward the abandoned. In the Gospel, Jesus is warning us not be like scribes who analyse others without deep interior spiritual life. As followers of merciful God, we are invited to recognize the truthfulness of the poor. We are invited to show compassion and mercy toward poor and widow, who have no one to care for. Next week the church keeps the world day of the poor, the readings of today should pull our conscience to decide how to reach out to the poor. The readings show that the poor are very generous. Are we generous like poor widows in today’s readings? Are we ready to dare like poor widows? We do care and share, but the attitude of poor widows in the readings should push us to dare to reach out the needy and place God as first priority in one’s life. May we grow in our deep communion with the Lord so as to reach out to the needy and be merciful to the oppressed.