Texts taken from the Missal “On Your Word” November-December 2024

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
4th week. psalter

FIRST READING

From the First Book of Kings (1 Kings 17:10-16)
In those days, the prophet Elijah arose and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the gate of the city, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” As she was going to get it, he called after her, “Please bring me also a piece of bread.” She replied, “As the Lord, your God, lives, I have nothing baked, but only a handful of flour in the jar and a little oil in the jug; now I am gathering two sticks, and after I go and prepare it for myself and my son, we shall eat it and then die.” Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said. But first make me a small cake and bring it to me; then prepare something for yourself and your son, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘The jar of flour shall not go empty and the jug of oil shall not run dry until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the face of the earth.’” She went and did as Elijah had said; then she, he, and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour did not go empty and the jug of oil did not run dry, according to the word that the Lord had spoken through Elijah. - The Word of the Lord.

Commentary on the First Reading

Because of the iniquities of the people of Israel, who worshiped other deities, punishment came: a drought that lasted a long time. Since the prophet Elijah had said, “There shall be neither dew nor rain except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1), the Israelites turned against him, holding him responsible for the drought. Thus he had to flee and withdrew to Lebanon, to Sidon, where he met an extremely poor widow. The dialogue is described in today’s reading: the woman agrees to give the little she has to feed the prophet, knowing that afterward she will have nothing left for herself and her son. Yet this generosity is immediately rewarded: the flour and oil miraculously multiplied. What the chosen people had been unable to do is now accomplished by a foreign woman, who recognizes in some way that Elijah is a man of God and therefore obeys him. All this teaches us to be humble. If punishment comes, we must ask forgiveness and amend our ways, knowing that faith is always rewarded in the end.  

SECOND READING

From the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 9:24-28)
Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a figure of the true one, but heaven itself, now to appear before God on our behalf. Nor must he offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the sanctuary every year with blood that is not his own; in that case, he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now, once for all, at the end of the ages, he has appeared to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for human beings to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not in relation to sin, but to those who await him for their salvation. - The Word of the Lord.

Commentary on the Second Reading

This passage from the Letter to the Hebrews is usually commented on by emphasizing that Jesus suffered only once, accomplished the sacrifice of the cross in history, and that this is valid for everyone and forever, because the saving act is made present from generation to generation through time by the holy Mass. Less emphasis is placed on the following reference: “He will appear a second time.” We read that the Lord will return again, but “not in relation to sin.” He will therefore come not to ascend the cross again (he did that once for all), but for other things. Which ones? Some understand this as Christ’s daily coming into the heart of the individual believer, for example when we receive Communion or are otherwise in God’s grace, but it can also be understood as a second coming in visible form, a more evident manifestation of the risen Christ for everyone, a coming in power to defeat Satan (2 Thess 2) and establish a long period of peace on earth (Rev 20). Both interpretations are plausible and supported by great saints and doctors of the Church.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Mark (Mk 12:38-44)
At that time, Jesus [in the temple] said to the crowd in his teaching: “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, to receive greetings in the marketplaces, to have the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour the houses of widows and recite long prayers for the sake of appearance. They will receive a very severe condemnation.” He sat opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two small coins, worth a penny. Then, calling his disciples to himself, he said to them: “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all the others. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth. But she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, all she had to live on.” - The Word of the Lord.

Commentary on the Gospel of the Day

“We are so presumptuous,” Pascal wrote, “that we would like to be known by everyone, even by those who will come after we are gone; and we are so vain that the esteem of five or six people around us makes us happy and satisfies us.” Thus, what the Lord observed concerning the scribes of Jerusalem remains valid today as well. Conversely, the humble and devout attitude, hiding from people and allowing oneself to be seen only by God, is what the widow presents to us, becoming an example for all of us to imitate. Goodness has a kind of “modesty”: it does not wish to be praised, and in its shyness the act of love becomes more effective the more secret it is. “If she was sweating from the great heat,” Sister Celina wrote about her sister, Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, “or if she suffered from the excessive cold in winter, she had the exquisite thought of wiping her face or rubbing her hands only in passing, so as not to give the good God time to see her.” Paradoxical, isn’t it? And yet the saints are like this: they want others to know and recognize their faults, but they hide the good that the Spirit inspires them to do, because the right hand must not know what the left is doing.