32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
First Reading: 1 Kgs 17:10-16
Second Reading: Heb 9:24-28
Gospel Reading: Mk 12:38-44
“Would one of you hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf, or a poisonous snake when he asks for a fish?” Jesus said. “If you, with all your sins, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to anyone who asks him!”
This Sunday, we hear of two women who believed this, one feeding Elijah with the last of her food, and the other putting “all she had to live on” into the temple treasury.
Do we believe it?
In the beginning, God gave Adam and Eve “every seed-bearing plant” and “every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it” for their food, but he forbade them to eat from one particular tree.
At first, they trusted God to provide everything they needed, including their food. However, “tempted by the devil,” they let their trust in their Creator die in their hearts and, abusing their freedom, “disobeyed God’s command,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This is what the first sin consisted of.
“As a young man wants a regular allowance from his father that he can count on as his own,” says C.S. Lewis, “so they desired to be on their own, to take care for their own future, to plan for pleasure and security, to have something of their own” from which they would give God a reasonable amount of time, attention, and love, but which “would be theirs, not his.”
Because they no longer trusted him, God said to the man, “Cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life … By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat.”
All sin is the same, says the Catechism: “disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.”
For example, as the Israelites were crossing the desert, God told Moses, “In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread, so that you may know that I, the Lord, am your God.”
Each morning, every man was to gather just what he and his household needed that day, except for the sixth day, when he was to gather enough for the Sabbath as well. “Thus will I test them,” God said, “to see whether they follow my instructions or not.”
Accordingly, Moses warned them not to keep any food for the next day. When they tried to, it became “wormy and rotten.”
Even our own disobedience is based on lack of trust in God’s providence. For example, we disobey the First Commandment, consulting horoscopes and psychic readers in case they can offer us knowledge that God will not. We disobey the Sixth and the Ninth Commandments, committing adultery in case God will not give us the rapture we desire. We disobey the Seventh and the Tenth Commandments, coveting and stealing our neighbour’s goods in case God will not provide what we need.
Dare we trust God for our happiness?
Yes! “God made us to know him, love him, and serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next,” says The Penny Catechism. At the heart of God’s creation is his desire to make room for created persons in the communion of the uncreated Persons of the Blessed Trinity, said the International Theological Commission.
God “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not die, but may have eternal life,” St. John said. “I came that they might have life, and have it to the full,” Jesus said.
He came “to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself,” says the Letter to the Hebrews. Now he appears “in the presence of God on our behalf.”
Yes; we can trust God for our happiness.
Father Hawkswell is again teaching The Catholic Faith in Plain English in both written and YouTube form at beholdvancouver.org/catholic-faith-course. Session 8, available on YouTube starting Oct. 24, is “Liturgy: Public Worship.”