All In
Story – A chicken, a pig, and breakfast for the farmer…
On a much more serious note – Tomorrow is Veterans’ Day.
Veterans know what it means to be all in – all in for each other and all in for our country – all in for the freedoms that we enjoy.
Do we have any Veterans here today? Please stand. (Applause)
Thank you for your service.
What about our faith? Are we all in? The widow of Zarephath was!
The widow of Zarephath was down to her very last handful of flour and her last drops of oil. I’ve never been there. I don’t know how many of us have. I don’t know what that would be like. Yet the widow went all in for Elijah. Why? She knew that he was a man of God – and she had some faith in him. His name translated as “Yahweh is my God.” Elijah was working to help preserve the knowledge and worship of Yahweh against the culture of Baal worship.
The widow had some faith in Elijah, but mostly, she had faith in God – strong faith! She was prepared to use up the last food that she had and then, it was all up to God.
She may have prayed, “God, I trust in you…I do what I can…but ultimately, I trust in you.”
That trust, that faith was rewarded by a jar of flour that did not go empty and a jug of oil that did not run dry.
The Faith she had deeply enriched her life and brought her eternal salvation.
Do we have that kind of faith? Can we pray and surrender our concerns and problems over to Jesus? There is power in that kind of prayer.
Our Gospel reading is sometimes called “The Widow’s Mite.”
Mite (m-i-t-e) – (n), a small, Jewish coin that was the smallest denomination used in the time of the New Testament.”
But the widow knew something that the wealthier may have missed – she gave her all – she gave sacrificially and with that gift, she has might – m-i-g-h-t. Might is what I want to talk about today.
In the Eucharist, there is might.
In the way that we live out the Eucharist in our lives, there is might.
2nd reading…
(Hebrews 5) Earlier, in St. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews he writes:
“…we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.”
St. Paul picks up on that theme again in today’s second reading.
Jesus, our High Priest, “…offered [himself] once to take away the sins of many [and] will appear a second time, not to take away sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.”
That is us, my sisters, and brothers!
Jesus offered the single sacrifice of himself as the final annulment of sin.
Just as death is the unrepeatable act that ends a person’s life, so Christ’s offering of himself is the unrepeatable sacrifice that has once for all achieved redemption.
Yet we can re-experience this sacrificial offering weekly, or even daily if we choose?
Christ’s offering of himself – body, blood, soul, and divinity – was offered once – but in the sacrifice at the altar, we are able to stand with Christ at that very moment in history. We are able to be with him – to watch one hour with him.
In this most holy hour, we experience the love that he has for us and that experience prepares us to go forth and live that love in our daily lives.
Here is how Bishop Ricken states it in his pastoral letter,
“In the Eucharist, Christ gives everything he has: his body, blood, soul, and divinity. He holds nothing back; not just from the Church, but from each of us individually. We are obliged, then, to “go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37). We are accountable to the life we have received in the Eucharist. As we have experienced mercy, we must dispense mercy. As we have known kindness, we must show kindness. As we have received charity, we must extend charity. The Eucharist is the model and the measure for our own self-giving.”
Can we truly pray psalm 146? Most psalms are songs of praise – but this one is a call to action!
- Keep faith forever.
- Secure justice for the oppressed
- Give food to the hungry
- Set prisoners free.
- Give sight to the blind.
- Raise up those who are bowed down.
- Love the righteous
- Protect strangers.
- Sustain the orphan and the widow.
- Thwart the way of the wicked
- And maintain and strengthen Christianity in these current generations
Bishop Ricken continued:
“Not everyone can do everything. Even in the ancient Church, [and here he goes back to Tertullian, a convert in North Africa in the second Century] people did what they could, not more — but not less, either. The Christians who visited the mines and the prisons were probably not the same ones who were burying the dead or tending the orphans. Everyone did something. Everyone found a way to share out of the infinite love he or she had received in Mass. That is how the Church converted the Western world in a relatively brief span of time. Christians, fortified by the love of God in the Eucharist, went out and loved their neighbors. The love received at Mass overflowed into the world, and it changed the world. So, we can be certain that success in evangelization is not only possible. It is proven. It has been done.”
Our Western Culture is once again in need of reform! Do you agree with that?
We have strayed far from God.
We can reverse the direction of Western Culture, and it begins with the Eucharist.
It has been done before, and we can do it again.
This effort to return to God – to revive Christianity in American culture begins with our families. It begins in our own sphere of influence.
It will not happen overnight, and it may not happen in my lifetime, but we can take steps now to turn back to God.
It might feel like all we have is a “mite” – but together, if we are all in, and if we have total faith in God, we have all the strength we need. We have “might!”
Let us pray…