32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B By Tobe Eze

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B.

 FIRST READING

1 Kings 17:10—16

SECOND READING
Hebrews 9:24—28

GOSPEL
Mark 12:38—44

THEME: A POWERFUL SACRIFICE.

After looking at what sacrifice means, David in 2Samuel 24:24 said, I will not offer to my God a holocaust that cost me nothing. Which means, every sacrifice we make must take something from us. In the African traditional religion, a deity (arusi) demands certain sacrifices from its worshipers from time to time. Sometimes this sacrifice will be too much for the person and he will be running around to see how he/she will meet up with it. In our own time or our own religion, our Lord do not demand a particular sacrifice from us any longer but a sacrifice that comes from the heart. Sometimes it may be prescribed for us by a prophet or a genuine representative of God and we are expected to accept it in good faith. And this will lead me into the first reading. Continue Reading................................

In the first reading, the type of sacrifice the window of Zarephath made was prescribed to her by the prophet Elijah. She did not reject or complain about the sacrifice rather she accepted it but told the prophet the amount she had. When the prophet told her what to do with it, she happily did it and multiple blessings came her way. The window saw the necessity of obeying God through his prophet and God himself blessed her for that act of faith. Every sacrifice must cost something very serious and that will lunch me into the second reading.

Jesus after checking the sacrifices priests of old make every year for the forgiveness of sins, seeing that they were sacrifices coming from outside the priest which may be probably provided by the people thought of using something greater and very expensive and that is his own life. He offered one single sacrifice for sins and for our salvation. Through his death and resurrection, we are now made children of God if we make our own little sacrifice by carrying our crosses everyday of our lives and following him. This sacrifice we talk about is part of the cross we must carry and ways to carry the cross is showed to us in the gospel.

In the gospel, a widow just like the window in the first reading (not the type of widows we do have these days that are not even sad that they are widows), offered a sacrifice that cost her a lot and Jesus could not keep quiet about it and commented on it. This window offered all she had did not mean that she did not leave anything at home rather she brought out that that she offered to God from the little she had. This is just an example for some of us who are waiting to get the whole money in the world before they help people or church or community and so on. You can as well bring out from the little we have.

A man in a certain place very active in the church. Morning masses, evening instructions, many pious organizations are his but he is known for one thing. In all those activities and organizations he follows, no matter how you talk about money in any of them, he will not bring anything. He has never gone for Thanksgiving in the church for once. He is too stingy with anything that concerns money. One day, he went to a meeting of one of his pious organizations, on his way coming back, he had accident with his car and he nearly died. When he recovered, his wife told him the necessity of going for thanksgiving but he said he had no money. That when he gets money, the whole world will hear about it. When he died, millions were discovered in his account and from his room thousands.

Some of us when we are told to contribute some amounts in the church, we will complain that uka buzi uka ego. The church is not the church of money but the church needs money. This same people that will complain, if it were to be a deity that requested that, they will rush and settle it but they don’t settle God. They will be singing Jesus settleuo nu moo, kamu soro ibe mu nwuria. Who is owing who? Jesus or us? The window in the first reading obeyed the prophet. The window in the gospel did not wait for a prophet to tell her what to do before she did it. We can as well imitate them and make that powerful sacrifice that brings down blessings from God. The obedience in the first reading is not like what people do these days, telling people to empty there account and sow seeds, Elijah did not ask the window to give him everything rather give him some and the rest for her and her son. People are forming prophets now and it is difficult but not impossible to discover the real prophets. Let us be wise like dove, fast like snake to make that powerful sacrifice and blessings will be ours.