Gospel for Sunday, November 10: Mark 12:38-44
XXXII Sunday Year B
“38 He said to them as he taught, ”Beware of the scribes, who love to walk in long robes, to receive greetings in the public squares, 39 to have the first seats in the synagogues and the first places at banquets. 40 They devour widows’ houses and flaunt that they make long prayers; they will receive a more severe condemnation.” 41 And sitting in front of the treasury, he observed how the crowd threw coins into the treasury. And many rich people were throwing many. 42 But when a poor widow came, she threw two pennies into it, that is, one fourteenth. 43 Then he called the disciples to himself and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this widow has thrown more into the treasury than all the others. 44 For all have given of their surplus, she on the other hand, in her poverty, has put into it all that she had, all that she had to live on.”
Mk 12:38-44
Dear sisters and brothers of Misericordia, I am Carlo Miglietta, a doctor, biblical scholar, layman, husband, father and grandfather (www.buonabibbiaatutti.it). Also today I share with you a short thought meditation on the Gospel, with special reference to the theme of mercy.
Against a formal religiosity
This passage is a harsh indictment against the pastors of Israel, along the lines of the prophets, Amos, Micah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, but it is also a grave warning to all those in the Church who have obligations and responsibilities.
“The first criticism is directed at the ambition expressed in seeking public recognition. It is controversial whether the scribes used a long dress that distinguished them (tallith). Perhaps their badge was the conspicuous bangs (cicith) that adorned the ends of the robe. It is assumed that the first seat in the synagogue was a seat in front of the Torah reliquaries and reserved for eminent and official figures. The place of honor at the banquet is to be sought at the table next to the host or hostess (Lk 14:7-10). More biting is the second criticism, which stigmatizes the greed of the scribes, who perhaps offered their legal advice and demanded exorbitant fees in return…
Jesus sits in front of the gazaphylakion, an expression derived from the Persian gaza, meaning treasure. In the treasury room were arranged 13 offering boxes, shaped like trombones, one of which was for voluntary offerings… Many rich people offered much. The term chalcos must therefore be referred to money in a general sense, not just the copper coin. The lepton, which corresponds to the Jewish perutha, is the smallest of the copper coins. The widow offers two lepta. The equivalence with the dial translates the value of this coin by transporting it into the Roman monetary system” (J. Gnilka).
Yet we took these words somewhat in jest, for we too in the church have our pastors often wearing special robes, being called reverend, monsignor, excellency, eminence, being carried to places of honor.
Jesus, on the other hand, did not do that: Jesus was a layman, he feasted with sinners and publicans, he operated incognito, he rejected a revelation as a powerful Messiah, he escaped the applause of the crowds: then woe (Mk 12:40) to those who have a formal religiosity, those who pray, who call themselves the church, and then do not practice justice, do not practice relief to the least, of which the widow, a woman without a husband, is the prototype.
Even religion can become sin, even prayer can become ostentation: there is the constant call to inwardness, simplicity, but above all to “kènosis,” to emptying oneself, to choosing the last place following the Master’s example.
“The words addressed by Jesus to the crowd could be paraphrased and actualized as follows: ‘Be wary of the scribes, the Bible experts and theology experts! When they go out, they appear in long, threadbare, even colorful robes, wear gaudy garments, adorn themselves with chains, with jeweled and precious crosses, seek out the faces of those who pass by to be greeted and revered, without discerning people in their need and suffering: faces that are not looked at, but called to look! In liturgical assemblies they have eminent places, cathedrals and thrones similar to those of pharaohs and kings, and they are always invited to the banquets of the mighty.” Truly these invectives of Jesus are more relevant than ever” (E. Bianchi).
The “chaste meretrix” Church
The Church is “casta meretrix,” as the Fathers said, holy and sinful: it is holy because Christ has “cleansed it by the washing of water accompanied by the word” (Eph. 5:26-27): but in it there are “those who call themselves brothers, and are impudent or miserly or idolatrous or backbiters or drunkards or thieves” (1 Cor. 5:9-13).
To this Church Jesus asks that no one in it be called “Rabbi” (literally: “my great,” “Great”), nor “Father,” nor “Master” (“katheghetès” reflects the rabbinic “moreh”), because Jesus is the only Lord and “you are all brothers” (Mt 23:9-10).
One of the characteristics of the recent popes is their constant preaching against the sins of the Church. Already Benedict XVI said, “Lord, often your Church seems to us like a boat that is about to sink, a boat that is making water on all sides. And even in your field of wheat we see more weeds than wheat. The soiled robe and face of your Church dismay us…. Have mercy on your Church!“ (”Way of the Cross” on Good Friday). “We cannot here fail to bear witness to Pope Francis for his reminders and efforts with a view to a poor Church, in which “the first ones,” those who govern or preside, do not fall back into the vices of religious men, who ask others to give glory to God by giving glory precisely to them, who think of themselves as his representatives” (E. Bianchi).
Radicality in following
Finally there is the beautiful passage of the small offering of a poor widow (see Lk 21:14). The widow is the remnant of Israel: the widow is the faithful Israel, from whom the Bridegroom (Mk 2:20) and the Temple (Lam 1:1) will be taken away, but who gives God everything (v. 44: hólon tòn bíon autês; literally, “His whole life”). From the poor, from the least, we must take a lesson in order to enter the Kingdom of God; and poverty is a precondition for giving God “our whole life.” The account of the widow’s offering is not the parable of “little is enough”: it is the parable of “giving everything,” of giving one’s whole life. Poverty is again the precondition for giving God our whole life, whereas we who are rich, who perhaps give God many things, actually give God the superfluous, and not our whole life. God, the jealous and insatiable lover, shows us that he wants us all for himself, and he points to the path of poverty, of renunciations of economic securities, as the obligatory way to follow him.
This woman is the true wise scribe of the New Testament: she has everything and gives everything to enter the Kingdom. To the rich young man Jesus had said, “Good, you have kept the commandments from your birth; one thing you lack; go, sell everything” (Mk. 10:17-21); previously we saw the greatest commandment: there too there was still something lacking (Mk. 12:34). Instead, this woman lacks nothing more, she is now close to the Kingdom of God, she is the one who has thrown everything away, she is the one who has given her whole life for God.
The poor evangelize us
The widow, in her poverty, sets an example of radical giving to the Lord. Jesus calls the disciples to Himself to imitate this poor woman, to show us that it is from the poor, the humble, and the last that we must take a lesson to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
“It is by being with the poor and letting ourselves be converted by them that we can hear, in the din of consumerism, of careerism, of competition, the voice of God speaking in the voice and flesh of those discarded by our economy. God is where no one would think of finding him: in the passion of the poor; and in them and with them he wants to build his Kingdom” (A. Agnelli)
Happy Mercy to all!
Anyone who would like to read a more complete exegesis of the text, or some insights, please ask me at migliettacarlo@gmail.com.