Gospel for Sunday, November 7: Mark 12, 38-44
XXXII Sunday B
38He said to them as he taught: “Beware of the scribes, who love to walk in long robes, receive greetings in the squares, 39have the first seats in the synagogues and the first places at banquets. 40They devour widows’ houses and make a show of making long prayers; they will receive a more serious sentence”. 41And sitting in front of the treasury, he watched as the crowd threw coins into the treasury. And many rich people threw away many. 42But a poor widow came and threw in two pennies, that is, a farthing. 43Then he called his disciples to him and said to them: “Truly I say to you, this widow has thrown more into the treasury than all the others. 44Since everyone gave from their surplus, she instead, in her poverty, put in everything she had, everything she had to live on”.
Mark 12, 38-44
Dear Sisters and Brothers of the Misericordie, I am Carlo Miglietta, doctor, biblical scholar, layman, husband, father and grandfather (www.buonabibbiaatutti.it).
Also today I share with you a short meditation thought on the Gospel, with special reference to the theme of mercy.
Against a formal religiosity
This passage is a harsh indictment against the shepherds of Israel, along the lines of the prophets, Amos, Micah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, but it is also a serious warning for all those who have obligations and responsibilities in the Church.
“The first criticism is directed at the ambition expressed in the search for public recognition. It is disputed whether the scribes used a distinctive long dress (tallith). Perhaps their distinctive feature was the showy fringes (cicith) that adorned the ends of the robe. It is supposed that the first seat in the synagogue was a place in front of the Torah reliquaries and reserved for eminent and official personalities. The place of honor at the banquet must be sought at the table next to the owner of the house or the host (Lk 14,7-10). More stinging is the second criticism which stigmatizes the greed of the scribes, who perhaps offered their legal advice and demanded an exorbitant fee in exchange…
Jesus sits in front of the gazaphylakion, an expression derived from the Persian gaza, meaning treasure. In the treasure room there were 13 offering boxes, shaped like trombones, one of which was intended for voluntary offerings… Many rich people offer a lot. The term chalcos must therefore refer in a general sense to money, not just to 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 a bit in jest, because we too in the church often have our Pastors who wear special robes, who call themselves reverends, monsignors, excellency, eminence, who are taken to places of honor.
Jesus, however, did not do this: Jesus was a layman, he feasted with sinners and tax collectors, he works incognito, he rejects a revelation as a powerful Messiah, he escapes the applause of the crowds: then woe (Mk 12.40) to those who have a religiosity formal, to those who pray, who call themselves the Church, and then do not practice justice, do not practice helping the poorest, of which the widow, a woman without a husband, is the prototype.
Even religion can become a sin, even prayer can become ostentation: there is the continuous call to interiority, to simplicity, but above all to “kenosis”, to emptying, to choosing the last place following the example of the Master.
“The words addressed by Jesus to the crowd could be paraphrased and updated thus: «Be wary of scribes, Bible and theology experts! When they go out, they appear with long, threaded, even colored robes, they wear bright clothes, they adorn themselves with chains, jeweled and precious crosses, they look for the faces of those who pass by to be greeted and revered, without discerning people in their need and their suffering: faces that are not looked at, but called to look! In liturgical assemblies they have eminent places, chairs and thrones similar to those of pharaohs and kings, and are always invited to the banquets of powerful people.” Truly these invectives of Jesus are more relevant than ever” (E. Bianchi).
The “casta meretrix” Church
The Church is “chaste meretrix”, as the Fathers said, holy and sinner: she is holy because Christ has “purified her by the washing of water accompanied by the word” (Eph 5,26-27): but in her there ‘is “he who calls himself a brother, and is immodest or covetous or an idolater or a slanderer or a drunkard or a thief” (1 Cor 5:9-13).
Jesus asks this Church that no one in it call himself “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 last Popes is their constant preaching against the sins of the Church. Benedict XVI already said: “Lord, your Church often seems to us like a boat about to sink, a boat leaking from all sides. And even in your wheat field we see more weeds than wheat. The dirty dress and face of your Church dismay us… Have mercy on your Church!” (“Via crucis” of Good Friday). “Here we cannot fail to bear witness to Pope Francis for his calls and his efforts towards a poor Church, in which «the first», 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 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 Luke 21:14). The widow is the remnant of Israel: the widow is faithful Israel, from which the Groom will be taken away (Mk 2.20) and the Temple (Lam 1.1), but which gives everything to God (v. 44: hólon tòn bíon autês; literally: “His whole life”). From the poor, from the least, we must take lessons to enter the Kingdom of God; and poverty is an indispensable condition for giving “our whole life” to God. The story of the widow’s mite is not the parable of “it doesn’t take much”: it is the parable of “giving everything”, of giving one’s whole life. Poverty is once again the indispensable condition for giving God our whole life, while instead of us who are rich, who perhaps give many things to God, in reality we give God what is superfluous, and not our whole life. God, a jealous and insatiable lover, shows us that he wants us all for himself, and indicates the path of poverty, of renunciation of economic security, as the obligatory path to follow him.
This woman is the true wise scribe of the New Testament: she has everything and gives everything to enter the Kingdom. Jesus had said to the rich young man: “Well done, you have kept the commandments from birth; you are missing only one thing; go, sell everything” (Mk 10,17-21); previously we saw the greatest commandment: even there something was still missing (Mk 12,34). This woman, however, no longer lacks anything, she is now close to the Kingdom of God, she is the one who threw everything away, she is the one who gave her whole life for God.
The poor evangelize us
The widow, in her poverty, gives an example of radicalism in her gift to the Lord. Jesus calls his disciples to imitate this poor woman, to show us that it is from the poor, from the humble, from the last that we must take lessons to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
“It is by being with the poor and allowing ourselves to be converted by them that we can hear, in the din of consumerism, careerism, competition, the voice of God speaking in the voice and flesh of those rejected by our economy. God is where no one would think to find 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.