Saturday 05 June

NINETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

GIVING OUT OF ONE’S POVERTY

Introduction

When Tobias thanks the angel Raphael and wants to remunerate him, the angel reveals that all the good things that happened to both the old and the young Tobias and their family came from God. They should thank God himself.

            Jesus, who lived in the hands of the Father, points out to his disciples how much a poor widow was living in the hands of God, so much so, that she put in the treasury for the worship in the temple coins she even needed for her own living. What a trust and generosity!

 

Opening Prayer

God with the heart of a father and a mother,
you care for the poor,
give justice to the oppressed
and food for the hungry.
In your Son Jesus, you have shown us
not to give only from our surplus but ourselves.
Confound our calculations
and change our self-interest
into generous sharing,
that our way of giving may be like yours,
by not counting the cost.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.

 

READING 1: TOB 12:1, 5-15,20

Tobit called his son Tobiah and said to him,

“Son, see to it that you give what is due to the man

who made the journey with you; give him a bonus too.”

So he called Raphael and said,

“Take as your wages half of all that you have brought back,

and go in peace.”

Raphael called the two men aside privately and said to them:

“Thank God! Give him the praise and the glory.

Before all the living,

acknowledge the many good things he has done for you,

by blessing and extolling his name in song.

Honor and proclaim God’s deeds,

and do not be slack in praising him.

A king’s secret it is prudent to keep,

but the works of God are to be declared and made known.

Praise them with due honor.

Do good, and evil will not find its way to you.

Prayer and fasting are good,

but better than either is almsgiving accompanied by righteousness.

A little with righteousness is better than abundance with wickedness.

It is better to give alms than to store up gold;

for almsgiving saves one from death and expiates every sin.

Those who regularly give alms shall enjoy a full life;

but those habitually guilty of sin are their own worst enemies.

 

“I will now tell you the whole truth;

I will conceal nothing at all from you.

I have already said to you,

‘A king’s secret it is prudent to keep,

but the works of God are to be made known with due honor.’

I can now tell you that when you, Tobit, and Sarah prayed,

it was I who presented and read the record of your prayer

before the Glory of the Lord;

and I did the same thing when you used to bury the dead.

When you did not hesitate to get up

and leave your dinner in order to go and bury the dead,

I was sent to put you to the test.

At the same time, however,

God commissioned me to heal you and your daughter-in-law Sarah.

I am Raphael, one of the seven angels

who enter and serve before the Glory of the Lord.”

 

“So now get up from the ground and praise God.

Behold, I am about to ascend to him who sent me;

write down all these things that have happened to you.”

 

Responsorial Psalm: TOBIT 13:2, 6EFGH, 7, 8

R.(1b) Blessed be God, who lives for ever.

He scourges and then has mercy;

he casts down to the depths of the nether world,

and he brings up from the great abyss.

No one can escape his hand.

Blessed be God, who lives for ever.

So now consider what he has done for you,

and praise him with full voice.

Bless the Lord of righteousness,

and exalt the King of ages.

Blessed be God, who lives for ever.

In the land of my exile I praise him

and show his power and majesty to a sinful nation.

Blessed be God, who lives for ever.

Bless the Lord, all you his chosen ones,

and may all of you praise his majesty.

Celebrate days of gladness, and give him praise.

Blessed be God, who lives for ever.

 

Alleluia: MT 5:3

Alleluia, alleluia.

Blessed are the poor in spirit;

for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel: MK 12:38-44

In the course of his teaching Jesus said,

“Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes

and accept greetings in the marketplaces,

seats of honor in synagogues,

and places of honor at banquets.

They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext,

recite lengthy prayers.

They will receive a very severe condemnation.”

 

He sat down opposite the treasury

and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury.

Many rich people put in large sums.

A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.

Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them,

“Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more

than all the other contributors to the treasury.

For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth,

but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had,

her whole livelihood.”

 

Intercession

–    Lord, we pray you for your Church. Preserve it from the temptation of riches and power, we pray:

–    Lord, we pray you for widows and orphans. Keep them from despair and make us attentive to their need of compassion and loving help, we pray:

–    Lord, we pray you for this community. Make us generous enough to share not only from our abundance, but also at times from our poverty, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Loving, generous God,
in these signs of bread and wine,
we celebrate how Jesus, your Son,
gave himself once and for all
that we might live and love and be free.
May we learn from him
to ask not how much we can afford
without hurting ourselves
but to let him be our strength
to give the best of ourselves
and to answer his voice
crying out in everyone in need.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.

 

Prayer after Communion

Generous and loving God,
your Son came to fill with your gifts
the poor aware of their emptiness
and he called them blessed.
Help us to discover how poor we really are –
poor in faith, in trust, in generous love.
Be near to us in your Son,
that we may become available to all
and share the best that is in us
without any outward display
but in quiet deeds of love and service,
as Jesus did, your Son,
who lives with you and with us for ever.

 

Blessing

Jesus gave all that he had and was – his whole self, to bring others life and happiness. Like him, let us not count the cost of our gifts. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

Clothes are for warmth and protection, but the layers accumulate—layers of meaning! Clothes become an assertion of one’s self-image, one’s identity. Clothes say, “This is who I am.” Clothes are a language. Uniforms assert membership of a particular class: the army, the police, the clergy….

The Scribes loved to “walk about in long robes and be greeted obsequiously in the marketplace….” A language is an agreement; there is no private language. What use is a special hat if no one knows what it is saying? One gets the feeling that people who depend on robes and uniforms and badges and insignia must be very unsure of themselves and are craving recognition from others. The Scribes believed that their knowledge of the Law was the sum of all wisdom and the only knowledge worth having. But that belief was insecure while there was even one person who disagreed. How Jesus threatened their identity! He challenged them and beat them in argument, though he had never been to rabbinical school. He earned their unremitting hostility. 

In today’s passage, he pointed out a casualty of the Temple system: the poor. A widow at that time was a very symbol of poverty and helplessness. In that world, to lose one’s husband was to lose one’s identity. This poor widow of no identity was being exploited by people who clung desperately to a false identity. It’s the tragic story of the world.