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Drought and famine.
God had sent the prophet Elijah to deal with a starving
widow—the trouble was that it was in a foreign land
instead of to the many Jewish widows in his own country.
And Jesus rubs in this fact:
Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in
the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and
a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire
land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but
only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon (Lk 4:25-26).
He is referring to a story from the First Book of Kings,
and we have it as our
First Reading! In it Elijah sets out not at all to help the Zarephath
widow and her tiny son but to demand food for himself!
She has “only a handful of flour” in her jar,
she says, and “a little oil” in her jug. She
had been collecting wood to cook the very last meal she
and her young son would ever eat. After that they would
die of starvation and thirst! In effect, Elijah was
demanding their last meal for himself.*
It was God’s instructions that Elijah was following
in issuing this imperative. The Lord had told Elijah to go
to this town in Sidon, where he had designated a widow to
provide for him in the famine and drought (See
I Kings 17:1-9)!
Elijah gets what he wants. He asks—politely I admit—for
water, and the widow turns on her heel to get the last
little bit she had. A great spirit. And as she went,
Elijah shouts after her to bring him bread too! In the
famine!
 The widow goes to do his will.
But God has a trick up his sleeve. Elijah calls out again,
almost as an afterthought, “The God of Israel says,
‘The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of
oil run dry, until the day when the Lord sends rain upon
the earth.’” God will keep the vessels full
until the drought is over.
Our widow has only these puzzling words to rely on. But
rely on them she does. She bakes her tiny scraps of bread,
in front of the wide eyes of her son, and takes all of it,
every bit of it, plus the water, to Elijah.
Does this story make sense? No. Is there an explanation?
Yes. This widow knew God so well that she trusted in his
goodness even in the face of impending death. Her last act
would be one of trust.
And this is the real meaning of trust, to release your own
control of things. When the chips are down, let go and let
God, even in your last extremity. And so, after all, God
had sent Elijah to help the widow, not rob her. But she
had to trust first.
In the
Gospel
a second widow illustrates the same kind of trust, putting
the last two pennies she had to her name into the
collection box. Jesus sees it happen and sees the depth of
her faith.
I suppose the question now turns to you and me. How much
trust do we place in fear? And alternately, how much do we
trust God?
_____________
*At this point in the story, Elijah seems selfish and
oblivious. Similarly, 6-year old Calvin, of
Calvin and Hobbes fame, is holding a plate out to his mother. She is busy
dividing up the only piece of pie left from yesterday.
Calvin shouts “I want the last piece of pie!
Don’t divide it up. Give it all to ME.”
Sound a bit like Elijah? Mom says, “Don’t be
selfish, Calvin.” The boy answers, “So the
real message here is ‘be dishonest?’”
His mother freezes for a moment, then hands the whole
piece of pie to him. [Calvin and Hobbes, November 15, 1995
(Copyright © 2006, Universal Press Syndicate)].
John Foley, SJ
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