Homily by Father Emmanuel Schwab

1st reading: 1 Kings 17,10-16

Psaume : 145 (146),6c.7,8-9a,9bc-10

2rd reading: Hebrews 9,24-28

Gospel: Mark 12,38-44

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The most perceptive among you—or those who have made a good habit of linking the Sunday Gospels together by going each week to see in their Bible what may have happened between the two Sundays—will have said to themselves: hey, since Jesus is in the Temple, while we are reading a synoptic Gospel, it must therefore be that we are in the last week of Jesus' earthly life... since in the synoptic Gospels, Jesus is only in the Temple from Palm Sunday, which is the Sunday preceding his Passion. 15 days ago, we heard the Gospel of Bartimaeus in Jericho, Jesus' last stop before entering Jerusalem. And we skipped all of chapter 11 and a good part of chapter 12 as well: chapter 11 records Jesus' entry into Jerusalem and the merchants being driven out of the Temple, chapter 12, a number of controversies over the tax to Caesar, the resurrection (with the Sadducees), and then we heard last Sunday the question of the greatest commandment; then comes the question of who is Jesus, the son of David. And we come to the passage that we just heard. Chapter 13 will be the great chapter called "apocalyptic," where Jesus speaks of the end of time. And then chapters 14 and 15 describe the Passion.

Why do I emphasize this? It is because we are now a few days away from the death of Jesus, from his Passion and his death, and as we heard in the second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, Christ offered himself once to take away the sins of many. He gave everything, he gave himself entirely. He offered his whole life to the Father, and then to men. It is to the Father that he gives himself entirely. What the eternal Son lives eternally in the heart of the Holy Trinity, which is to receive himself entirely from the Father and to offer himself entirely out of love to the Father, when he becomes man, he lives it by filial obedience and by the offering of his life, by assuming the death received from the hands of sinful men. He is the first to offer himself in this way. Jesus draws attention to this poor widow who puts two small coins in the treasury of the Temple. He is perhaps the only one to see her, the only one to see what she does. And he suggests to us by this that what he teaches — it is in another gospel, the gospel of Saint Matthew (6,4:XNUMX) —: God sees what you do in secret and he will reward you for it., he himself saw it, he who is completely united with the Father. Nothing that we do that is good and right escapes God. This is even the secret of spiritual freedom: it is to live under this gaze of God the Father and not under the gaze of men.

So Jesus sees this poor widow who puts in two small coins. He draws the attention of his apostles, in my opinion, for two things. The first is to help them see what God sees, that is, that this woman put in more than all the others put together because she put in everything she had to live on. We could also translate: she put in all his life (ὅλον τὸν βίον αὐτῆς). The second thing, it seems to me, is to draw the attention of the apostles to the fact that if this woman gives herself entirely to God, then God must take charge of her and perhaps the apostles must be concerned about the life of this woman, once she leaves the Temple…

Who is this woman? We don’t know, but I can’t help but think of another woman, also a widow, who in a few days will offer her whole life to God. I think of the Virgin Mary: she received from God this amazing child that is Jesus… What did Mary understand about who Jesus really is, about what God does through Jesus? I can’t answer. But what I do know is that at the foot of the Cross, she will give Jesus, she will abandon him into the hands of the Father. And Jesus, for the Virgin Mary, is her whole life. And we know how, spiritually, Mary lives the passion, how she herself is interiorly crucified, how the Word of God in her is tested since the announcement that was made to her — he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. (Lk 1,33:XNUMX) — is torn apart before Christ dying on the cross. Mary lives her faith in unspeakable suffering. Mary also gave everything.

If Jesus draws our attention to this poor widow a few days before he himself enters into his Passion, is it not to call us ourselves to enter into this offering of our own life? Is it not to call us ourselves to give ourselves to God through him, Jesus?

Another woman also speaks to us about the gift of self that she seeks to live. It is Saint Therese of the Child. Jesus, of course. In a letter to “Pauline” — who had already entered Carmel, in 1888, but it is a letter to “Pauline” and not to “Sister Agnes”, which is the religious name of her sister Pauline — she says:

O Pauline, when Jesus has placed me on the blessed shore of Carmel I want to give myself entirely to him, I want to live only for him. (LT 43 to Pauline – March 18, 1888)

And it is precious for us to hear Thérèse speak in this way, like other saints before her or after her, because it encourages us ourselves to be able not only to desire, but to want to give ourselves entirely to Jesus, in the state of life which is ours.

Later, in 1894, she wrote to another of her sisters, Céline, who had not yet entered Carmel, but who would do so two months later: Jesus […] knows that it is much sweeter to give than to receive. We have only the short moment of life to give to the good Lord… and He is already preparing to say: “Now my turn…” (LT 169 to Céline – August 19, 1894)

Implied: my turn to give everything.

Yes, it is indeed a question of choosing God in a radical way, as he himself has chosen us in a radical way. Remember the words of Jesus, in Saint John, who addresses the apostles: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” (Jn 15,16:XNUMX). He has chosen us to give himself to us: he calls us to give ourselves to him.

Still in 1894, Thérèse wrote to her aunt, Madame Guérin, and said:

It seems to me that Jesus comes to rest with delight in your house as He did in the past in Bethany. He is indeed "The Divine Beggar of Love" who asks for hospitality and who says "Thank you" by always asking for more in proportion to the gifts He receives.

There is something that is always astonishing about Thérèse, that the future always opens up a “more”. I reread this sentence: Jesus says thank you by always asking for more in proportion to the gifts he receives…

She continues:

He feels that the hearts to which He speaks understand "that the greatest honor that God can give to a soul is not to give it much, but to ask it much."

The greatest honor that God can give to a soul is not to give it much, but to ask it for much… Who among us dares in his prayer to say to the Lord: “Lord, ask me for much and more”? Lord, ask me for much…

Towards the end of her life, in the last of her poems where Thérèse seeks to express all she has to say about the Virgin Mary, in the 22e stanza of this long poem, we find this well-known word:

22. You love us, Mary, as Jesus loves us

And you consent for us to distance you from Him.

To love is to give everything and to give oneself

You wanted to prove it by remaining our support.

The Savior knew your immense tenderness

He knew the secrets of your motherly heart,

Refuge of sinners, it is to you that He leaves us

When He leaves the Cross to wait for us in Heaven.

To love is to give everything and to give oneself… And Thérèse finds joy in giving herself.

A little later in August, a little less than two months before her death, Thérèse said:

My little life is to suffer and that's it! I couldn't say: My God, it's for the Church, my God, it's for France... etc... The good Lord knows well what he must do with it; I gave him everything to please him. And then it would tire me too much to say to him: Give this to Peter, give this to Paul. I only do it quickly when a sister asks me to, and after that I don't think about it anymore. When I pray for my missionary brothers, I don't offer my sufferings, I simply say: My God, give them everything I desire for myself. (CJ August 4, 8)

And to Father Roulland, she reports these words of Saint John of the Cross to which she returns several times:

Saint John of the Cross said: "The smallest movement of pure love is more useful to the Church than all the works put together." (LT 221 to Father Roulland – March 19, 1897)

Yes, brothers and sisters, the meaning of our life, the meaning of the existence of all human life, is to love as God has loved us since he called us to life through love, whatever the circumstances of our conception, and that we are in his image and likeness made to love. Sin hinders our journey but does not prevent it. And Jesus teaches us, from the situation in which we find ourselves, to give ourselves, to offer ourselves through Him, with Him and in Him, to advance on the path of love.

Contemplating this poor widow who puts her whole life into the treasury, let us ask for the grace, in the same trust that this woman lives in the providence of God, to know how to give ourselves entirely to God and to live this daily, giving ourselves in the humble and charitable service of our brothers.

Amen

Father Emmanuel Schwab, Rector of the Shrine