Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 2024

Title

True Ministry is Risky Ministry

Outline

Ministry or Service in the Name of Jesus has both a Risky Outward and Vulnerable Inward

The Outward can be faked

Elijah is keeping out of Ahab’s way, but he is still a stranger wearing a camel hair garment. Will he risk and give a prophetic word of will he stay silent?

The Pharisaic scribes Jesus talks about enjoy all the outward marks of pious leaders and enjoy honor, their prayers being exemplary. But their effects are selfish, “they devour the houses of widows,” and their results will be disastrous. Meanwhile a poor widow gives her whole tiny income to God with an unnoticed clink. Her action was not faked, but the outward was in reverse proportion to the inward.

The Inward is vulnerable

Elijah follows the impulse to ask for the last food of the widow - how horrible - but because he followed the impulse the widow’s trust in YHWH was awakened and she and her son were saved - and, of course, Elijah. But he and apparently they stay quiet about it, for God did not say preach.

Jesus has an inward mission he rarely speaks of. It is an offering, not in robes or a sanctuary that was gorgeous, but a naked, shamed, self-offering in a ritually impure place. Yet it is our utterly effective model for ministry, its effectiveness becoming openly apparent when he appears.

And so it was with the widow, a hardly notice gift, sniffed at if noticed by anyone other than Jesus, that cost her everything, but which according to Jesus was the most valuable gift given to God, which surely will be revealed at the end of time.

And so it is with us

We may do ministry or service in habits or vestments and that is appropriate, for it identifies our proper role in a society that does not understand callings as also behavior may, such as saying the Angelus at work or going to daily mass. The outward invites people to approach us with their needs and so is useful in that way too. But if ministry or service stop with the outward it can be hypocrisy.

When our inward matches our outward, the outward may look like the reverse of the inward, as in the case of Jesus or the widow, but that will be because in this world genuine obedience to Jesus seeks the self-emptying place.

But the Father will see and note that it was like Mary’s self-gift and there will be a Second Coming and then our live’s real meanings will be fully visible before God.