Bishop Scott Bullock
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
The 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 10, 2024

There is a particularly powerful moment in the Ordination Liturgy of a bishop that is called “The Litany of Supplication.” Since I had this experience just over a month ago, it’s still powerfully in my mind and on my heart still. Just after I made a series of nine promises regarding how I would serve as a bishop — to preach, teach and lead after the model of Jesus, the obedient Son of the Father — the Ordaining Bishop, Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul/Minneapolis, then invited all present to pray for me, saying, “Dearly beloved, let us pray that the kindness of almighty God, in providing for the welfare of the Church, will grant an abundance of his grace for this his chosen one.”

Then, as a sign of seeking this abundance of grace, I laid prostrate, that is face down on the Cathedral floor before the altar, while all present called upon the intercession of the Saints. It’s a gesture of powerlessness, but also a symbol of poverty that is a dying to oneself, that the Lord might exalt this new bishop with “an abundance of grace.” And this gesture is on display is the unavoidable, essential, and ever-repeatable pattern of the followers of Jesus, as beautifully articulated by St. Paul, “in my weakness He is strong.” As Jesus teaches us, above all with his very life, the more we can give our lives away, the poorer we become in the view of the world, the more life we have!

Certainly, it is not only the Lord or even St. Paul who model this unavoidable spiritual truth. So too does the poor widow in today’s Gospel. The Gospel account makes it evident that she is certainly poor. For, beyond the description that she is a “poor widow,” we know that by the very fact that she was a widow meant that she no longer had any material support from her spouse. 

Furthermore, she gives “two small coins” which Jesus describes as coming not from her wealth or surplus but “from her poverty.” She definitely acts out of the weakness of poverty, we can see. But, contrary to the world’s logic, Jesus reveals this truth: her poverty is transformed into richness. To her generosity, Jesus declares, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.” 

In this, Jesus is not praising poverty as if it’s some kind of an objective good, but rather he is praising the lavishness of her generosity and her trusting heart. That she gives not out of surplus, but out of what she needs, and trusts that God will provide for her, that God will bless her.

In this state of blessedness, the widow in the Gospel displays, is not simply something that happens to us, but rather something we can choose. Something that we can practice. This becomes clear when we take a close look at the original Biblical text. For, when we are told that she “contributed all she had, her whole livelihood,” the original Biblical words literally suggest that she “throws with vigor” her very life as a donation.” Her gift, given with enthusiasm, is a gift that becomes the gift of her whole life! This poor widow, then, we’re told is preserved by the Lord in the Gospels as a role model of an enthusiastic and intentional giver of her whole life to her God, the same God who gave her life to her in the first place. 

And what’s the result?  As was symbolized by the gesture of lying down prostrate on the Cathedral floor, in a gesture of poverty and self-donation, when the widow shows us and teaches us that the more we practice giving our lives away more and more, the fuller our lives become. I think we all know this intuitively. We know that widow is right! For aren’t we so often drained by the vitality of life by trying to cling to our lives and our things, the things of this world? To protect and preserve the things that really cannot satisfy us? I can confirm that the more I challenge myself to give my life away, the richer I have become!

Let’s take Jesus at his word. This week let’s challenge ourselves to a bold act of giving away a measure of what we have convinced ourselves we need for life. Many good charities and people in need are waiting to benefit from our gifts from our resources. Even more, a fuller, more vibrant life is awaiting for us on the other side of our giving away our livelihood, our very life. For Jesus says with his life and his teachings — don’t be fooled. A fuller life awaits you, just the other side of laying down your life. The other side of giving your life away!