SACRIFICE OF FAITH PERFECTED IN LOVE

SUNDAY, THIRTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

1 Kings 17:10-16; Ps 146:7-10; Heb 9:24-28; Mk 12:38-44

The Sacrifice of Faith

Last week, we contemplated the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ based on his love for the Father. Because the Eternal Word is the knowledge of the Father from all eternity, the knowledge of the Father was the beatific vision of the Man Jesus Christ. Proceeding from his beatific vision, he sacrificed his life to the Father out of love for him and our salvation. Thus, we believe that the starting point of the Man Jesus Christ is our endpoint. We will attain the beatific vision of God at the end of our stay here on earth. But before then, we walk by faith on our pilgrimage of life. Our encounter with the Gospel reveals the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to us. In the revelation of the Gospel, we encounter the love of the Man Jesus Christ for us sinners and make an act of faith in his divinity and the Father's love revealed in his life. Thus, we offer our lives based on our love for the humanity of Jesus Christ and in response to what he has done for us. But our sacrifice is in faith in his divinity and the Father’s love for us shown in the gift of his Son. Hence, while the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is made perfect by his love for the Father, ours is done in faith in his divinity and the love of the Father. What we know is the love that made the Man Jesus Christ offer his life in atonement for our sins. So, our sacrifice is imperfect because our love is yet imperfect, as faith journeys to love.

The nature of sacrifice in faith is what we read about in the first reading from 1 Kings, about what transpired between Elijah the Prophet and the widow of Sidon. The widow of Zarephath did not know Elijah, the Prophet, but believed in the word he spoke in the name of the Lord. Her faith is remarkable, given that she was not an Israelite and had no revelation of the Law and the Prophets. Her response to Elijah showed she had no prior relationship with God before then. “‘As the Lord your God lives,’ she replied ‘I have no baked bread, but only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug; I am just gathering a stick or two to go and prepare this for myself and my son to eat, and then we shall die.’” Her reference to God as that of Elijah shows that she recognised Elijah as a prophet of God. Hence, she informed him of their condition. Elijah subsequently ministered the will of God to her. “But Elijah said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, go and do as you have said; but first make a little scone of it for me and bring it to me, and then make some for yourself and for your son. For thus the Lord speaks, the God of Israel: “Jar of meal shall not be spent, jug of oil shall not be emptied, before the day when the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth.” The widow believed the word of God and sacrificed her life and her son’s life with faith in the word of God spoken by the prophet. Prompted by faith, her sacrifice won salvation for her and her son. Our Lord referred to the faith of this pagan widow in judgment of the unbelief of the Jews.

The gospel presents another widow to us, who offered a similar sacrifice of faith to the Lord. This happened in the Temple while he was sitting opposite the treasury observing those offering money in the Temple. “A poor widow came and put in two small coins, the equivalent of a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘I tell you solemnly, this poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed to the treasury; for they have all put in money they had over, but she from the little she had has put in everything she possessed, all she had to live on.’” The gift of the poor widow, similar to that of the widow of Zarephath, caught the attention of the Lord and drew salvation to her. Hers was a gift or sacrifice made with faith in God’s providence. She did not think of herself, but trusted in God’s word and providence, she gave all she had to live on. We judge it to be a sacrifice of her life to God. The Christian faith calls us to this sacrifice of faith that goes to perfection as we journey into Christ.

The Church presents these examples to us for meditation because they resemble the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God on the cross. They differ from Christ's sacrifice prompted by love, making it perfect. The passage from Hebrews explains the perfection of Christ’s sacrifice. “And he does not have to offer himself again and again, like the high priest going into the sanctuary year after year with the blood that is not his own, or else he would have had to suffer over and over again since the world began. Instead of that, he has made his appearance once and for all, now at the end of the last age, to do away with sin by sacrificing himself.” Ours, like the sacrifice of the widows, will find their completion in Christ’s loving sacrifice of himself to the Father on our behalf. Their sacrifices won God's acceptance because they patterned them on that of his Son; but imperfect because they were of faith alone. Without love, our sacrifices are imperfect and unable to expiate sins. Thus, the repetition of the sacrifices of other priests falls short of perfection because of imperfect love. The Church repeats the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ to gradually lead her children to the fullness of love when their sacrifice will come to perfection in Christ. Our Eucharistic sacrifice is numerically many but essential to the one and same perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord. In the numerically many sacrifices, the Holy Spirit leads us from faith to perfection of love.

Let us pray: Almighty and merciful God, graciously keep from us all adversity, so that, unhindered in mind and body alike, we may pursue in freedom of heart the things that are yours. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.