32nd Sun. If Widows Gave God Everything. We Should Do the Same Including Sins

 

Are we giving all we can to the Lord—not out of a sense of duty, but in a spirit of generosity and love? The widow in the first reading isn’t a Jew, yet she trusts the words of Elijah and the promise of his Lord. Facing sure starvation, she gives all that she has, her last bit of food—feeding the man of God before herself and her family. The Lord does not disappoint her, but miraculously provided everything for her and her son to live on.

The widow in the Gospel also gives all that she has, offering her last bit of money to support the work of God’s priests in the Temple.

In their self-sacrifice, these two widows embody Jesus’ love. These two widows mirror the Father’s love in giving His only Son, and Christ’s love in sacrificing Himself on the cross.

When we die, we will be judged, not by how much we give—for the scribes and wealthy contribute far more than the widow. Rather, we will be judged by the degree of love and sacrifice we will have given and the punishment due to our sins that remain on our soul.

St. Jerome lived in a cave in Bethlehem where he translated the bible into Latin and wrote commentaries on scripture. The cave he lived was very close to the cave where Jesus was born.

One day, on Christmas, the Child Jesus appeared to St. Jerome. The conversation went like this: Jesus said to St. Jerome, “Jerome, what are you going to give Me for my birthday?” Jerome said, “Divine Infant, I give thee my heart.” Jesus said, “That is very good, but give Me something else.” Jerome responds, “I give thee my prayers and all my heart’s affections.” Jesus said, “That is also good, but give Me something else.” Jerome said, “I give Thee all that I have and all that I possess.” Jesus said, “Very good, but I desire you give Me still something more.” Jerome: “But Divine Infant, I have nothing, what dost thou desire me to give Thee?” Jesus said, “Jerome, give Me your sins!” Saint Jerome said, “But what wouldst Thou do with them?” Jesus: “Give Me your sins in order that I may pardon them all.” Jerome said, “O Divine Infant, Thou makest me weep for joy.” A few years later St. Jerome died with his head lying in the manger in Bethlehem.

Don’t wait till Advent. Don’t wait to just before Christmas to give Jesus everything, especially your sins. The widows gave God all they had and so did St. Jerome. Jesus wants to pardon our sins and wash them away now. In a few weeks the PSR children will be going to confession during class, but what about parents?

Most children are all excited to make his or her First Confession and First Communion. They were so happy they confessed their sins, they were so proud, they learned how to confess and learned their prayers and it felt so good to experience the mercy of Jesus. But after that-- mom or dad has not taken the children to confession very often and sometimes not years. And now they don’t know how to confess and they might be afraid because they don’t know what to do or what to say and they can’t remember their prayers. Sometimes parents need to be reminded about their role in helping their children to get to heaven. Today, let us start anew. Parents every month bring the family to confession. We don’t neglect to feed our children or educate them at school. Their spiritual welfare is most important. Saint Augustine said “the good of the soul is greater than the good of the body.”

During the lock down last year, people were denied attendance at Mass and the sacraments all over the world for the sake of health reasons. People have a right to the sacraments and they should never have been denied them.  We should be very concerned about serious diseases and viruses. But its wrong to place our health or even our life above the needs of the soul such as having our sins forgiven in confession, attending the Holy Sacrifice of Mass and to receiving Jesus in Holy Communion. We need these to get to heaven.

Many saints through Church history could have saved their lives by being more concerned for the body, rather than the soul. But they chose to lose their body, rather than their soul.

For example, in the 1940’s, 30 Franciscan monks near Medjugorje could have saved their lives if they would spit on a crucifix as requested by the communists. But they chose to die, rather than to offend the Lord and all were martyred.

During World War II, Communists took over churches, broke into tabernacles and sacrilegiously threw Hosts on the floor. But a young Chinese girl snuck in her parish church to pray a Holy Hour every day in adoration of the Hosts scattered on the floor. When the guards weren’t looking-- she knelt down and with her tongue received Holy Communion every day for 34 days, until the last Host was consumed. She risked losing her life to to daily adore Jesus for an hour and to receive Him in Holy Communion. When she received the last Host, she was caught and the guard killed her. She overcame the fear of losing her body, by her deep desire to adore Jesus and Him receive Him in Holy Communion. And so because she was martyred she went straight to heaven.  Are we willing to risk our lives for Holy Communion & Confession?

Some may be think, “Why do I need to confess monthly, I’m not in the state of mortal sin, so if I die-- I will go to heaven”. But we are forgetting about purgatory and the need to make up for the punishment due to our sins.

Most were not taught by priests-- the penance we receive in Confession-- is only a token of how much penance we should actually do for our sins. There is no way a priest can know how many prayers will remit the punishment due to each of the sins confessed. Some don’t understand the need of our soul to be purged from the temporal punishment due to sin in this life or in purgatory after we die. Nor do they understand the suffering associated with purgatory. St. Augustine said, “In purgatory, the soul experiences intense suffering, due to the kind of flame, more painful than anything one may suffer in this life.” Slowly getting crushed by a machine, getting burned while trapped in a house,being tortured by prison guards and many other kinds of sufferings are less painful than purgatory. Who wants to go to purgatory? We should rather suffer in this life and make an effort to remit the punishment due to our sins.

A plenary indulgence can eliminate all purgatory time. In the bulletin there are ways to obtain a plenary indulgence, including visiting a cemetery, making the Stations of the Cross, praying the Rosary as a group or by yourself in church before the Eucharist or reading the bible for 30 minutes. One must also go to confession and receive Holy Communion with that intention as well as pray an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be for the pope.

 The Lord wants us to give Him our heart, our prayers, our affections, our works, our very self and He wants us to give Him our sins. If we look at St. Jerome as an example, we come to understand how great God desires to wash away our sins. Won’t you give Him your sins and help your children to give their sins to Him?

All of us, young and old, should confess monthly to prevent us from falling into mortal sin, to help us to overcome sins and to have our sins washed away in the ocean of God’s mercy. And we can strive to regularly obtain a plenary indulgence so as to avoid as much purgatory time as possible. This way, when we die, we can more quickly go to heaven. Let us therefore keep our eyes on heaven, because heaven is our goal and to obtain our goal we need to do our best to avoid sin and make up for the punishment due to sin.

Will you be like St. Jerome and give your sins to Jesus? Our Lady Queen of Peace keep help us to have peace in our hearts, in our families and in the world. Amen.