One hundred years ago, at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, World War I ended.
In 1954, President Eisenhower officially changed the name from Armistice Day to Veterans Day.
Memorial Day is to honor our war dead. Today we honor our Veterans who were willing to sacrifice their lives so that we could continue enjoying our freedoms of worship and speech, and freedoms from fear and want. I invite our Veterans to stand for our applause. Thank you for your service to our country.
I don't know about you, but I feel optimistic anticipating the Thanksgiving/ Christmas season. I recall an anecdote about parents with twins, one always optimistic, the other pessimistic. The parents went to a psychologist to better understand these two completely different personalities. The psychologist recommended this: for their birthday, buy the pessimist the best bicycle you can find; and for the optimist, go to the local horse stable and gather into a gift box the “stuff” on the horse stable floor.
When the twins opened their gifts, the pessimist began to whine about the bicycle color and lack of gadgets. Meanwhile, the optimist ripped open his box of “stuff” and gleefully said. “You can’t fool me. There’s gotta be a pony here somewhere.” Moral of the story: be an optimist. Always look for the good.
The word of God takes us back in our imaginations to the 9th century before Jesus, to a Hebrew prophet named Elijah. In today’s word, a widow, a non-Jew or so-called Gentile, is down to her last handful of flour and a tiny bit of oil. She’s making her last meal before she and her child die from starvation.
Suddenly she meets Elijah, who asks for a cup of water and a bit of bread. Elijah asks this Gentile woman: trust in God…bring me a little cake before you prepare something for yourself and your child. The widow faces a dilemma: should she trust in Elijah’s God who, Elijah says will provide a never-ending supply of flour and oil? Or should she feed her starving child first.
Trust in God and hospitality win out; the widow gives all she has to Elijah. And miraculously, the prophet’s promise comes true. She has a never-ending supply. That truly was a great act of faith in God’s eternal providence. This word challenges us to trust in God, and to be kind to one another.
In the Gospel, we hear a similar story about a widow who put her last two coins, a small sum, into the Temple treasury in Jerusalem. Jesus comments that, in contrast to those who gave from their surplus, this woman gave “all she had to live on.” Another great act of faith in God’s providence. This word also challenges us to trust in God and to be generous with what we have.
The author of Hebrews speaks about the superiority of Jesus’s one sacrifice to the many sacrifices in the Jerusalem Temple. Jesus through his death and resurrection opens up to humankind eternal life, an indescribable heavenly life beyond this earthly life.
As I thought about today’s word of God, I remembered a newspaper photographer sharing a simple, compassionate scene after a devastating earthquake in Latin America. A long line of people waited for food. At the very end stood a girl about 12 years of age. Finally, the only thing left was one banana. The girl took the precious food and ran across the street where three children waited: perhaps sisters and a brother. She divided the banana into three equal parts to feed the youngsters, and then she licked the inside of that banana peel. “In that moment,” wrote the photographer, “ I swear I saw the face of God!”
Yes, the young girl revealed the “face of God” to this photographer and perhaps others. And isn’t that what life should be all about. Yes, the word of God challenges us to ask ourselves: do we reveal the face of God to one another in our attitudes and behaviors?
As missionary disciples of Jesus, we ought to show the face of God in our everyday behavior, especially by living the beatitudes that Matthew sums up so splendidly in Chapter 5 of his Gospel. I would like to think Jesus would say this about us.
If you’re working to pay the bills but making time to be with your children when they need you, blessed are you. You may never own a big vacation home, but heaven will be yours.
If you are overwhelmed caring for a chronically ill spouse, a sick child or an elderly parent but you try your best to make a loving home for them, blessed are you. One day your sorrow will be transformed into joy.
If you happily give your time to serve at a soup kitchen, help the housebound, guide a youngster with a classroom assignment; if you befriend the uncool, the unpopular, the lost, blessed are you. Count God among your friends.
If you refuse to take shortcuts when it comes to doing what's right, if you refuse to compromise your integrity and ethics, if you refuse to rationalize that “everyone does it,” blessed are you – you will triumph.
If you try to understand the perspective of the other person and find a way to make things work for the good; if you’re feeling discouraged and frustrated because you are paying the price for loving the unlovable and forgiving the undeserving, blessed are you. God will welcome, forgive and love you.
If you readily spend time listening and consoling; if you manage to heal wounds and build bridges; if others see in you goodness, graciousness, joy and serenity; if you can see the good in everyone and seek the good for everyone, blessed are you. You are nothing less than the face of God in our midst.
Rejoice and be glad, Jesus says: you are the blessed of God. In the end, heaven is yours.
May God give each one of us the grace to show the face of God to others in our attitudes and behaviors: yes, the beatitudes in Matthew 5 is one way. The way the two poor women in the word of God did is another; and the way that 12-year-old girl did with the photographer is still another way. Yes, look for opportunities to show the face of God to others as we go about our daily lives.
