A Sacrifice from the Heart

Scripture Reflection for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (November 8, 2015)

Scripture Readings:
First Reading: 1Kings17:10-16
Responsorial Psalm 146:7-10
Second Reading: Hebrews 9:24-28
Gospel: Mark 12: 38-44

The scriptures for this Sunday call us to a deep meditation on "sacrifice." The text from Hebrews provides the theological foundation: on the cross Christ offered himself, once and for all, as a sacrifice on our behalf. This total self-giving was much more than just an event in his human life; it was also an act of the divine person that made a new relationship with God possible for all humanity. Christ's example teaches that even though sacrifice looks like destruction from the point of view of this world, it actually can operate on another level to bear fruit of incomparable value. It shows us that sacrifice is not fundamentally about what is given up; rather, it is really about the renewal and fulfillment of relationship that it makes possible.

Yet discerning what this means for our own spiritual lives is tricky. Feminist and liberation theologians have pointed out how entrenched powers often use exhortations to "sacrifice" to give a religious veneer to disempowerment. In extreme cases this can even become life-threatening, as when an abused woman is told to sacrifice her own safety to save her marriage. The other side of the picture, though, is that eliminating the concept of sacrifice from our spiritual vocabulary is also problematic. The mentality of a culture of abundance such as that of the U.S. today tends to be that one can and should "have it all." Self-denial, even in small matters, is regarded as almost pathological.

The other scriptures for today offer stories that can help us navigate these challenging waters. The brief vignette about the scribes makes clear that sacrifice is not simply a matter of strict adherence to a set of rules and customs that prescribe such details as how one dresses and how one prays. While following such a set of prescriptions may make costly demands upon one's resources and lifestyle, it does not reach the level of the heart. Even while scrupulously following the rules, the scribes' hearts remained focused on self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment.

We begin to get a clearer picture of what sacrifice really means with the story of the prophet Elijah and the poor widow of Zarephath. On first glance it seems shocking that Elijah would call upon this woman, who is literally on the brink of starvation, to feed him with the only resources she has. Yet as he does so he also articulates for her the core spirituality of sacrifice. It is as if God is saying to her (through the prophet), "Feed me, and I'll feed you." In this story, then, the essence of sacrifice appears as the courage to trust God in a relationship of mutual self-giving.

The poor widow in Mark's gospel is presented as being in a similar situation. Her resources have been reduced to two small coins, which are clearly insufficient to provide for her basic needs. Without making any fanfare, she chooses to give the coins to God by making an offering to the Temple treasury. Seeing her, Jesus affirms that her act is a model of the true meaning of sacrifice - giving one's "whole livelihood" within a relationship of faith and trust.

The most difficult part of sacrifice, understood this way, is that since God's self-giving is total, God asks that ours be the same. This is the real meaning of these women's poverty. In the story, of course, their poverty is physical - each has minimal food or money, and the call comes to give it away. But what God is really asking for is that our whole self be entrusted to God in love. This becomes concretized in the invitation to let go of something that, in our vulnerability and poverty, feels essential to our life and well-being. While we are unlikely ever to face the exact same circumstances as these widows, at certain times in our lives we do experience such a call to give far more than we believe we can spare. Blessed are we if, like them, we have the grace to realize in such a moment that whatever it is we are clinging to is mere dust in comparison to the rich relationship that we are being offered!

In our ordinary daily lives, of course, we are usually dealing with much more mixed situations. Most likely we are not often seriously tempted just to follow rigid rules while trampling on real people. Even more rare is the literal call to hand over "our whole livelihood." Taking time to meditate on these stories, however, can help us discern the call to sacrifice as it manifests more subtly in our everyday lives. First of all, the scriptures remind us that genuine sacrifice must be a response from the heart, not just the fulfillment of the expectations of our tradition or of other persons. Even more importantly, they invite us to loosen our fixation on whatever we are being asked to "give up" and look instead toward what is being asked of us relationally. When we can respond with faith and trust within that relationship, the "giving up" becomes an act of love. Finally, these scriptures offer us a new perspective on our experiences of vulnerability and poverty. Paradoxically, it is in just such moments that "giving all" at last becomes truly possible.

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