Bothering Widow

Today’s 5:30 homily

The Old Testament, otherwise known as the Hebrew Bible or Hebrew Scriptures, is instructive but not so much in today’s first reading that tells us to find our enemies and destroy them with a belief that God is on our side, not theirs. Then we can mow them down with God’s approval.  

Our reading from Exodus has this deadly theme – deadly because today too many people and nations have that belief leading to chaos and war – to heightened division, racist attitudes, and tribal thinking such as that which permeates and has soaked our nation – and the world.

Moses used the staff of God to mow down Amalek and his people. The Amalekites harassed the Hebrews during their Exodus from Egypt and are believed to have attacked them near Mount Sinai. As long as the staff was held above Moses’ head, with the help of Aaron and Hur, the Hebrews had the better of the Amalekites, so the story goes.

As a result, Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the sword. Following that defeat, according to Exodus, the LORD then said to Moses: “I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens.” Moses added: “The LORD has a war against Amalek through the ages.” 

Wow!  This a reading is full of violence and portrays God as violent, punishing, and cruel – God takes sides.  Really!?  No, God is about love and caring for all of God’s creation, including all races, creeds, sexual orientations, and colors.  That theme about love and care is all throughout both the Old and New Testament.

It's more likely that the author of Exodus – whoever that was – had an axe to grind or a sword to slash against the Amalekites, and he or they wrote accordingly.  It can be argued that the writer of Exodus was making a statement about the dominance of the Hebrews over the Canaanites whose lands the Hebrews would eventually take by force. 

Similar to the blotting out of the Amalekites, many foreign powers have tried to wipeout the Jewish people.  One modern-time example would be the Holocaust brilliantly covered in a new documentary by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein entitled: The U.S. and the Holocaust.  This three-part, six-hour series, aired just last month, examined America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the 20th century.  Everyone, certainly we Catholics, should see that horrific crime against humanity. It’s a startling affront to our consciences, our faith and God.

 As described by Burns and his colleagues: “As the catastrophe of the Holocaust unfolded in Europe, the United States proved unwilling to open its doors to more than a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of desperate people seeking refuge. This documentary asks thought-provoking questions such as: Did our nation fail to live up to its ideals? How does our nation reckon with this history?”

I mention this film about the Holocaust because this year marks the 80th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” That “solution” was the Nazi’s deliberate, organized, state-sponsored persecution and machine-like murder and genocide of Jews during World War II.  The Nazis murdered two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population. They murdered approximately six million European Jews and at least five million prisoners of war, gypsies, homosexuals, the handicapped, and many other victims. That’s almost 300 Fenway Parks filled to capacity. It boogles the mind and beggars the imagination.

During their recent trip to attend the world-famous Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany, Father Healey and a group of parishioners visited one such “park” – the Dachau concentration camp that was far from being a camp. Untold thousands of Jews and many others were transported to and “parked” in Dachau prior to being abused, starved to death, and murdered. Several thousand Catholic clergy were incinerated in Dachau ovens.

All of this leads us to today’s Gospel about the dishonest judge who neither feared God nor respected any human being. This judge is somewhat similar to the Nazi leaders and their followers who passed judgement on and then killed so many human beings. In contrast to the violence in Exodus, this parable told by Jesus to his disciples and us portrays not violence, but the need for naming and confronting injustice in a persistent and non-violent way. This is something we Catholics need to do more than ever before because of what we witness happening in our nation and around the world.

The bothering widow, who is cast in the image of God, just wouldn’t give up. This parable is about doggedly resisting injustice, facing it, naming it, and denouncing it until what is right and just is achieved. Remember what we hear and say during Mass. When Father Healy says, “The Lord be with you.” We respond, “And with your spirit.” Father continues, “Lift up your hearts.”  We answer, “We lift them up to the Lord.”  He concludes with “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.”  We reply, “It is right and just.”

When we act rightly and justly, the Lord is with us; our hearts are lifted; and we act as God does in a non-violent way. God – through the image of the widow – tells us to be right and just and not to surrender even when we are up against dishonest and shameless people who neither fear God nor respect any human being. Unfortunately, many people are like that.

Finally, the Gospel ends with a question: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" The answer is a definite, but qualified “yes.” 

Qualified because we, as a faith-filled people, will have to overcome present and future challenges to our faith. These challenges are well documented in the Diocese of Fall River Synod Report and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops summary of the Diocesan Phase of the 2021-2023 Synod. These reports are on-line.

We must read them, draw our own conclusions, and then support and take needed steps so that when the Son of Man comes – whenever that may be – faith on earth will still be found in abundance. 

Deacon David Pierce