"There is Power in Poverty" - 32nd Sunday Homily

There is power in poverty.

I made that statement about 45 minutes into our Bible study the other night where we discussed the Sunday readings.

And our parishioner repeated aloud the statement, like she'd been affected by what I said, which I don't think would have happened if I had made it at the beginning of the hour.

But looking at the example of these two widows,

that from their poverty they gave such a powerful witness to generosity, heroic witness, giving the little they had in terms of money and food to the Lord, that from their poverty

came this powerful generosity.

Poverty is not a good...

but God brings good out of it.

And part of that good is power.

If you know people in poverty, if you've served them,

You know they have powerful faith, love, and joy.

It takes me back to my brief time working in Calcutta with the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa's sisters.

Every morning serving the dying men and women at the first home that Mother founded in Calcutta, Caligot, it was just incredible experience.

These men I worked in the men's ward, and they were extremely frail.

And we would take them to the showers, bathe them, dress them, shave them, feed them breakfast.

And I just recall so clearly, this was over 20 years ago, spoon feeding one man, and every bite he would just smile and look up.

to God.

We spoke different languages, but I knew exactly what he was saying.

He was so grateful with every bite.

And the whole spirit of CaliGod or any missionaries of charity at home, there is poverty, but there's power.

There's grace.

In poverty, in suffering, there's power in prayer.

The widow and the prophet Elijah have a prayerful conversation, and in their poverty for food, it yields a miracle.

The miracle of flour and oil.

I think the world knows that there is strength in suffering and adversity.

There's strength, there's endurance, there's grit.

The results?

the old saying regarding exercise, no pain, no gain, that from pain can come gain.

Now there different types of poverty.

There's material and physical poverty, but also emotional, personal and spiritual poverty.

And when it's extreme poverty, like it was for the widows, sometimes you just gotta take a leap.

Put it all on line as they did.

So we have people who will come back to the Church trying to make a comeback in their spiritual poverty and recognize they're so low on faith, but they're trying to do maybe

one last gasp, one last effort to salvage their Catholic faith.

Or people I work with, with families experiencing poverty in their family in terms of no or little.

contact or love or communication and they just have to do something for family, something for forgiveness, for love, for faith to salvage the family.

And I work with them on being prudent on when to know the right time.

I know the prudence may not jump off the pages of these readings, but trust me, prudence guided these two widows.

to know in the right time to make this huge leap of faith and generosity.

They are images of Christ.

In Jesus Christ, God lived in poverty.

In all the types of poverty there is, God experienced that in Christ.

And look at the power folks, that came from His poverty, the teachings, the miracles, the healings.

and then the greatest offering of His very livelihood on the cross.

His offering for us.

He gave everything He had for us from His poverty.

And the power there continues.

That sacrifice that was powerful for all time and all people.

We still share in the power in the Eucharist.

It was from His poverty, from His suffering, from His pain that came our gain.