You will find on numerous websites which are critical of the Catholic Church images which chastise the Church for the great amount of wealth which She possesses in her sacristies. This is seen as a reason to oppose the Church in what she teaches and proclaims. “Why don’t you give everything to the poor?” they will demand and label us as hypocrites for supposedly subverting the command of Christ. How do we respond to this charge?
Some Catholics might agree with this and say that we should give everything away, relieve as much poverty as possible, and remain poor. I would respond by asking this person why they haven’t done this already if they so believe this to be true. But beyond the bantering back and forth, why is it that the Church desires fineries for her churches and her sanctuaries? Why don’t we just focus on relieving poverty? This is because humanity is not our center of focus, but we are oriented towards God.
The anti-fanciness screed shows a complete misunderstanding of which direction we are looking as Catholics. The Catholic Church’s mission is to be the vessel of salvation for humanity. This certainly involves aiding the poor, since Jesus shows us that we are serving Him well in caring for those who are without. But the Church aids the poor so as to help them to gain the wealth of the kingdom of Heaven. The ultimate goal of every activity of the Church is to bring the people to God and to bring God to the people. Our Holy Father has often talked about this, saying that the Church is not a non-government organization, but the body of Christ.
What does all this have to do with what we have heard today? It is the attitude of the widow of Zarephath and the widow of the Gospel which we should emulate in our own lives. Both women are poor, poor to the point of death. They have only enough to keep themselves alive for a day or two. Yet each of them puts their faith and their hope in God. The widow of Zarephath hopes that God will act through the prophet Elijah, while the widow of the Gospel hopes that God will soon come to save His people, perhaps not knowing that this same God was proclaiming the sanctity of her offering.
Jesus praises this widow due to her hope in God while lambasting the Pharisees and their self-centered giving and obsession with human praise. We are reminded by this Gospel that we are not truly wealthy, whether we have money or not, but that we are poor, that the whole species of humanity is poor due to its misuse of the initial gift of wealth given by God to our first parents. Saint Paul elaborates on this theme, declaring that “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9).
Our two widows today get this, each in their own way. Jesus makes us rich not in monetary wealth (always beware a preacher who tells you that faith will make you rich). Jesus pours down onto us the spiritual wealth of becoming the children of God and the heirs to the kingdom of Heaven. We are given the richness which comes from possessing God Himself, who is the greatest and only enduring treasure that can be found. Nothing else can satisfy the heart so much as having God as our one true possession.
This is why we seek to build magnificent churches and cathedrals, why we use gold and silver and silk and lace to decorate our altars, why we have paintings and statues and frescoes in our various buildings. All of this is meant to show the wealth of God which is ours. It is meant to orient us not towards the pursuit of money or fame or power, but to the pursuit of God. Those who criticize the Church for her wealth do not believe in this eternal treasure but think that we can only find treasure here and now. They are like the Pharisees who seek not to find God in their wealth or their offices, but instead desire to possess the treasure of human praise.
We also see in our second reading one last hint at this desire for beauty and finery in our churches. The Apostle has been describing throughout this section and the previous sections of Hebrews how Christ is the High Priest who offers the one perfect sacrifice. He tells us now that Jesus enters not into an earthly temple, but into the eternal Temple of God which is Heaven. The Apostle shows us that what we do here in this church previews or prepares us for the eternal liturgy of Heaven. Saint John in the book of Revelation describes Heaven as the wedding banquet of the Lamb to His Bride which is seen as the ultimate fulfillment of the Mass. This means that we are previewing in this place what we hope to see in Heaven.
If this is true, then we should certainly do everything we can to beautify every aspect of the liturgy. This is why we built such magnificent churches, why we gild everything pertaining to the sacred gifts, why we have sought the best of every art: we are trying to make all of this as beautiful as Heaven! This is what is at the heart of the Gospel message - not merely some unity of men and women for a common purpose like golf or bridge or bingo, but a communion of persons with God in a shadowy sense here and now and in a real sense in the life to come. The Mass is meant to be Heaven come down to earth.
Let us, then, seek to be oriented towards God our true treasure. Let us seek to do everything we can to make this church reflect, as best as we can, the glories of the heavenly wedding feast. We may not be a cathedral or a rich parish, but we can still do our best to make this the best it can be. But let us also be mindful that this treasure is not meant for just us alone. We must share this with others so that they may also become rich through their union with Christ. A church that only focuses on itself does not grow or flourish. Let us do our part to proclaim the treasures of the Gospel to our neighbors and help them to receive it for themselves, most especially the poor and the downtrodden, those who especially remembered by Our Lord. May we have the faith and the hope of the two widows today to believe and trust in God’s mercy and His goodness for us now and for all eternity.
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