November 6, 2009
Sunday Scripture
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
BY FATHER DONALD DILGER
The journey to Jerusalem is over. Jesus and his disciples have arrived in the city. He continues to teach his disciples, but now he teaches them in the temple area. His cleansing of the temple, which took place one day after his arrival in Jerusalem, prepared the temple for his presence and teaching. About Jesus’ presence in the temple, Matthew 12:6 says, “One greater than the temple is here.”
In today’s gospel Jesus first addresses the crowds with a verbal attack on the scribes, also known as “those skilled in law (Torah),” or Torah-lawyers. The scribes were mostly of the Pharisee grouping. The bitterness of the attack on the scribes is probably influenced by the fact that by the time Mark writes, the main opposition to the Christian community came from the Pharisee/scribal scholars who saw this new movement as heresy, as a sect. That some of the scribes were unprincipled can hardly be doubted, for amoral practitioners are found in other professional groups. But the blanket condemnation of the scribes we find in our gospels does not give the whole picture. We know the names and careers of some of the great scribes. They were not only scholars but saintly scholars.
The first items of Mark’s attack on the scribes seem picky — loving to be seen in long robes, accepting greetings in the marketplace, seats of honor in synagogues, places of honor at banquets. These items strike close to home, and some people, not without justification, might draw parallels with our own clergy, not as a group, but a few individuals within the group. Now come the more serious charges against the scribes — “devouring houses of widows, and hypocritically covering up their greed with long prayers.” Defrauding of widows by scribes was already condemned in Isaiah 10:2. In this matter too it is not unknown in our time that some clergymen pressure widows for their estates or other wealth prior to the death of the widow. But to hurl a blanket condemnation and cast a shadow on all clergy, as Mark does to the scribes, is overdone then and now.
In the second part of today’s gospel Jesus is in the temple area opposite the treasury. Temple taxes and donations poured in from faithful Jews. In this area were placed thirteen trumpet-shaped receptacles along a wall. There people deposited gifts of money for the temple and its services. The rich put in large sums, while a poor widow dropped in two small coins. Jesus points out to the disciples that “this poor widow put in more than all the others.” They gave from their surplus. She gave all she had.
Why does Mark add this story to his condemnation of the scribes? The poor widow is an example of widows with whose houses or estates unprincipled scribes enriched themselves or found legal loopholes for others to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor. This poor widow also is used as a contrast to predatory scribes, and in contrast to wealthy contributors. They gave some. She gave all. This story is followed by Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the temple. When Mark wrote about 70 A.D., the temple had just been destroyed by the Roman army.
Mark’s spin on the destruction is given in the two stories of today’s gospel reading. We must keep in mind that there were more reasons for the end of the temple than what Mark indicates. He implies that it happened because of the predatory financial policies of some religious leaders. Their oppression of the people and their “lives of the rich and famous” brought corruption and the loss of the people’s support. Flavins Josephus, first century historian, cites the example of Annas the highpriest — “hoarder of money,” who used to send his thugs into the countryside to take by force the tithes meant for the support of the rural clergy. When the Roman army came to stop a rebellion, the moral backbone of the country was gone. The temple, which Mark described earlier as “a den of robbers” was the last stronghold of those who did violence to the poor. Now it was gone.
This reading accompanies today’s gospel because it speaks of a poor widow. The prophet Elijah in a time of famine begs her for bread. She has only a little flour and a bit of olive oil. She replies that she must use this to make “a little cake of it, that my son and I may eat it and die.” (Not much confidence in her cooking!) Elijah said, O.K., but first make some of it for me.” (That’s chutzpah!) Afterwards she was to gather all containers and start pouring oil out of her oil cruet. The oil kept flowing until all containers were full. The flour never decreased. Thus she and her son survived the famine.
The author writes that Jesus offered himself “once and for all” as a sacrifice for sin. The Catholic Church is therefore accused of blasphemy for repeatedly offering sacrifice. We do not repeatedly offer this sacrifice. In obedience to Jesus’ command, we make present again that “once and for all” sacrifice which “brings salvation to those who await him.”