32nd Sunday of the Year 1 Kings 17:10–16; Hebrews 9:24–28; Mark 12:41–44
Three Widows Grudge givers say “I hate to’’; duty givers say “I ought to’’; thanks givers say, “I want to.’’
Elizabeth once told a friend, “I’d like to retire from the turmoil of the world and lead a simple life of prayer, but God wants me to do something else, and I must always choose God’s will over my own.’’
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lizabeth Seton died at the age of 46.
wo years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a remarkable woman was born in New York City. Her name was Elizabeth Bayley.
In her lifetime she wasn’t a mystic. She wasn’t a stigmatic. She wasn’t a martyr. She was simply a widow who gave what she had to God.
At the age of 20 she married a businessman named William Seton. Neither she nor William was Catholic. In time the couple had five children.
She was simply a single parent who turned a tremendous tragedy in her life— the loss of her husband and the rejection of her family— into a spectacular gift to God and to the Church.
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Then tragedy struck: William contracted tuberculosis. William moved his family to Italy, hoping that the climate would help him. But his illness was terminal. He died a few years later. With the help of a generous Italian family, the Setons moved back to the United States. The goodness of that Italian family led the young widow to investigate the Catholic Church. Two years later she became a Catholic. Elizabeth’s relatives and friends were shocked. They virtually disowned her, and she was forced to get a teaching job to support her five children. To make a long story short, when the children came of age, Elizabeth became a religious and founded the American branch of the Sisters of Charity. It was this order that pioneered the great Catholic school system in America. Year B
How fitting it was, then, that in 1975 Elizabeth Seton was canonized the first American-born saint. he story of this generous widow fits in beautifully with today’s Scripture readings. For two of those readings are also about generous widows.
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The first reading concerns a widow who shared with the prophet Elijah all the food she had to live on. The gospel reading concerns a widow who gave to the Temple in Jerusalem all the money she had to live on. Like Elizabeth Seton, each of these two widows gave with the same generous heart. Each had a perfectly legitimate reason to excuse herself from giving, but each refused to exercise that excuse. Like Elizabeth Seton, each knew that the important thing Lectionary 155
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